SIX million pensioners could be getting their hands on a tidy sum pretty soon.

Today’s budget will reveal if plans to allow over-55s to cash in their pensions have been okayed.

I’m not saying I don’t have faith in people being able to handle large sums of cash sensibly, but I’m feeling a sense doom.

Maybe it’s just me, but if I was handed £100,000 or more, that BMW sport that has always been a fantasy, suddenly becomes a possibility. So do all the other delights I’ve never been able to afford – a pair of Jimmy Choo’s, an Armani trouser suit, a five star all-inclusive to the Seychelles, a facelift, liposuction, laser eye surgery. I could go on forever. In fact, it would take me precisely a month to spend a lifetime’s savings.

Investing in a property or paying off the mortgage would be the most profitable option – but where’s the fun in that?

Even if you don’t intend dipping into the money and put it into a savings account – although it’s not the best option with interest rates so low – it will always be there calling you seductively. If there’s a family disaster and the dog gets run over, you could call Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick because money’s no object. And if the daughter decides to get married and take over the whole of Hoghton Tower, you could agree with the nonchalance of a parent who’s suddenly wadded.

Ordinary people who have scrimped and saved all their lives will have a new sense of purpose. They’ll walk around with a swagger knowing they could afford the whole of Morrisons deli counter if they had a mind to buy it. They could panic their local landlord by ordering a bottle of Bollinger instead of a pint of bitter. That snotty boutique where they look down at you when you turn up in your anorak will suddenly become attentive when you pull out a wad of fifties to buy a whole season’s outfits. It will be glorious.

Except there will be consequences. The big spenders of our society – and I mean those who live on credit cards – will run out of money fast. There’ll be nothing to leave the kids. And when age and infirmity strike there’ll be no cash for care. The responsibility will fall upon local authority care homes, which will be full to exploding with oldies who harbour distant memories of the Ferrari and world cruises they once enjoyed.

Do I or don’t I? It’s a difficult decision. As a woman whose money burns a hole in her pocket, my advice would be to proceed with caution.