LONDON - Adrian Turner's Pensions’ Commission will recommend that the age when Britons will become for a state pension should be hiked from 65 to 67, the Financial Times reported today.
The Pensions' Commission was set up to recommend reforms to the pensions system in the country amid growing fears that Britons will live in poverty in their old age. The Commission is to table its report on November 30 and speculation is mounting on what exactly the provisions are.
A Pensions Commission spokeswoman said that the newspaper was speculative and that there would be no comments until the scheduled date. Another suggestion supposedly mooted by the Commission is to increase the pension from £80 a week to £109 a week as closely as possible. The Financial Times said that the Commission would advocate a three-pronged strategy to overcome the Pensions crisis.
The first will be to raise the pension age to 67 by 2020, the second will be to increase the weekly pension to £109 and the third to keep on jacking it up per year based on earnings.
Stephen Timms, minister for pension reform refused to comment on these proposed changes, but indirectly supported it when he said that people who could work beyond the stipulated age should be able to do so, "We cannot afford to be denied the skills and contributions of all those who can and want to work. Our welfare reforms will be designed to capture this potential," he told the National Association of Pension Funds Autumn conference in London.
The newspaper leak also said that a new scheme called "Britsaver" would be launched to help people enroll in the savings scheme, but they would have the option of quitting as well. To fund these proposals, it is speculated that Turner is recommending the scrapping of the State Second Pension scheme.
Reacting to the leak, the TUC said that it would be interesting to see the people's reactions, "If today's report is accurate it will be interesting to gauge the appetite of the public, particular the low paid with lower life expectancy, for being made to work an extra two years," a TUC spokesperson said.
Posted
on : Fri, 18 Nov 2005 05:35 GMT | Pensions News
By : Rob Davis
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