1,000 signatures reached
To: Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak: don't raise the state pension age further
Any plans to accelerate state pension age rises in the next Parliament must be abandoned.
The government must urgently rethink its strategy of expecting workers to work even longer. A failure to do so will consign workers to the misery of being too old to work but too young for a pension.
Why is this important?
The state pension age is currently 66 years. It is due to rise to 67 from May 2026, and to 68 from May 2044. However, government ministers have been pushing for this timetable to be sped up, according to media reports.
New research by Unite the Union has found that many workers feel they cannot continue working in key roles until state pension age. Over 10,000 Unite members across four key sectors took part in the survey:
86 per cent of health workers do not believe they can mentally continue to undertake their current roles beyond the age of 66, while 83 per cent of them could not physically continue in their roles beyond the same age.
75 per cent of construction workers stated they can’t work physically beyond 66, while 64 per cent said the mental demands of the job would become too much by 66 at the latest.
76 per cent of road haulage and warehouse workers said that they will not be able to physically work beyond 66, while 70 per cent said the mental demand of the job will become too great by that age.
67 per cent of bus and tram workers said the mental demands would become too great by 66, while the job would become too physically demanding by then for 57 per cent of them.
These findings show that tens of thousands of workers will be forced out of employment due to the physical and mental demands of their work but will be too young to receive the state pension.
*** Join Unite in the fight for dignity in retirement. Join here: https://join.unitetheunion.org/ ***
*** Join the National Pensioners Convention, the campaigning organisation for older people in the UK here: https://www.npcuk.org/join-the-npc ***
*** Join the Scottish Pensioners Forum here: https://scottishpensioners.org.uk/ ***