LONDON - David Blunkett, Work and Pensions Secretary has assured workers that the government would initiate a "sensible, open debate" before taking any concrete step on the proposal to increase the retirement age to 67.
Mr. Blunkett issued this statement while he was on the road Livingston by-election. The election has been necessitated as a result of the untimely death of former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook. The Conservative Party has been vocal in demanding a debate over the pensions issue and has said that such a debate is long overdue. "We need a debate right across Britain, firstly about the nature of the problem and the challenge of the future, but secondly about how we're going to contribute. It's going to be a partnership between government, between employers and between individuals, being prepared to save and to think of the future," Blunkett said.
He added that with an ageing population, it was a necessity to provide a decent standard of living well into the nineties, "That is a challenge that won't go away but it's a challenge for the whole of the nation, not just for government." Chancellor Gordon Brown seconded these views and said that a 'national debate' on the subject would be undertaken before any decision was made, "It is the Labour Government that has made possible this huge review of pensions. And it's the Labour Government that will then listen to what people are saying right across the country," he told voters in Scotland.
Lord Turner's pensions commission is due to table a report on reforming the pensions system by the end of this year. Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind emphasized that the government had to look at retirement as a process and not just an age issue, "The government must take this historic opportunity to reform our pensions system, to create incentives to save, to simplify the system and to restore confidence in saving," he said.
Posted
on : Thu, 22 Sep 2005 19:20 GMT | Pensions News
By : Chris Rowe
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