All you need to know about Liz Truss offering lessons on how to be popular is that one of her signature policies is to raise the state pension age to 68. Such is its vote-winning potential that the plan was ditched by Rishi Sunak’s administration as soon as the electoral consequences became clear. The trouble is not that people are living longer, but that they are living longer with ill health. As it stands, the pension age will rise to 67 in April 2026. At the same time, there has been a sustained rise in people out of work because of sickness.
In Greek mythology, Cassandra had the gift of prophecy, but was cursed so no one listened to her. Those making the case that people should have to wait until they are 71 to retire might feel aggrieved that they are being similarly dismissed while speaking the truth. But that fails to understand the hardship, alienation and anguish currently being experienced by the working-age population.
The Institute for Public Policy Research found, astonishingly, that just 9% of men and 16% of women born today can expect to reach state retirement age in good health. The poor not only die sooner, they also spend more of their lives with a long-term condition or disability. This is an avoidable, unfair difference with the rich that should be morally unacceptable.
By raising age limits, it means another year on working-age benefits rather than the relatively more generous state pension. Analysis by the Health Foundation suggests that people living in some of the most deprived areas in Scotland, the north-east, the east Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber would be the most disadvantaged by the upward drift in pensionable age.
If the argument is that more and more of us will live longer lives, but are not saving enough to enable us to consume after retirement, then the answer is to allow more people to have the money to put aside. Revitalising the NHS is key to strengthening the UK economy. But there needs to be a wider system rethink about employment conditions, pay and the dignity of work – not just blindly raising age limits with little care about inequality.
This week, the Office for National Statistics found that there are now 2.8 million people classified as not looking for work because of health issues – a one-third increase on the 2.1 million before the pandemic. It ought to be a national mission to prevent human life on such a scale from going to waste. Bringing those resources back into the labour force would also, potentially, allow for more saving and reduce the need for raising pension limits precipitately. As would looser fiscal policy – one that prioritises humanity over arbitrary spending rules.
Voters get indignant when they feel an ethical norm is being violated. Governance should be an ethical matter. Electorates are not happy with being told to go along with policies regardless of how indefensible they are. No doubt many think that the next government will have to raise the retirement age once freed from the electoral cycle. Labour ought to have a plan to ensure that this is not inevitable, starting with targets to reduce poverty, obesity and anxiety – and increase healthy life expectancy. The evidence was that under the last Labour government such policies produced a fairer and healthier society. There’s no reason to think they couldn’t work again.
