Published: 27 April, 2012

• THE government and employers’ associations claim that, because we are living much longer, pensions are no longer sustainable. So the retirement age must eventually be raised to over 70.

Increasing the age of retirement punishes working people who have saved all their lives into pension schemes.

It would also cause greater youth unemployment.

Eventually, people could expect to start their first full-time job at the age of 39, having had to wait for a vacancy until someone dies.

To tackle unemployment levels, the retirement age should be brought down to 60, with the aim of retiring at 50 in the future. If this country can sustain nuclear weapons costing trillions of pounds, more than 10 years of wasteful warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan costing billions, and astronomical salaries in the public sector and business, then surely it can afford decent pensions for all workers and a realistic retirement age.

A pension is what workers have toiled for – an important fruit of their lifelong labour that should be a human right set in stone.

Mark Still
N5