British Coalition Government Comes Under Attack for Increasing Retirement Age

When the Liberal Democrats formed coalition government with the Conservative party, they sort of knew what they were getting into. "The Coalition: Our Programme For Government" has drawn criticism from a number of major political analysts and of course the people of United Kingdom. The coalition has been pushing for stronger civil liberties, a significant premium funding for educating the poorer sections, and a marked resistance towards non-EU immigration. While many of these have found support with people, the Coalition has been criticised for many decisions that have been described as drastic.

The latest criticism that the coalition has come under is because of a new decision to increase the mean retirement age to 67 by 2026. The argument that people have a greater life expectancy today than the previous generation did, and that working for a year more or two would only enhance people's quality of life has been the coalition's favourite argument, which has also met stiff resistance from people who work in public sector. The decision would be enforced anytime soon, which means millions of people who are aged 50 or under at the moment would have to work for a longer time before they start receiving the pension.

Ministers have begun to push for controversial changes which would make the minimum age at which people can claim a pension, 66. This decision would be effective from 2020 and rising the minimum age of retirement to 67 by 2026 has been received in a rather bitter manner. Steve Webb, the Pensions Minister revealed that it was necessary for the government to hasten the process of increasing retirement and pension benefit age limits as pensions are a major source of expenditure for the government. Moreover, Webb, a Liberal Democrat himself reiterated that the coalition will have to hurry up the process of increasing the age limit in order to undo the damages done by the former administration. The public sector unions which met at the Trades Union Congress on Monday expressed their dismay at the decision.

Michelle Mitchell, charity director of Age UK emphasise that people should be notified at least 10 years in advance if they have to work for a year or longer before they can claim pension benefits. She maintained that a rising life expectancy is welcome but one must also ensure that the changes made to pension policies do not cause trouble to those who actually struggle in the society.

Interestingly, the coalition has not done much to reduce benefits and welfare to able-bodied unemployed. Many unemployed people are not even motivated to find jobs as the benefits they receive by the government are enough to lead a comfortable life. At the end of the day, those who work hard continue to work harder, and those who work less continue to work less.