The government is planning to accelerate moves to raise the state pension age for men to 66 as part of a major overhaul of the pensions system.
Ian Dowdell, Independent Financial Adviser with Morris Owen Chartered Accountants explains “Under the reforms, the default retirement age is to be dropped, making it illegal for employers to oblige employees to leave their jobs as soon as they reach 65.
Other measures will see some 10 million employees who are not currently contributing to a retirement fund automatically enrolled into a company scheme” said Ian.
“The government’s pensions team intend to introduce legislation soon for raising the state pension age for men to 66, although the increase would not happen before 2016.
The retirement age for women will climb to the same point a few years later” he added.
The Labour administration had set out a policy of increasing the state retirement age for women to 65 by 2020, rising for both men and women to 66 between 2024 and 2026, to 67 between 2034 and 2036, and to 68 between 2044 and 2046.
However, the new government is to speed up the process, perhaps even setting a retirement age of 70 as a target.
A review will be carried out to find out whether the last government’s auto-enrolment scheme is workable and to make sure that firms are ready to enrol millions of staff between 2012 and 2017.
For further information visit www.morrisowen.com
