The Guardian view on the state pension age: mindlessly hiking it is not the answer | Editorial

Just one in 11 men born today can expect to reach retirement age in good health. A system rethink is needed

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.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/jEXw6HN

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Two years after Buffalo mass shooting, an art exhibit focuses on the victims

A few months after 14 May 2022, a curator sought out three local artists. The resulting exhibition, Before and After Again, is thought to be the first of its kind Two years ago, a white supremacist drove 200 miles to Buffalo, New York, and opened fire in a grocery store in the city’s predominantly Black East Side neighborhood, killing 10 people and injuring three. Though the Tops Friendly Markets where the racist mass shooting took place has been remodeled, and most of the country has forgotten about the violence that occurred on 14 May 2022, Buffalo’s East Side is forever changed. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/mqu1LFv
Read more

£1 Thursdays review – nightclubbing, sex talk and big decisions

Finborough theatre, London A mix of sweet observations about female friendship and cheeky brazenness about sex, Kat Rose-Martin’s play finds two young women at a crossroads in their lives In the cold air outside a sticky nightclub in Bradford, 17-year-olds Stacey and Jen are at a crossroads. In one direction lies the world they know: the family stress, the looming exams, the pumping pop beats at the club where they’ll reliably pull boys from school. In the other direction lies an uncertain path, and questions of who they are apart from one another, whether they could be the first in their families to go to university, and how to afford it if they do. Constantly on their minds, while they’re drunkenly dancing the nights away, is where they’ll end up, and what to do if they are the ones left behind. Thoughtful if not revelatory, £1 Thursdays covers an uneasy period of big decisions in these characters’ lives, as the gap between them widens. Monique Ashe-Palmer (Six) is ebullient as St
Read more

Eric Trump testifies ‘I don’t recall’ when asked about involvement in Trump Organization valuation - live

Prosecutors ask Eric Trump about financial statements and executives who cited calls with him for valuation, but he testifies he doesn’t remember conversation Sign up for Trump on Trial: a free newsletter on all the latest court developments Prosecutor Colleen Faherty asked Donald Trump Jr whether it’s a fair statement that he was generally familiar with the overall finances of the Trump Organization between 2011 and the present. “I would think so, yes,” Trump Jr replied, Law360’s Stewart Bishop reports. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/wzrfXa1
Read more