Current legislation on British Pensions means that the State Pension age will rise to 67 in 2028 and to 68 by 2046.
It also provides for regular Reviews. The first of these took place in 2017, and it said that the Second Review should consider bringing forward the date for the State Pension age to rise to 68. 2037 was raised as a possible alternative.
That Second State Pension Age Review is taking place now. It has already provoked some controversy because the person chosen to lead it is a Conservative peer – Baroness Neville-Rolfe – who has a history of supporting an earlier move to 68.
Five years ago she spoke in a parliamentary debate on whether to move more quickly to 68. She said there was “the need for a big shift in the interests of intergenerational fairness”. “Why are the government not going faster, bringing these changes in more quickly and, perhaps, going up the age range?” she said.
Talk about the dice being stacked against us! The Review, however, has coincided with some signs of unease even outside of the Labour Movement about this aspect of Government policy. In January this year, for instance, a leading Pensions adviser, LPC, said that “New figures published today by the Office for National Statistics provide further evidence that the DWP will have to ‘rethink’ its plans to continue with rapid increases in state pension age”.
The Trades Council has, consequently, decided to submit its own Response to the Review. Not with much hope, let alone expectation. But it is just possible that the Review will form more of a lighting rod for disquiet on this matter than anyone anticipated.
You can download a copy of our Response here:
It looks at quite a number of the ways in which retirement and pensions are affected by class inequalities, and you may find it includes some interesting, and scary, information.
The Centre for Ageing Better noted in its Annual Report for 2022 that “England is becoming a more challenging country to grow old in”.
The latest data shows a sharp increase in pensioner poverty, meaning that almost 1 in 5 people were living in poverty in the 2019/20 period. That’s some 2 million people. We have also seen a reduction in our life expectancy (of 0.3 years for women and 0.4 years for men). The number of years we can expect to spend in good health, without a disabling illness, continues to decline; this is now 62.4 years for men and 60.9 years for women. Almost 1 in 5 homes headed by someone aged 60 or older is in a condition that endangers the health of the people who live there. In fact, almost 9,000 people died in England and Wales last year because their homes were too cold. The UK state pension is one of the worst in Europe providing just 58% of previous earnings from work – below the OECD average of 62%.