The government is planning to raise the retirement age to 68 sooner than planned as they tackle the huge budget deficit. The Conservatives said before the election that they would raise the retirement age to 66 by 2016 but Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary says that the government is now considering raising it further, to 68 by 2038.
The move is certain to be opposed by the unions. Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union said of the initial plans to change the age to 66: “To force someone who has done a lifetime of toil on building sites, farms or in factories to work until they are 66 is completely unacceptable.”
The previous Labour government intended to raise the age to 66 by 2024 and to 68 by 2046.