Date published: 2006/09/26
The BBC says:
The Labour leadership has suffered a conference defeat as delegates backed criticisms of key planks of the government's pensions policy.
The conference passed a motion attacking plans to raise the state pensions age to 68 and delay restoring the link between pensions and earnings.
It also pressed ministers to do more to compensate workers who lost out on pensions when their firms went bust.
...
The pensions motion, tabled by the GMB union, welcomed many parts of the government white paper, including measures to make pensions provision fairer to women.But it "opposes any suggestion that the state pension age be raised before health inequalities in the UK are eradicated and improved longevity is equally shared by all".
During the pensions debate on Monday, the GMB's Malcolm Sage said raising the pension age was not fair when people were expected to live to 68-years-old in Glasgow but to 74-years-old in Kensington.
More nonsense from the trade unions. First of all, it is a fantasy to talk about "health inequalities in the UK" being "eradicated", since poor people will always have worse health than rich people. Secondly, why is 68 any more or less fair than 65 given the premise that some people live longer than others? Thirdly, taking the GMB claim to its logical conclusion, women should be forced to work longer than men, white people should be forced to work longer than non-whites, people who are likely to die of cancer at a young(ish) age should be allowed to retire at (say) 50, etc. It's all a nonsense. The whole point of a government pension is that it is insurance for all, and under any insurance scheme some people do better than others. What the GMB really seems to be demanding is that the nation bankrupt itself looking after old people. In other words, the GMB is not only being silly, it is being irresponsible.
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