Crossword Genius

Fixed income scheme with advancing years is liberating, they say (4,6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

wage freeze

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'fixed income' is the definition.
'wage freeze' can be an answer for 'income' (thesaurus). I am not sure about the 'fixed' bit.

'scheme with advancing years is liberating they say' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'with' could be 'w' (short for with) and 'w' is present in the answer.
'years' could be 'age' (period of many years) and 'age' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'freeze' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for wage freeze that I've seen before include "restriction on pay" , "Period of pay restraint" , "Austerity at work" , "without the prospect of more money?" , "anti-inflationary measure" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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