Martin Upton sits down with Jonquil Lowe and Janette Rutterford to discuss some of the questions about retirement raised by learners studying Managing My Investments.

Gain the necessary skills to manage your personal finances: managing budgets, debts, investments, property purchase, pensions and insurance.

Jonquil Lowe explains why promises about pensions have become important in the election debates.

Over the last three decades major events, scandals and regulations have shocked the pension system. Have the public lost faith in occupational and private pensions? Should the state pension be enough to see us through our old age? And with the non-working to working ratio continuing to rapidly increase, who will pay? We hear from those that were directly affected by the scandals of the 90's and the collapse in private pensions since - and from the experts whose job it is to help us make provisions for old age. This material forms part of The Open University course DB234 Personal investment in an uncertain world

They look like a trap, but we may miss them when they‘re gone, writes Alan Shipman.

Before Phillip Hammond backed down on his plans to change National Insurance rates for the self-employed, the OU's Jonquil Lowe explored why the proposals had proved so controversial.