When I am asked whether presenting the Today programme makes me nervous, I usually answer that the very worst that can happen in live broadcasting is that one is left looking like a prat - the stakes are nothing like as high for us as they are for a surgeon or even a stockbroker with a widow's pension to look after.

BBC: 'must meet praise with humility'

As part of this change, derived entitlement to the basic state pension - where someone receives a married person's pension or a widow's or widower's pension based not on their own working life but the National Insurance record of their spouse or civil partner - will also go.

BBC: Finance