REAL LIVES 68 is too late
WORK TILL YOU DROP
The Tory-led government wants us to slave till we’re 68 – a plan which will bring real misery to millions and could even shorten lives
Imagine a world where you work until you’re too old and too poor to enjoy the few brief years you’ll have left. Where young people cannot find work, a mortgage or any real purpose in life until they’re in their 30s. Where the old and sick are cared for by the old, where grandparents cannot provide childcare for their grandchildren, where parents cannot afford to work.
Just a dystopian nightmare?
Hopefully. But when you consider plans already in place for public sector workers born in 1977 to have to work to 68 or receive no pension, then maybe not. And now as the Tory-led government has Parliamentary approval to vary this age and bring the timetable forward, we should all be concerned. Pension experts say children born today may not be able to retire until they are 80.
Using the excuses of increased life expectancy and apparent cost to the taxpayer, Unite and fellow trade unions are fighting these moves which will have radical and detrimental effects for everyone.
Unite together with PCS, teachers’ union the NUT and a number of other unions, has formed a campaign to fight the plans, called 68 is too late.
The unions are calling on the public to work with us to reverse a situation where you could have 68-year-olds doing strenuous physical lifting or exercise within touching distance of 70, not just in the public sector but right across the UK’s working population, from lorry drivers to classroom teachers, labourers to nurses.
In April the Unite, PCS and NUT commissioned a poll which showed nearly eight in 10 and seven in 10 Tory voters surveyed did not support moves to make British workers work longer than their European counterparts to receive their state pension.
“How can it be that the seventh richest nation on the planet denies its people a healthy retirement? What sort of achievement is that for a government? This is unpopular, impractical and will strain our society. This government must rethink and do so now.”
Poor health Living longer doesn’t necessarily mean living as a healthy person. As the pension age rises, the proportion of retirement spent in poor health will also increase. And it’s no surprise to learn that the poorest amongst us will be the hardest hit. The most deprived 40 per cent of the
20 uniteWORKS March/April 2012 BY AMANDA CAMPBELL
population – around four million people – spend on average 30 per cent of their retirement with a serious health problem – and nearly half with a disability.
If the plans are made law then it would mean 68 will be the highest state pension age in Europe. Only in Estonia and Cyprus will citizens work longer. In France, new president Francois Hollande said he plans to reduce the retirement age from 62 to 60.
Worst of all, forcing people to work longer will tie down millions of jobs, stunting the employment market, prevent the transfer of skills to new generations, and risk abandoning a generation to worklessness.
If you commit murder your sentence of life imprisonment means you have to serve 25 years. For a child born today their working life could span 62 years.
Now that is a crime.
For more info, a short film and to tell David Cameron what you think visit
www.68istoolate.org.uk
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