The plans include:
- Restoring the link between the state pension and earnings from 2011, as announced in the budget earlier this week.
- A call for evidence from the public and interested parties on bringing forward the timing for raising the state pension age to 66.
- An independent review of automatic enrolment into workplace pension schemes and how to make this work (a team of three independent experts will report back to Government in autumn 2010).
- Consulting on how soon to phase out the default retirement age (the age at which employers can legally get rid of employees).
The Secretary of State’s announcement on the state pension system comes as former Labour Cabinet minister John Hutton embarks on a review of public sector pensions. As the head of the Independent Pensions Commission, he has been tasked with identifying immediate savings by September and full-scale reforms in time for next year's budget. The review of public sector pensions will include the NHS Pension Scheme. More information about this is available from our latest news page.
The default retirement age
The default retirement age was set at 65 in 2006 when Employment Equality (Age) regulations come into force. It gives people the right to request to continue in post but also allows employers to reject this. NHS Employers consulted with employers on the default retirement age earlier this year and we will continue to work with organisations and to feed their views in to the new consultation as and when necessary.
The state pension age and NHS pensions
Plans to increase the state pension age to 66 will not affect people on NHS pensions. The state pension age is the age at which an individual can draw their state pension. The NHS Pension Scheme is completely separate from the state pension arrangements. In addition to their NHS pension, NHS Pension Scheme members will normally get a separate basic state pension.