UK GOVERNMENT PLANS NEW SMASH AND GRAB ON STATE PENSIONS

I called on the UK Government to abandon its plans to further accelerate the state pension age as it emerged it is seeking to hasten the rise in state pension age to 68, more than a decade earlier than originally planned.

It is bad enough that the pension age is due to rise again from 66 to 67 by 2028. It is even worse that women born in the 1950s had their state pension age increased with little or no notice, robbing them of tens of thousands of pounds and throwing many of them into deep poverty. Now we face the prospect of anyone currently aged 54 or younger having to wait until they are 68 before they get their state pension.

State Pension age is already too high.

The original justification for raising the pension age beyond 65 was rising life expectancy, but UK life expectancy is now stagnating and even falling in Scotland. Pensioners relying on the state pension as their main source of income are more likely to have already undergone a working life of low pay, more likely to have health challenges in retirement and a shorter life expectancy. Raising the retirement age even further will therefore have a disproportionate effect on poorer people who will enjoy fewer retirement years.

The UK Government is desperately seeking to fill the financial black hole created by its own incompetence by once again robbing people of their pension. This blatant attack on people’s financial security in retirement must not proceed.

Watch my contribution to the debate below 👇.