Bumping the state pension age up to 68 will do little to help those who are so poor, they won’t even reach that age
In a country so grossly unequal, nothing is fair. As the government plans to raise the state pension age from 66 to 68 at a much earlier date than previously announced, it looks increasingly unjust to pay out the pension at the same rate and at the same age for everyone, regardless of wildly differing circumstances.
A universal state retirement age means wealthy people will receive payments for many years more than the poor. The tyranny of averages conceals vast social class differences within Britain. Men in Richmond-on-Thames will, on average, live healthily until the age of 71, while for men in Blackpool, a healthy life expectancy is just 53 years, meaning they will wait in bad health, unable to work for 13 years, before qualifying for their pension at 66. In Blackpool’s Bloomfield ward, reports LancsLive, the average life expectancy of men is just 67 years and three months. That means many will never make it to drawing a pension if the government’s plan goes ahead. Prof Sir Michael Marmot, whose groundbreaking research analyses the effect of poverty, deprivation and deadening jobs on health and longevity, tells me: “If 68 becomes the new pension age, 60% of men never reach that age without a disability that prevents them working.”
