Retirement age change will not be rushed say Labour

By Rob Virtue on October 19, 2009 10:58 AM |

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The Government is refusing to bow to pressure in bringing forward an increase in retirement age following the recession.

At the Conservative Party conference, George Osborne unveiled proposals to raise the age of state pensions for men to 66 from 2016, eight years ahead of the current Government's proposals.

Speaking in Poplar, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Helen Goodman said she did not see the need for urgent changes.

She said: "We've got plans to make a transition increasing retirement age up to 2026. We have no plans to change that. We think there are other and fairer ways of getting rid of the deficit - for example a pay freeze next year for people on very high incomes.

"The Conservative pension plans will affect people across the board and impact greatest on the poorest."

The Labour MP said the Tory proposals were "not really thought through" and would cost male pensioners £8,000.

She said: "It is not a reasonable way to treat people when they have not had time to plan, when they haven't had time to think about it and their employers haven't had time to plan.

"We also think the £13billion they say they will save is way overestimated. We think it is more like £4billion."

Mrs Goodman was speaking at Poplar's St Matthias Community College where she was meeting the area's old age pensioners who attended a community meeting.

She said the Government was intent on setting up new schemes to encourage more people to save for their pensions.

She said: "What we want to do is restore the earnings link, so pensioners get a share of the economy over future years. This year inflation is very low but we're committed to raising the pension by two and a half per cent so they will see an increase in real terms."