Maynard: We need a better understanding of ‘pretirement’
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There should be support and flexibilities for older workers, the pensions minister has said, so people in their 60s can plan the years before their state pension age.
Pensions minister Paul Maynard said there needs to be a better understanding of “pretirement”.
Speaking at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association’s Investment Conference on Thursday, Maynard said better understanding was needed, on the state pension and welfare state side, on how to support those approaching pension age, asking "what people’s 60s look like".
He referred to his Blackpool constituency, where healthy working life expectancy is 53.
“That's not sustainable either for the economy, frankly, or for their retirement options. So we need to look at how we can support older workers,” he argued.
Maynard said there should be more focus on “the flexibility that we can have in the 60s so people can plan for how they get to 67 based upon what they are accumulating here and now”.
This is partly the function of the midlife MOT, he noted, but admitted the state will need to play a role: “It's not just about saving, it's about also ensuring that what's offered by the welfare state in later life also helps to cushion that impact.”
To improve savings levels, a new law on auto-enrolment is still awaiting regulations for implementation. The change will pull more young workers into the system and require that pension contributions are calculated on the first pound earned rather than an earnings threshold.
The PLSA’s director of policy Nigel Peaple said the previous pensions minister, Laura Trott, had told him the regulations were drafted some months ago, but Maynard was reluctant to commit to a timetable for the reforms first recommended more than six years ago.
