Pension Age Will Rise To 67 Sooner Warns MP

The Government is likely to bring forward an increase in the state pension age to 67, in order to extend the working life of millions of people under 50.

A pensions bill is currently being pushed through Parliament which will raise the age at which both men and women can claim a pension to 66 by 2020.

In addition, it has been rumoured that the retirement age could rise to 67 as early as 2026 - affecting millions of people in their 40s who would have expected to stop work at 66.

And the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, speaking on Sky's Murnaghan show, hinted that more changes will be on the way very soon.

"The issues around the later retirement age have to be dealt with," said the 39-year-old Liberal Democrat and MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey .

"We have made no decision on how to do that or what the appropriate timing is.

"We have taken steps for 66 and we have said that we are going to look at later retirement again as time goes on."

Mr Alexander even suggested that a system could be introduced, whereby as life expectancy increases, the age people will have to work until will be pushed back further automatically.

He added: "We have talked about an automatic mechanism so that as life expectancy increases, so does the state pension are. These discussions are going on."

Earlier on Sunday the Minister for State and Pensions, Steve Webb , blasted the timescales set by the previous Labour administration, which proposed that the pension age be increased to 67 in 2036 - and 68 by 2046.

The 46-year-old Liberal Democrat MP for Thornbury & Yate believes that those predictions are "too slow" and said: "Everybody knows we are living longer. It is like an express train."

Mr Webb insists that drastic action needs to be taken urgently in order to avoid a pensions disaster, with life expectancy in the UK continues to rise alarmingly.

"I am even more convinced now than I was a year ago that we are running to standstill on all this stuff," he told The Observer. "The timescales for 67 and 68 are too slow."

"If you think of male pension age, it hasn't changed for a century. How much has life expectancy improved in a century? So, in a way, what is going on is a big dam that is finally breaking."

On the discussions between the Government and the Trades Union Congress about pensions, continuing this week, Mr Alexander said that he is "fully committed" to resolving the matter.