The think tank behind pension age rise is worth a closer look

Already people in Glasgow , particularly men, receive less pension over their retired lives.

If you live in Poole in Dorset, where live expectancy is 84 for men, then you can look forward to 17 years of retirement with a state pension.

If, however, you live in Glasgow where it is 73 then you can expect just six years and a meagre five by the time the state pension age rises to 68.

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Glasgow men won't live to see pension

Consider then the plan by the Centre for Social Justice to raise the state pension age to 70 and then further, to 75.

The plan wants people in places like Glasgow to die before they retire.

If you want to retire before the state pension age, you will need to pay into private scheme.

And this is where the think tank is worth a closer look at who is behind it.

The CSJ has a list of “partners” on its website, including private pension giant, Legal and General, Deutsche Bank and hedge fund manager, Rab Capital.

It also lists the Living Wage Foundation and several charities and charitable trusts among its partners.

The CSJ board of directors lists welfare reform architect Iain Duncan Smith as chairman, Stuart Roden, former chair of Lansdowne Partners an investment management firm, John Kinder, founder of Rivertrade Limited, a private investment firm and Cara Usher-Smith, who used to work for Iain Duncan Smith when he was Tory leader and then Michael Howard. She also worked for the Stockholm Network a “market oriented” think tank.

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Millions lost in pension credit

Some Conservatives were angry at reporting of this report as a Tory plan and Amber Rudd the Work and Pensions Secretary has said it is not government policy.

It may not be Tory policy at the moment but people who have paid attention during the last ten years would not bet against it finding its way into a manifesto.

At one time it wasn’t Government policy to increase the pension age to 68, it wasn’t government policy to deny women born in the 1950s the chance to retire when they thought they would and it didn’t used to be government policy to impose universal credit on people.

Lots of government policies begin life as think tank reports.

And this particular think tank was founded by Iain Duncan Smith and is reported to be favoured by Boris Johnson.

It also had a hand in the development of Universal Credit - before it was government policy.

We can’t afford pensions at 65 with an ageing population, goes the argument of people like Iain Duncan Smith.

We can afford it if we want to afford it. And the money spent on pensions comes back into the economy.

The money used to fund pensions is the money generated by millions of workers in National Insurance payments, income tax and in other taxes like VAT where those on lower earnings pay a disproportionate amount compared to their income.

Like the private pension industry and the insurance industry the treasury is not planning to fund pensions for all, instead it needs many people to die before or just after they begin to collect.

Iain Duncan Smith has shown himself to be a man who should be nowhere near the welfare state as he only seeks to do it harm and harm to those who need it.

He will never need a state pension. Nor will he probably officially retire but neither will he need to work when he is older, he could retire now if he wanted to.

But where is the fun in that when there are people to deprive of basic essentials and safety nets to be dismantled.

Politicians like Duncan Smith say we can’t afford the pension but also want to limit the number of people coming into the country who would grow the workforce and the tax take.

For them it appears to be all about who is deserving and who is not deserving.

Well, the millions of people who have worked for forty years on a basic income, many of them raising families in that time and paying for the services they use but not earning enough to have amassed a pension pot that can be lived on are deserving.

People who have worked hard and spent their earnings back into the economy out of necessity while others hoard wealth are deserving.

They deserve to be able to enjoy at least ten years and if they live even longer and receive a pension, so be it.

The Centre for Social Justice’s report is dangerous and should be resisted.