Manual workers will really struggle if the state pension age keeps rising (Image: Getty)
Pensions minister Torsten Bell has said the government may need to rethink forthcoming age hikes .
This is madness. How are people supposed to plan for retirement, when they don’t know how old they’ll be when the kicks in?
The turmoil has dragged on for 30 years, with one Pension Act after another sowing confusion. Now there’s no end in sight.
It all started with the Pensions Act 1995. This lifted the age for women from 60 to 65 between 2010 and 2020, to bring it into line with men.
.
There was another Pensions Act in 2007 that I won’t bore you with, while the Pensions Act 2011 brought forward the age increase to 66 to 2020, for both men and women.
The Pensions Act 2014 brought forward the next age hike too. It will rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028.
Then to 68 between 2044 and 2046.
Unless it doesn’t.
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In March 2017, John Cridland produced an independent report into the subject.
He said the age should rise to 68 between 2037 and 2039. Seven years earlier than currently planned.
Cridland then added a nasty kicker: If additional savings are needed, the should be withdrawn in the next Parliament.
Which is now this Parliament.
Given that both the Conservative and Labour went into last year’s election pledging to protect the , that’s not going to happen.
Unless it does.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is desperately short of cash.
She’s upsetting her own party’s core supporters by attacking benefits, to meet her fiscal rules and boost military spending to counter .
She could just as easily turn her attentions to the .
We just don’t know. Neither does the , which is ultimately responsible for setting the future age.
What a mess.
The picture has been further complicated by the pandemic, which hit life expectancy.
How can the government justify hiking the age if we’re dying younger?
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Whatever the eventually decides, one group will be the losers. Workers on lower incomes. Especially those who do physical, manual jobs.
Many will struggle to work on into their late 60s. Their bodies won’t take it.
Repeatedly hiking the age is pushing their retirement further and further away.
Some will die before they get there. Or soon afterwards.
In a cruel twist, many will have started work earlier, after leaving school at 16 with few qualifications.
They could have paid more than 40 years of national insurance (NI) contributions by the time they hit age. And get little in return because they won’t live as long.
By contrast, better paid graduate workers can expect to live for 15 or 20 years after hitting age.
The can’t keep hiking the age. It’s just not fair on manual workers.
The danger is that politicians will then listen to Cridland, and target the instead.