If recommendations from Standard Life's newest report gets implemented by the Department for Work and Pension, hundreds could be getting state pension payments potentially decades earlier to "ensure the system supports those most in need".

The new recommendation reads: "Allow early access to a pro-rated payment equivalent to state pension for adults of any age with a terminal illness."

Currently, the age you are eligible for state pension cannot be brought forward even if you are terminally ill, but there are other benefits that offer things like faster application processes and higher payment rates. The report is also calling for some changes to Universal Credit, Pension Credit, state pension age, automatic enrollment and a new fund to keep people healthy and working.

Among other recommendations is a new bridging benefit that can be implemented the year before people on Universal Credit hit state pension age, to create an easier transition onto Pension Credit.

This is notoriously one of the most under-claimed benefits, so a transitional process could improve uptake while Standard Life also calls for the Pension Credit rates to be updated every year in line with triple lock like state pension payments are.

The experts have also warned the government not to means-test the state pension, and to include public deliberation and engagement the next time a state pension age change is being considered.

When the state pension age does change, inevitably, the experts advise putting 20% of the savings made on this towards creating work opportunities and "help those most in need to bridge the transition to higher state pension ages".

Finally, turning its attention to working people, the report recommends improving the automatic enrolment system as well as creating a £300million Sustainable Work Fund to keep people healthy during their careers.

To back up the report, Standard Life worked with Policy Institute at King's College London for a year to study the public understanding, views and expectations of state pension to analyse where the system could change and how best to support people at risk of missing out whenever the state pension age rises.

The report noted: "We found high levels of misconceptions about the state pension, such as beliefs that everyone has their own 'pot' of national insurance and a lack of understanding of what is needed to get the full state pension.

"It is important for the public to understand the policy, but equally it is essential for policy makers and politicians to understand the public. People expect the state pension to provide the basics, either to give you a minimum to live on in retirement or to act as a building block for your own savings.

"We need any future reviews to fully involve the public and take people's expectations."