Employee Rewards and Benefits News
IoD: Pension age should be raised to 70
Business leaders have demanded that the government raise the pension age to 70 as soon as it is reasonably practical to do so.
The Institute of Directors (IoD) said that "radical simplification" was now necessary, particularly due to "startling" increases in life expectancy in recent decades which make it unrealistic to fund a potential 25 or 30-year retirement from a 30 to 35-year working life.
This call by the IoD has caused some degree of tension among employee-driven organisations such as trade unions.
Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said of the IoD proposals: "With employers fighting hard to keep a retirement age of 65, such a proposal would condemn many older people to a limbo where they are too old to work and too young for a state pension."
He added that the IoD report fails to address the "platinum-plated pensions" which are currently given to FTSE 100 directors, which can pay out up to £250,000 a year and are regularly available at the age of 60.
Posted by Elizabeth Mewes
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