The retirement age should rise to 70 as part of a package of measures to solve the UK pensions crisis, business leaders said today.
An end to means testing for the state pension and closing ‘gold-plated’ public sector pension schemes should also make up any solution to the looming crisis, the Institute of Directors (IoD) said in its response to the Pensions Commission.
A report on pension reform by Adair Turner, chairman of the Pensions Commission, is due out at the end of November, but he has been tight-lipped about what his recommendations will be.
IoD director general, Miles Templeman, said the UK needed some “very strong medicine indeed” to cure the UK pension problem.
“Sacrifices have to be made by all of us here and now for the sake of future generations and the health of the economy,” he said. “The government needs to make tough decisions that not everyone will be happy with, but make them they must, sooner rather than later.”
The IoD’s submission to the Pensions Commission calls for action to tackle the four central issues affecting pensions policy: an ageing population, incentives for saving, the state pension and public sector pensions.
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