Finland Summons Russia's Ambassador After Violation of Airspace
The Foreign Ministry announced the summons in a post on X on Monday. Two Russian military aircraft were suspected to have flown without permission in Finnish airspace on the Gulf of Finland on Friday, the government said separately, without providing details. The Border Guard is investigating the incident.
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The state pension age could rise even higher. Here's what the experts think
How would the government make up that gap between people leaving the workforce and receiving their state pension? The government could be paving the way to increase the state pension age to 70, according to reports. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) could follow Denmark's example and link life expectancy to the state pension age, with the country already having pushed the age at which citizens can claim their pension up to 70. The potential plans have been raised as the government undertakes a pensions review to determine the state pension age for decades to come. Independent reviewer Dr Suzy Morrissey is leading the consultation, which has to happen every six years under UK law. Currently, the state pension age is already set to rise to 67 from next year and is scheduled to rise again to 68 between 2044 and 2046. Here's what we know about what is being considered - and what the experts think. What is the government considering? The review is looking at automatically adjusting pension ages to reflect life expectancy increases. The justification is that the move would help keep the public finances sustainable and distribute retirement fairly across generations. Countries employing this method also say that by linking pension age to life expectancy, there is a consistent balance between working years and retirement years for each generation. Denmark, Finland, Italy, and the Netherlands already follow this model, with Denmark set to raise the state pension age to 70 in the 2040s. However, there are some vast differences across these nations. Denmark has a more generous, mainly state-financed national pension, but it has significantly higher pension costs. Pensions take up about 17% of gross domestic product (GDP) spending in the country, compared to around 12% in the UK. Additionally, in countries like Finland and the Netherlands, employers pay a larger share of pension contributions than in the UK. Denmark is an exception where the state finances much of the pension. Finland and Sweden also fund part of pensions through dedicated assets, which helps prepare for ageing populations, unlike the UK's largely pay-as-you-go system. Meanwhile, Italy is believed to be struggling as it is known for having a very ageing population and relatively high pension spending, according to an international pension systems report. Difficult to justify? When analysing the benefits and drawbacks of linking state pension age to life expectancy, Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown and pension columnist for Yahoo Finance, said that it's clear putting up the state pension age would work in the government's favour. The government currently spends more on the state pension than on any other benefit, accounting for 12.2% of its GDP in 2023. Added to this, the government remains committed to the triple lock, a policy guaranteeing that the state pension will increase each year by the highest of three measures: inflation, average earnings growth, or 2.5%. "Pushing up state pension age to 70 would help the government to contain the burgeoning state pension bill," Morrissey told Yahoo News. "Increasing the state pension age could help ease the pressure on public finances, especially given the government remains committed to maintaining the triple lock," Lily Megson-Harvey, policy director at My Pension Expert, told Yahoo News. However, there are a lot of important factors that need to be considered, the expert said – including workers' longevity and health. The health life expectancy index is used to record not just the average life expectancy of a person, but the length of time the average person leads a full and healthy life. According to the latest government figures, this stands at 61.5 for a man, and 61.9 for a woman. "We've seen increases in longevity slow down in the aftermath of the pandemic, and this could make such a large increase difficult to justify," Morrissey said. "As recent data shows this figure is currently around 62 years of age, so the reality is that there are many people who will not be in a position to keep on working into their late sixties and beyond as their health simply won't allow it. "The state pension forms the foundation of many people's retirement income and thought needs to be given as to how to make up that gap between leaving the workforce and receiving their state pension." As the Centre for Ageing Better has highlighted, the main reasons older workers leave or cannot re-enter the workforce are down to health problems and disability. Added to this, many people struggle to find employment later in life. The UK employment rate for people aged 55 to 64 is only 65%, compared with 75–81% in similar European countries, showing that older workers have significantly lower employment rates than younger or middle-aged groups. Older workers are much less likely to be employed than those aged 35 to 49, with the biggest gap in areas like the North East, where there is an almost 20% difference. Morrissey told Yahoo News: "Many people feel overlooked in the job market later in life and this is a huge issue for them personally as well as the job market as a whole. "It is vital that more is done to keep older workers in work for longer so they can pass on their experience and skills while enabling them to continue to build their financial resilience. "We need to see more done to train older workers in new skills as well as the provision of more flexible working practices to enable those who are willing and able to keep working to do so," she added. What about lowering the pension age? Pension reform and age increases have been a long-standing source of controversy. Most recently, the government rejected calls for compensation for Waspi women, who argued they were inadequately informed about the state pension age rise, and either needed to work for additional years or face financial hardship while waiting for their pension. Former shadow cabinet minister Diane Abbott thinks the touted increase is "morally unacceptable", pointing out that almost a third of people never make it to the age of 70. Dr Will Stronge, CEO of the Autonomy Institute, also takes this view. "Raising the state pension age to 70, while intended to preserve fiscal sustainability, risks disproportionately penalising those in poor health, precarious employment or caregiving roles, many of whom cannot continue working until such an advanced age," he told Yahoo News. "It would exacerbate existing inequalities, especially among women, low‑income groups, and those with interrupted work histories who already face inadequate pension coverage. "It also undermines efforts to ensure dignified retirement and social cohesion in an ageing society, shifting burdens onto those least able to bear them." Stronge said that "instead of pushing the age higher", there is a strong case for lowering the pension age. "This is for health, wellbeing and wider care responsibility reasons. At the least, we should focus on reforms that strengthen pension adequacy, encourage fair contributions, and support healthy work-life balance," he added. Megson-Harvey echoes this. "Increasing the state pension age risks deepening inequalities. Many people, especially those in physically demanding jobs or with lower incomes, may struggle to work longer or save enough privately, making them more reliant on the state pension," she said. "This is precisely why long-term pension reform must include access to affordable, personalised financial advice, so that everyone, regardless of income or background, can make informed decisions and adapt their plans with confidence when the rules change." The government declined to comment.
