State retirement age could rise to 67
The government is chewing over whether to increase the state retirement age to 67, work and pensions secretary David Blunkett has said.
Mr Blunkett, who has been in the US and Canada studying options for pensions and benefit reforms, said his preferred option was for the retirement age to be raised to 67.
The government is keen to plug the estimated £130 billion pension “black hole” brought on by rising life expectancy.
It is also considering bringing in some form of compulsory saving.
The challenge for the government, Mr Blunkett said, was to find a balance between the state, the employer and the individual to reflect the fact that people worked longer and contributed more, so as to ensure a better quality of life for all in retirement.
Mr Blunkett told BBC1’s Politics Show that in America the Bush administration had already committed itself over the next 20 years to raising the retirement age to 67.
With the Adair Turner commission into pension reforms due to report back later in the autumn, Mr Blunkett anticipated much debate about raising the retirement age.
Conservative pensions spokesman Nigel Waterson said the government ought to be looking at sorting out the “savings crisis” and giving “real” incentives to people to save for their retirement.
Trades unions have threatened to ballot public sector workers in schools, hospitals and town halls on strike action if the government raised their retirement age.
