Hike to retirement

It is true that there would be some difficulties in my approach, but just because a policy is challenging does not mean it is wrong.

The central issue here is whether the state pension should be run on a one-sizefits-all approach, based purely on estimates of the “average”, or whether it should have some flexibility to account for people’s increasingly flexible lives.

Yes, it is great news that more people are living longer. And most people can work longer – but surely we can find ways to include those who are unable to do so, and who have much lower-than-average lifespans.

I would like to stress, though, that I do not agree that the state pension age should never rise above age 66, as proposed by the Labour party.

And the cost of allowing everyone to get a full pension at 66 for decades to come would be too much of a burden on younger generations in our pay-as-you-go National Insurance system. Clearly, many people will want to work longer, and can wait for their state pension. However, it would be fairer to allow some to choose to take a pension sooner, if they really need to.

We need to move away from the idea of just one “magic” age at which people should aim to stop working and live on a state pension.

Finally, the current state pension system offers no help for social care. If William Beveridge was designing our Government will face financial difficulties and hardship in later years.

“More radical benefit reform should be considered for those with long- term health issues and disabilities.

“It is essential too that as our workforce grows older, the issue of ageism and discrimination in the workplace is tackled, including making sure older workers are treated fairly, their contributions recognised, and that they are offered opportunities for development and progression.”

A DWP spokesman said: “A universal state pension age is the simplest way to help people plan ahead for retirement and it would be unfair to create an unnecessarily complex system that risked leaving some with an inadequate pension.

“A recent independent review conducted by John Cridland also found that there was no clear evidence to support a regional system.” national insurance arrangements now, he would surely make provision for care needs in advanced old age, rather than assuming that the only income for retirement the state needs to pay is a state pension.

A fairer level of social support in retirement would be a major improvement on the current situation. Just promising a ‘triple lock’ on parts of the state pension is not enough.

It’s time to think again on how we help older people. LIFE expectancy rates are so low in some parts of the country, many Scots will only get the state pension for four or five years before they die.

Glasgow has the lowest life expectancy for men in Scotland, with rates for parts of the city – such as Castlemilk and Calton – barely above the current state pension age.

We went on to the steets of Scotland’s biggest city to gauge reaction to the big announcement.

Chris McGrory

CHRIS, from Cumbernauld, said: “I’ve worked all my life and see myself working as long as I can so I would have worked longer than the state pension age anyway.

“I opted out of the state pension and took out private pensions instead. It was late on when I did that so I will probably have to work on to see proper benefits.

“People work hard and everyone has that idea of retiring early to enjoy the rest of your life.”

Graeme King

GRAEME, from Clarkston in Glasgow, said: “It’s a major disappointment.

“People have been let down by the government again.

“Ev e r y o n e looks f o r w a rd to retirement and hopefully enjoying the good life for 10 or 15 years.

“Most people would want to retire at 60 if they could.

“It pushes that finishing l i ne even further away.

“I would hope to live past 73 but there will be a lot of people who won’t live that long.”

Mary McCusker

MARY, from Barrhead, said: “It’s decidedly unfair. If the government chose to make the retirement age a reasonable one, there’s enough money there to facilitate that. This is a lot to do with austerity.

“Even though people are living longer it’s about quality of life.

“If people want to work on they should be able to do that, but if people have paid in they should be able to enjoy their retirement.

“They will keep raising the retirement age.”