Raising pension age 'discriminates against manual workers'

Labour MP Harry Cohen argues that plans to raise the state retirement age are "highly dubious".

Raising the pension age is one of the biggest boosts for inequality that we will have seen for many decades.

The plan discriminates against manual workers and people from poorer backgrounds, who suffer above average ill health and shorter lives.

I question the claims of the actuaries that there is inevitably an aging population.

They may have a vested interest as insurance companies, big business and government bodies, who want to cut bills, are their main clients.

In Russia the transformation to capitalism dramatically cut the life expectancy of the population.

Recession, unemployment and poverty may do the same in this country.

A well-funded NHS has kept more people alive, but it is likely now to have to endure a period of cutbacks, made even more severe if the Tories get elected.

The Conservative policy for raising the pension age prematurely as a means to cut the budget deficit will have an impact on inequality and hardship.

It is wrong for workers ready for retirement to be denied it and have their financial security removed from under their feet, in order to meet the cost of the economic crisis caused by the bankers.

Bosses should not be legally entitled to enforce a legal retirement age upon their workers, while the state stock exchange-linked fund for future pensioners is deeply flawed.

The contributions from employers and the government are too small and it is wrong to defer the start of its contribution for two years.

It is very likely that a Conservative government would not pay either as it concentrates on the deficit.

The basic state pension is already low and falls far too short of removing poverty in retirement for all pensioners.

Tax should increase, and high tax breaks significantly curtailed, for the highest income retirees, and the money used to raise the basic pension.

Finally, the rise in the pension age has not been debated properly in Parliament and in current circumstances it is not justified.

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