Sonel Mehta, Head of Actuarial Resourcing for Equiniti Hazell Carr, at the UK’s largest pensions administrator, Equiniti and SPA Working party member said:
“With tax relief seemingly off the table, the Chancellor may turn his attention to increasing the State Pension Age as he searches for ways to further reduce the deficit, although it is unclear that this would really be effective in the long-term.”
“Research undertaken by the SPA Working party on behalf of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries last year determined that in setting the SPA there are various things to consider, not least the healthy life expectancy. Major policy decisions are thus necessary around how long society expects people to work and the standard of living the taxpayer is prepared to foot the bill for. If we are going to expect people to retire at a later age the Government may need to go further and consider the changes necessary to make the workplace more accessible to older workers. Otherwise, as with current concerns over pensioners being left with insufficient funds as a result of the freedoms, any increase to SPA may just be pushing older workers not yet entitled to the state pension into another welfare category such as disability benefits or job seekers allowance. A rose by any other name…”
“If he does target SPA for reform, one hopes the Chancellor will work closely with John Cridland, who was appointed as the independent reviewer of the SPA recently. Cridland will be required to consider all these elements, as well as wider changes in society, in determining whether an increase in the SPA – and if so, what and how it will be implemented – is the best way forward.”
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