| From Unity, 6 February 2010 |
Low income needs tackling by improved state pension systemby Gary DennisA leading research group has warned that proposals to scrap the fixed retirement age could force millions of people to work well into their seventies.The Equality and Human Rights Commission called for fundamental changes to employment policies last week to open up more work opportunities for older people and tackle the challenges of an ageing work force. The group proposed abolishing the so-called default retirement age, extending the right to request flexible working, and the overhaul of employer recruitment practices to prevent discrimination and improve training. The state pension age is currently sixty for women and sixty-five for men but will rise to sixty-five for both men and women by 2020. According to the commission’s research, extending working lives by eighteen months would inject £15 billion into the British economy. A survey of 1,500 older people showed that most believed major changes were needed to attitudes and policies if they were to achieve their goals. In addition, one in four men and two-thirds of women said they wanted to keep working beyond the state pension age. Most of the 50 to 75-year-olds questioned said that flexibility in hours and work location were crucial to keeping them in work longer, with financial necessity the most important reason to continue working. However, the National Pensioners’ Convention warned that arguments in favour of raising the state retirement age or having the right to work after sixty-five have been falsely promoted as a solution to an ageing population or as a question of fairness. “Arguments in favour of giving individuals the right to work for as long as they choose often do so on the basis that people need to work because of their low pension income,” the general secretary of the NPC, Dot Gibson, said. “However, rather than tackling low income through an improved state pension system, removing the default retirement age would condemn the very poorest in our society to carry on working until they die.” By removing the right to a decent period of retirement for ordinary working people “we are accepting the myth that increased longevity necessarily enables people to work longer, whether they want to or not, and that an individual’s only worth is measured through their ability to be economically productive,” Ms Gibson added. |
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