Raising retirement age 'is unfair'

06/07/2009

Unions have criticised remarks from the head of a financial watchdog, which suggested that the retirement age should be raised.

Lord Turner told the BBC that workers might only receive the state pension when they hit 70 in future, instead of the present retirement age of 65.

This is because the ageing population and financial strains on pension services are putting an increasing strain on government finances.

However, unions believe the changes could seem a bad deal for many retirees, particularly those who work in physically demanding jobs.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said: "It's absolutely right to give people the choice of working longer, but making people doing heavy, repetitive or dull jobs work longer for a pension would be unfair – particularly when there is such a difference in life expectancy between rich and poor in the UK."

Kevin Still, EuroDebt director, added: "The implications of extending the retirement age could be far reaching and potentially very unfair on those people that through no fault of their own have invested throughout their working lives and seen a reduction in their likely retirement fund and are still required to work on for a further five years. It may also result in more elderly pensioners with serious debts later in life with no realistic hope of paying these back, as has been evidenced by the record rise in pensioners going bankrupt."

The credit crunch has wreaked havoc on pension schemes up and down the UK, due to the extreme turbulence it has caused on the financial markets.

Britain's defined benefit pension schemes are thought to be a total of around £200 billion in the red.

Tags; Current UK Economy, Retirement Money Problems,

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