Independent Financial Advisers Glasgow News & Guides

Nearly eight in ten British people think making British workers work longer than their European counterparts to receive their state pension is unfair.

A YouGov poll - commissioned by Unite, the Public and Commercial Services union and the National Union of Teachers – reveals that a clear majority of those born before 1977 polled (62%) are uncomfortable with plans to raise the state pension age.

A strong majority of voters (62%) believe that any attempt to continue to raise the state pension age will hit the poorest pensioners hardest. But while 57% of people polled do have some understanding of plans to delay the state pension age, a significant number (38%) do not.

The European Commission has published a White Paper on adequate, safe and sustainable pensions, which looks at how the EU and the Member States can work to tackle the major challenges that confront our pension systems.

It puts forward a range of initiatives to help create the right conditions so that those who are able can continue working - leading to a better balance between time in work and time in retirement; to ensure people who move to another country can keep their pension rights; to help people save more and ensure that pension promises are kept and people get what they expect in retirement.

The White Paper proposes, in particular, to:

• Create better opportunities for older workers by calling on the social partners to adapt work place and labour market practices and by using the European Social Fund to bring older workers into work. Enabling people to work longer is a major focus of the European Year 2012 for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations;
• Develop complementary private retirement schemes by encouraging social partners to develop such schemes and encouraging Member States to optimise tax and other incentives;
• Enhance the safety of supplementary pension schemes, including through a revision of the directive on Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP) and better information for consumers;
• Make supplementary pensions compatible with mobility, through legislation protecting the pension rights of mobile workers and by promoting the establishment of pension tracking services across the EU. This can provide citizens with information about pension entitlements and projections of their income after retirement.
• Encourage Member States to promote longer working lives, by linking retirement age with life expectancy, restricting access to early retirement and closing the pension gap between men and women.
• Continue to monitor the adequacy, sustainability and safety of pensions and support pension reforms in the Member States.

The Government has published consultations on pension contribution increases for civil servants, teachers and NHS staff for the financial year 2012/13. The increases are broadly equivalent to those expected under the ‘cap and share’ arrangements agreed with Unions in the Pre Budget Report 2009.

The age at which you could claim your state pension benefits had for many years been 65 for men and 60 for women. But the previous Labour government set out plans, based on recommendations from Lord Turner, to steadily increase the state pension age to 68 for both men and women over the next four decades.