Retirement age must increase to 75

Everyone in the pensions industry knows the retirement age must be increased to 75 if a pensions crisis is to be averted, an industry expert has claimed.

Robin Ellison, pensions consultant at international law firm Pinsent Masons, said the retirement age needs to go up to match an increase in life expectancy.

“When state pensions were first introduced into Britain 100 years ago, the retirement age was 70 when life expectancy was about 73,” Ellison said.

“Everybody in the industry knows that [the age of retirement] should be 75.”

According to Ellison, this will “not come as news to the Department of Work and Pensions or even to Gordon Brown.”

The government knows a retirement age of 65 is “unsustainable”, Ellison claimed.

However, he acknowledged that changing the retirement age will not be an easy task for the government.

“It’s very hard for a government to change the retirement age overnight, no governments do that,” he said.

The government is set to review the default retirement age in 2010.

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