Should the state pension age be increased to 70? Have your say
Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After the poll closes, we'll publish and analyse the results each Friday, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.
A review into the UK's pensions system could see the state pension age increased to 70.
Dr Suzy Morrissey, who has been commissioned by work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall to carry out the review, said she would consider the merits and fairness of linking state pension age to life expectancy.
With life expectancy projected to keep on rising, according to the Office for National Statistics, the number of pensioners is also expected to have increased by more than 50% by the 2070s.
However, the working age population is only projected to have grown by over 10%, Kendall said in July, "making it even more imperative to help future pensioners put into a savings pot they can rely on in the future".
Dr Morrisey will also look at the role of the state pension age in "managing the long-term sustainability" of the system, and examples from other countries. This is believed to include looking at Denmark, which recently raised the age of retirement to 70.
Government spending on the state pension from 2025-26 is projected at £146bn, according to Department for Work and Pensions estimates – up 63% over the past 10 years and 183% over the past 20 years.
With spending on the state pension forecast to increase to £169bn, accounting for inflation, by 2030, some have argued an increase of the retirement age is inevitable.
While maintaining the triple lock, a mechanism that guarantees pension increases, modelling from 2022 shows that to keep public spending on state pensions below 6% of national income, the state pension age would have to rise by 69 by 2048–49 and 74 by 2068–69.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies says that increases in the state pension age "are a coherent policy response to the fiscal challenges from rising longevity at older ages", and lead some people to remain in paid work for longer.
However, the think tank also warns that those reaching retirement age renting in the private sector are at "heightened risk of poverty throughout their retirement" due to inadequate savings, and calls for means-tested benefits to help the hardest hit.
Catherine Foot, director of the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement, told the Telegraph that the group experiencing the fastest-growing rate of poverty among working-age adults is people aged 60-65.
She said many of this cohort have "fallen out of work due to things like ill health, caring responsibilities or ageism in the labour market" and that any increases to the retirement age would have to be accompanied by policies that help people stay in work.Come back on Friday to read the results and analysis via the link below.
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