Retirees with substantial wealth tied up in their homes might soon face face the prospect of losing their pension, the head of the Productivity Commission says.

Chairman Peter Harris will tell a breakfast in Perth on Thursday that Australia is ill-prepared for the coming flood of relatively healthy long-lived retirees.

Peter Harris, the Productivity Commission chairman, says people don't realise they have no rights to ownership of their own data. Credit:Andrew Meares

"The original age pension recipients generally had spent near enough to 75 per cent of their life after the age of 15 in full-time work," he will say.

"For the baby boomers, that figure has fallen to about 60 per cent, and for the generation today in high school, that figure will fall to around 50 per cent, mostly based on significant health gains.