Duncan Smith signals linking retirement age to life expectancy
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New Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith is looking to link retirement age to life expectancy.
In an interview with The Spectator, Duncan Smith says he wants to “get rid of this statutory retirement age, which is a ridiculous nonsense, because people are goig to have to work longer. It is absolutely impreative to start moving that retirement age up”.
Smith adds that linking retirement age to longevity is what governments should be moving towards. He says: “Ultimately governments should head to that sort of process which is rather like the link between benefits and RPI inflation.”
This means a 20 year old would retire in 2060 at the earliest, as current trends suggest he or she would live until 90.
The Government has already begun a review into reaising the retirement age to 66 not sooner than 2016 for men and 2020 for women.
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Readers' comments (3)
Kevin Archer | 27 May 2010 5:59 pm
Ian Duncan-Smith re: Raising retirement age.
As usual the Conservatives are only interested in getting the maximum work out of people in the hope they die before drawing benefits which they contributed to via NI contributions. How about reducing the state pension payable to the inherited wealthy who make little contribution to society and clearly dont need the few pounds that the state pension provides?
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Anonymous | 28 May 2010 8:11 am
It isn;t the fault of any political party. The government can't afford the state pensions and changes have to be made. No party has had the bottle to deal with it properly yet ! Don't forget the wealthy pay more tax !
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Anonymous | 28 May 2010 12:06 pm
This seems to me to be a perfectly sensible suggestion.
The next step should be the option to voluntarily contract out of the State basic pension along the lines of S2p, with as a consequence, a reduction in NI contributions.
Then give people the freedom to invest these NI contribution credits into more flexible and less restrictive Personal Pension Plans.
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