Advisor Expects Retirement Age to Rise

People will need to make more retirement savings if they wish to stop working before they are 70, a government pensions advisor has suggested.

Lord Turner of Ecchinswell said that increasing longevity among Britons makes the costs of the current state pensions system potentially unsustainable, meaning that the official retirement age might have to rise another five years. Lord Turner has also previously recommended this age to be increased to 66 before 2024 and to 68 before 2046.

The expert made the comments on the 100th anniversary of the state pension, introduced by then-prime minister Lloyd George in the landmark Pensions Act as a bid to help poverty-stricken elderly people whose only alternative was the workhouse.

Other recommendations from Lord Turner to reform the sector is the introduction of a "semi-compulsory" second pension through savings and the linking of the state subsidy to inflation rather than price indices.

Speaking to the Times newspaper, he commented: "This is not the end of the story. If the value of pensions is to be protected the retirement age will have to rise again."

He added: "I would be amazed if around 2055 the government of the day were not taking the retirement age higher and we'll be at 70 by the end of the century."