Increase to State Pension Age could help alleviate debt problems
Increase to State Pension Age could help alleviate debt problems
- Thursday, 8 October 2009Pensioners could be afforded a degree of financial help if the State Pension Age is increased from 65 to 66, it has been claimed.
This proposal was outlined by shadow chancellor George Osborne at the Conservative Party Conference, with the party planning to enact such a policy should they come into power after the next general election.
Pensions Policy Institute director Niki Cleal explained that it was important for the State Pension Age to rise given the improvements in life expectancy.
"When the current state pension was introduced in 1948 a 65-year-old man could expect to draw his state pension to age 77, by 2008 a 65-year-old man could expect to draw it until age 86 - this increase in life expectancy increases the cost to the exchequer of providing the state pension," she said.
Raising the retirement age would also allow pensioners to work for longer, helping to alleviate any of their outstanding debt.
Recent research from moneysupermarket.com revealed that nearly a quarter (22 per cent) of people aged 50 and over have taken on more debt in the last 12 months.

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