The Conservative Government’s announcement that the state pension age will rise to 68 seven years early has been condemned by unions, who warn some won’t survive their jobs that long. 

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Hiking the state pension age risks creating second-class citizens. In large parts of the country, the state pension age will be higher than healthy life expectancy. And low paid workers at risk of insecurity in their working lives will now face greater insecurity in old age too.” 

She added: “Rather than hiking the pension age, the government must do more for older workers who want to keep working and paying taxes. Workplaces and working patterns need to adapt to their needs. And the government must follow the independent review’s recommendation to give more help to those unable to stay in work until retirement age.” Gail Cartmail, assistant general secretary for Unite, said: “The one size fits all state pension age is clearly not fit for purpose. There is a huge difference in the physical health of a worker who leaves school and undertakes manual work and a worker who enters the workplace much later and has less physically strenuous job demands.” She added: “In industries such as construction, the majority of the workforce are already forced out of their roles prior to 65 because of ill-health and injury. This increase will result in even more workers being forced into poverty, too old to work but too young to claim a pension.” 

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the teaching union NASUWT, said: “This government is clearly determined to make teachers ‘work until they drop’, in a profession already recognised as one of the most stressful in the country.”