Raising retirement age will only hurt the poor

NPC 24 June 2010

Britain’s biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) has criticised the government’s plans to raise the state pension retirement age describing it as an attack on the poorest members of society.
The NPC believes the decision ignores important information that shows that life expectancy is linked to affluence:

According to the latest district by district NHS figures, men in Blackpool live on average to 73.2 years – 10.5 years fewer than their counterparts in Kensington and Chelsea, whilst women in Hartlepool have the lowest life expectancy of 78.1 years; 9.6 years less than women in Kensington and Chelsea. These figures show that life expectancy rates are rising much faster in affluent areas, with average life expectancy in England for men standing at 77.7 years and for women at 81.8 years.

Current concerns about the rate of obesity amongst young children, the prevalence of poor diets, lack of exercise and increased stress must also surely raise doubts as to the health of future generations.

Plans to raise the retirement age have also failed to properly quantify issues such as the rate of unemployment and availability of work, the rights of younger people to find a job, the quality of the jobs older people will be offered (and will be prepared to accept) and the loss to wider society if pensioner volunteers (currently undertaking unpaid caring and charitable work) were otherwise in paid employment.

Dot Gibson, NPC general secretary said: “There can be no doubt that the wealthier you are, the longer you live, so raising the retirement age therefore is a direct attack on the very poorest in our society. There is a myth that we are all living healthier lives for longer and very little evidence that there are sufficient jobs around for everyone to keep working. This policy isn’t about choice, it’s about cutting costs and making the poorest pay the highest price.
 We must establish the right to a decent period of retirement otherwise we will soon see people working till they drop”