Work until you are 71
Millions warned of further increase in state pension age
MILLIONS of people could be forced to work to 71 before getting the state pension.
An ageing population and worker shortages is likely to force a radical rethink, a report warns.
But a former pensions minister said another big jump in the retirement age risked “plunging more people into poverty”.
It also raises the prosect of more people dying before they can claim their state pension.
It follows a report by the International Longevity Centre.
The pension age of 66 will rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028. From 2044, it is to increase to 68.
Yesterday the ILC warned the pension age would need to rise to 71 for those born after April 1970.
It comes amid strain on public finances from the state pension – £124billion this financial year.
Some 12.6 million people got the state pension last February, a hike of 140,000 in a year.
No10 committed to raise the state pension by 8.5% this April.
But the payment is funded by workers, who are falling relative to the number of retirees.
Les Mayhew, ILC’s associate head of global research and professor of statistics at Bayes Business School, said increases in the pension age are inevitable.
He added: “But it may need to rise faster and by more than earlier expected.” By 70, only 50% in England and Wales are disability-free and able to work.
Average life expectancy for those born now is 78.6 for men and 82.6 for women.
But men in the poorest areas live on average 10 years fewer than those in the richest.
The “healthy life expectancy” is 20 years lower for the poorest.
Catherine Foot, head of thinktank Phoenix Insights, warned raising the state pension age to 71 would “deepen inequalities”.
Baroness Ros Altmann, an ex-pensions minister, said: “Anyone in their early-50s and younger would be caught – plunging more into poverty in later life.”
She added the number with a private pension is “uneven”.
Becky O’Connor, of provider PensionBee, called the retirement age hike “an alarming prospect”.
Financial firm Aegon found more than 95% of people expect to depend on the state pension.
It said raising the pension age to 71 would shock many, adding: “Some will only receive it for a short time, others not at all.”
WHEN the poorest die nearly 10 years younger than the richest, raising the UK state pension age to 71 would cheat many workers of any retirement at all.
Political leaders must unite in rejecting projections from experts that the current pension-qualifying age of 66 will rise to 67, then 68... then another three years.
Forcing people to work until they drop is unjust and, combined with the utter failure to create a social care system worthy of the name, a woeful way to treat senior citizens.
We all deserve much better in later life.