Sometimes there is something to be said for being old. Of course, being alive when you’re old beats the alternative, which is not being alive, but at least my generation has had the opportunity to retire before we were too old to do anything in retirement. Men are now retiring at age 66, which will soon become 67. It’s worse for women who expected to be retiring at 60 and have had seven years pension stolen from, without being asked, but will now have to flog themselves until they too are 67. For future generations, things are likely to get much worse.
One of Rishi Sunak’s key lieutenants, Lord David Frost, the clown who negotiated terrible Brexit deal with the EU, has responded to the suggestion that National Insurance should be abolished. Given that would leave a £46 billion gap in government coffers would have to be filled somehow, his view is that the state pension age should be raised to 75. When Sunak was asked to rule it out at prime minister’s questions (PMQs) last week, he declined to do so and instead had a pop at Keir Starmer’s own pension arrangements instead. We all know about the Punch and Judy style of politics that dominates PMQs – it’s why so many people hate politics and politicians – but let us very clear about one thing. All Sunak had to do was say he had no such intention to raise the pension age to 75, but he chose not to. As this is already chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s own plan, it does not require the genius of a rocket scientist to work out what’s going on here.
I left the full-time work place at 57 and my only regret is that I did not go long before then. I have always worked to live rather than the other way round, but I know plenty of people who live to work. Now, I am not saying that living to work is a bad thing because I am not you and you are not me. Some folk love their jobs so much they don’t feel like quitting at all. Indeed, I know and knew, people who simply didn’t want to retire at all, who feared what it would be like if they had all that extra time to fill. (A few people I know, who shall remain nameless, have stated privately their wishes to stay at work in order to avoid having to spend more time with their partners!)
I was lucky when I left the wacky world of full time work because we worked out a way to manage financially, which necessitated me carrying out some part-time work, with varying levels of success, shall we say. But mostly it was bearable. I could write more than I used to, I could travel more, I could play golf, meet up with friends, read more – basically do loads of things that otherwise I couldn’t because of work. The good news for those of you who want to work until you drop is that soon if he is re-elected Rishi Sunak will give you the opportunity to do. For those of you who have things to do, dreams to fill and all the rest of it, well just wait until you are 75. You may be, as Billy Connolly once put it, “in an old folks’ home pissing your trousers. Being fed out of a blender,” but at least you will, if you know what day it is, be able to enjoy your later years in a manner of speaking.
I’ve lost count of the number of people I knew, some of whom were very close friends, who dreamed of finishing work and doing all those things that being at work stopped them from doing. One day, they would do that long-desired world cruise, or simple boat holidays on the Norfolk broads, driving a jalopy through Europe, pitching up in quaint little villages and living the life instead of being stuck on the 9 to 5 routine. “One day we will do all this” but one day never came. Events got in the way, often by way of disease or the process of old age that slows us all down. One guy I knew had to stop taking his caravan around the country because he simply didn’t have the strength not stamina for the driving, the pitching up; generally the more rustic way of life. What was so easy when they were in their fifties became a chore. Even me, with a lucky young escape, stumbles around like today with a bad back that comes and goes, seemingly at will, stopping me doing things that I once took for granted. And guess what, Lord David Frost has let the cat out of the bag. “We want everyone to retire at 75 so we can abolish National Insurance.” I suppose the only positive is that you’ll have more take home pay, even though you’ll be too old and infirm to do anything with it.
Whether you want the pension age to remain the same, to see it increased or even reduced (which would be my preference), it would be nice if the government actually asked us. After all, I was always under the apparently misguided apprehension that politicians were there to represent us, not just tell us what to do. I don’t recall being asked if I was okay about having a year of state pension taken away from me – I wasn’t, by the way – but perhaps given the lack of a public outcry I am in a minority. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Life expectancy in the UK is 78.6 years for males and 82.6 years for women, so a retirement age of 75 would leave most people with a hell of a lot to cram in in a very short space of time and even that is assuming you’re still in decent health. If I had to retire at 75 and lived as long as my mum, I’d have a lot of things to fit in my final 18 months or so.
Hopefully, Sunak won’t win the coming election so his policy of scrapping NI and putting back the retirement age to 75 will never be enacted, but I guess it will help younger folk which box to put their cross in. He may be – no, he is – a slippery snake oil salesman who has no understanding, nor interest in, how ordinary people live their lives but at least we know the sense of direction. Work until you’re 75, if you think you will make it that long. Thanks and no thanks, Sunak.
