Skip to main content
The Actuary: The magazine of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries - return to the homepage Logo of The Actuary website
  • Search
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on LinkedIn
  • Visit @TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Visit the website of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Logo of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

Main navigation

  • News
  • Features
    • General Features
    • Interviews
    • Students
    • Opinion
  • Topics
  • Knowledge
    • Business Skills
    • Careers
    • Events
    • Predictions by The Actuary
    • Whitepapers
  • Jobs
  • IFoA
    • CEO Comment
    • IFoA News
    • People & Social News
    • President Comment
  • Archive

Topics

  • Data Science
  • Investment
  • Risk & ERM
  • Pensions
  • Environment
  • Soft skills
  • General Insurance
  • Regulation Standards
  • Health care
  • Technology
  • Reinsurance
  • Global
  • Life insurance
Quick links:
  • Home
  • The Actuary Issues
  • December 2013
12

Labour peers moot regional state pension age

Open-access content 4th December 2013

Labour peers have called for future increases to the state pension age to be regionalised, with entitlement depending on the type of job a person had and where they live.

2

Debating the Pensions Bill in the House of Lords this week, a number of Labour peers argued that raising the state pension age as 'one size fits all' national level was 'regressive and unfair'. 

Speaking in the December 3 debate Baroness Hollis said rises to the state pension age were unfair on people who started work earlier and enjoyed fewer years of healthy retirement.

She said" By raising the state retirement age, we eat into and reduce their few healthy retirement years even further, all to subsidise the pensions of people such as me—the longer lived, healthier, better educated and better off, including those of us in your Lordships' House. Our single-age retirement policy—one size fits all—is regressive and unfair.' 

Lord Monks, a former general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, added: 'There has not been enough time to address some of the inherent inequalities that exist both regionally and between manual and professional workers. It seems that you have won the jackpot if you are a professional worker in Dorset; if you are a manual worker in one of the old industrial areas, you are in trouble.'

Changes in the Bill will increase the state pension age to 67 by 2028, which is not due to increase to 68 until 2046. Within the bill there are provisions for future increases to the state pension age to be linked to life expectancy. Labour wants this changed.

Commenting on the proposal, investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown highlighted that significant regional variations in average life expectancy at age 65 do exist.

This is highest in East Dorset, where male retirees have an average at 20.9 years to live after retirement, while females have 23.7 years. Male life expectancy is lowest in Manchester, at 15.4 years post-retirement, while for women it is lowest in Corby, 18.6 years.

However, Tom McPhail, head of pensions research for the firm, said regional pension ages were likely to be unworkable in practice.

'What's to stop people moving house or changing jobs? The only other solution would be to individually underwrite all 800,000 people reaching retirement age every year; it would be a bureaucratic nightmare and would make it very difficult to talk to individuals about their entitlements,' he said. 

This article appeared in our December 2013 issue of The Actuary.
Click here to view this issue
Filed in:
12
Topics:
Pensions
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Latest Jobs

Longevity Proposition Development Actuary

London (Central)
£90,000 - £110,000 depending on experience
Reference
118704

Senior Financial Risk Actuary

London, England
£55000 - £100000 per annum
Reference
118752

Senior Reserving Analyst

England, London
£45000 - £60000 per annum
Reference
118751
See all jobs »
 
 

Most-Popular

 
 
 

Sign up to our newsletter

News, jobs and updates

Sign up

Subscribe to The Actuary

Receive the print edition straight to your door

Subscribe
Spread-iPad-slantB-june.png
​
FOLLOW US
The Actuary on LinkedIn
@TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Facebook: The Actuary Magazine
CONTACT US
The Actuary
Tel: (+44) 020 7880 6200
​

IFoA

About IFoA
Become an actuary
IFoA Events
About membership

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy
Think Green

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to The Actuary Magazine
Contribute

The Actuary Jobs

Actuarial job search
Pensions jobs
General insurance jobs
Solvency II jobs

© 2020 The Actuary. The Actuary is published on behalf of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries by Redactive Publishing Limited, Level 5, 78 Chamber Street, London, E1 8BL. Tel: 020 7880 6200