MPs ‘should take smaller pensions’
MPs should give up their pension scheme to set an example if they are to impose constraints on the rest of the country, Lord Turner has said.
The head of the pensions commission said it would be “very difficult” for politicians to impose a rise in the state pension age on voters while retaining their own lucrative salary scheme.
Lord Turner added that the controversial issue of public sector staff retirement needed to be looked at. The government is under increasing pressure to scrap a deal agreed this autumn which allows existing workers to retire at 60.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he said: “Public sector workers’ life expectancy is going up as fast as everyone else’s.”
The final report from the Turner commission last week proposed a gradual increase of the state pension age to 66 by 2030, 67 by 2040 and up to 68 by 2050.
Lord Turner said he thought his proposal would eventually be chosen as the right option, explaining: “This has been in the too-difficult camp for a long time, but people will be receptive when they understand how long they’re going to live.”
He said that MPs should definitely be setting the example in this pensions crisis.
“It is very difficult to have a group of legislators who are saying, ‘Tough news, we’ve got to push up the state retirement age for the whole of society’ and the only groups of people who are not covered by this are MPs and the senior civil servants who advise them,” he said.
