Almost 15,000 people in Hove will have to work even longer before they can claim their pension, the town’s MP said in response to a government announcement.
Peter Kyle said: “14,900 people in Hove have just discovered that they will be forced to work for a full year longer before they are able to claim their state pension entitlement.
“A recent announcement by the Tory government that changes to the state pension will now be implemented seven years sooner than planned mean people will have to wait to access their state pension.
“Not only is this another bitter blow to people who are working hard while household incomes are falling, the Tories’ plans will also hit people financially – analysis shows that over a million people in the south east will lose out by £10,000 each under the new rules.
“And, perhaps even more worryingly, evidence also shows that people are now having to work for many years longer than they can expect to be in good health.
“The government’s own advisory body, Public Health England, recently published new data showing that people living in some places aren’t expected to be in good health after the age of 57, a full 11 years before they will be able to claim their state pension under the government’s changes.”
Mr Kyle, the Labour MP for Hove, said: “This is yet another attack on ordinary working people who quite simply deserve better.
“People cannot be expected to keep working for longer and longer, with no certainty as to when they will be able to claim their state pension.
“Labour believes in a measured and fair approach and we would keep the state pension age at 66 while we develop a flexible retirement policy to reflect both the contributions made by people, the wide variations in life expectancy and the arduous conditions of some work.”
Sounds like he want to ‘means test’ the pension..
Many countries have no state pension. Others (such as Australia) have a means-tested old-age pension… and you have to be pretty poor to qualify (and you can’t hang on to expensive houses). Automatic pension for all in the UK is not sustainable. It will have to be means tested at some stage in the future, but no government has the courage to do it. Probably happen about 2030 – when the coffers are well and truly empty and the next generation is getting cranky with sponsoring the then older generation who have been so careless.
Most people are made redundant in their 50s with no chance of getting another job, so it is irrelevant at what age the state pension kicks in.
The issue here is that people payed for thier pension.
Its NOT a welfare benefit.
There’s no ‘opt-out’ you have to pay and so you’re entitled to collect.
For those that have not contributed enough there are other welfare payments to top it up.
The real issue is why are pople NOT contributing enough and what happens to those contributions. They are NOT invested like a private or company pension.