AP: British panel recommends increase in retirement age

[question everything]

British panel recommends increase in retirement age

By Jane Wardell
ASSOCIATED PRESS

December 1, 2005

LONDON – The British government yesterday said it will consider raising the retirement age as high as 69 as recommended by a panel commissioned to avert a looming funding crisis in the state pension system as people live longer and have fewer children.

The Pensions Commission, appointed by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2002, also said the state pension should be increased and proposed creating a National Pension Savings System in which every worker would be enrolled automatically.

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Funding state pension systems is becoming a problem for many industrial nations. Italy has raised the age for a full pension to 60 from 57, Belgium is boosting the earliest retirement age from 58 to 60, and German lawmakers have agreed the retirement age should rise from 65 to 67 between 2012 and 2035. The United States is gradually raising the age to 67.

The commission's report quickly drew criticism from Britain's biggest labor confederation, which objected to a higher retirement age, and from a leading industry group, which said matching employer contributions for the proposed savings plan would burden small businesses.


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Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051201/news_1n1retire.html

[Erika]

1. The new GOP U.S. Social Security plan to solve the crisis

Led by England, they will offer full retirement, housing, and medical benefits to the elderly to do away with our crisis concerning elderly care. ALL citizens will be eligible for this 100% benefit. They will automatically qualify at the age of 105 and 6 months.

[Historic NY]

2. No, no, your wrong....its dead & buried........

[Spinzonner]

3. Wouldn't a decrease in the age of death accomplish the same thing ?

The Soylent Solution

[wakeme2008]

4. The Railroad retirement lowered it's age to 60...

Talking to a person on this the other day. At one time the money put into the railroad retirement fund was just added to the general US piggy bank. But that was changed and they got the fund to be separate and did limited investing. The end result was it was doing so well, they lowered the age of retirement from 62 to 60.

The Bush SS plan is NOT the same, and for that reason Bush NEVER talks about what happened at the RRs.