Posted on 25 June 2010

Government to raise the state pension age

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A new government shake up of pensions could see people regularly working into their seventies.

The Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has given more details on government plans to scrap the default retirement age which currently sees companies able to get rid of staff once they have reached 65 years of age.

At the same time the government will also raise the state pension age for men from 65 to 66 from 2016, a decade before the previous Labour government was proposing to do so and it is also to consult on raising the retirement age even higher, bringing it more into line with life expectancy, meaning that by the second half of the century people could well be working into their seventies. Why men should find their state pension age raised before women is questionable and could be seen as sex discrimination in some circles.

Mr Duncan Smith also plans to give workers more generous state pensions through company schemes into which employees will be enrolled unless they opt out. The restored link between pensions and earnings will help those reliant on state pensions. He said: “If Britain is to have a stable, affordable pension system, people need to work longer, but we will reward their hard work with a decent state pension that will enable them to enjoy quality of life in their retirement.”

However the plans have already been attacked by some unions, who have accused the government of ‘class bias’. Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union said: “If you are a rich banker with a private pension you can sail off on your yacht at 55, but for working men and women retirement will be pushed further and further over the horizon in a step back to the days of Dickens. That is not sharing the pain, it is hitting the poorest hardest yet again.”