Government Response

The Government responded to this petition on Wednesday 28th July 2021

Parliament has voted to equalise the State Pension age (SPa) and subsequent retirement ages for men and women. Reducing it to 60 is neither affordable nor fair to tax payers and future generations.

The latest Office for National Statistics data shows that the number of people over SPa compared to the number of people of working age is expected to increase. On average, people are living longer, and increasing SPa in line with life expectancy changes has been the approach of successive governments over many years. It helps to maintain the cost and sustainability of the State Pension in the long term.

The State Pension is funded through the tax contributions of the current working-age population. Reducing the SPa to 60 would therefore increase the tax burden of the current working-age population.

The government have previously estimated that had we not put in place any increases in SPa for both men and women, the total additional cost to taxpayers would have been around £215 billion for the period 2010/11 to 2025/26, in 2018/19 prices. This figure takes into account State Pension, other pensioner benefits, and savings made on working age benefits. The 2019 report that details these costs can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/analysis-relating-to-state-pension-age-changes-from-the-1995-and-2011-pensions-acts/analysis-relating-to-state-pension-age-changes-from-the-1995-and-2011-pensions-acts

The Government has provided an unprecedented amount of support via our plan for jobs to help those of all ages find work and get the skills they need to return to work.

Our Plan for Jobs has been designed to deliver targeted support to those most in need, and we continue to provide tailored programmes for younger people who are unemployed. Evidence shows that unemployed young people can gain employment more quickly than older age groups and we have built on our existing programmes by providing further support for young people during the pandemic including the DWP Youth Offer, which has provided wrap-around support for 18-24-year-olds in the Intensive Work search regime of Universal Credit, since September 2020, and the £2 billion Kickstart scheme which funds the direct creation of additional jobs for young people at risk of long-term unemployment giving them the chance to build their confidence and skills in the workplace, and to gain experience that will improve their chances of progressing to find long-term, sustainable work.

Since the launch of Kickstart in September, employers have created over 247,000 approved vacancies for young people, including engineering, construction, adult social care and retail and over 44,000 young people have started in their Kickstart job.

Department for Work and Pensions