Sick and disabled could solve UK pension crisis

Better policies for helping people with long-term illnesses and
disabilities into work could avoid the need to raise the state
pension age, according to a report published this month.

If the government meets its target of having 80 per cent of people
of working age in paid jobs, then it won’t have to raise the state
pension age by up to five years, says the TUC’s Eighty Per Cent
Solution report.

To do this, the TUC says the government should focus on encouraging
certain groups, such as the over-50s, the unemployed and the
long-term sick and disabled people, into paid employment. It also
recommends the development of policies to help carers combine their
responsibilities with paid work.

Earlier this year, the government announced plans to raise the
state pension age to 70 from 65 and said public sector staff could
lose their right to retire at 60.

Public sector union Unison has warned that unless the government
backs down over its plans public sector workers could strike.

A Unison spokesperson said the right to retire at 60 should remain
because local government workers already had some of the “most
stressful and physically and mentally demanding jobs” in the UK.