Nick Clegg: "We are reinvigorating what retirement means"

The government is to speed up plans to raise the state pension age for men to 66, possibly by as early as 2016.

Ministers will also raise the option of extending it further, perhaps to 70 and beyond in the following decades.

The default retirement age of 65 - at which workers can be legally axed by employers - is also set to be axed.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said it was time to "reinvigorate the pensions landscape".

Under the plans women will move to a state pension age of 66 a few years after men.

'Talent and enthusiasm'

The coalition team running pensions policy - Conservative Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and Liberal Democrat pensions minister Steve Webb - announced the proposals at a briefing in London.

Mr Duncan Smith said: "Britain used to have a pensions system to be proud of, but due to years of neglect and inaction we are left with fewer people saving into a pension every year and the value of the state pension has been eroded, leaving millions in poverty.

"We must live up to our responsibility to reinvigorate the pension landscape.

"People are living longer and healthier lives than ever, and the last thing we want is to lose their talent and enthusiasm from the workplace due to an arbitrary age limit.

Labour's Yvette Cooper said raising the pension age sooner was unfair on people nearing retirement.

"We also need to recognise that to meet the challenge of providing an affordable, stable pensions system in a society with ever increasing life expectancy, people will need to work longer."

The previous Labour government's policy was to raise the pension age to 66 in 2024 and then gradually to 68 by 2046.

The coalition argues that this should be speeded up, eventually meaning a pension age of 70 or older.

The government also wants to scrap the default retirement age - which allows employers to shed staff at the age of 65.

Adam Marshall, director of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said such a policy would damage "businesses' ability to manage their workforce".

'Days of Dickens'

He urged the coalition instead to raise the default retirement age or "offer employers a new dismissal route that helps business manage their workforce, regardless of age".

For Labour, shadow work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper accused the government of "moving the goalposts" for people in the fifties, leaving them thousands of pounds worse off.

She added: "This is unfair for a group of people who haven't got time to change their plans."

Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, said: "As well as hitting pay, living standards, public services and jobs, the latest assault from the government is work until you drop.

"If you are a rich banker with a private pension you can sail off on your yacht at 55, but for working men and women retirement will be pushed further and further over the horizon in a step back to the days of Dickens. That is not sharing the pain, it is hitting the poorest hardest yet again."

'Unacceptable'

UK life expectancy is currently 77 years for men and 81 for women.

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said: "The government knows that manual workers in the industrial regions of the UK do not enjoy anything like the same life expectancy as professionals or other classes or employees.

"To force someone who has done a lifetime of toil on building sites, farms or in factories to work until they are 66 is completely unacceptable."

In Tuesday's Budget the government announced that, from April 2011, the state pension would go up by the increase in average earnings, or in line with prices, or by 2.5% - whichever is highest.

Previously it would go up every April by 2.5%, or the level of the Retail Prices Index the previous September.

This had been considered as unfair by some, as prices had lagged behind average earnings.

WISE OWLS INITIAL COMMENTS – FROM CHRIS WALSH DIRECTOR

This is a knee jerk reaction from the coalition which brings forward the proposals of the previous Labour government – so all 3 parties are offering the same analysis and the same response – take it out on poor pensioners.

We agree with the National Pensioners Convention that this is forcing older people who have already worked for 40 – 50 years to forgo another year of retirement and because of the poverty level of pensions paid by the state in the UK ( UK offers practically the lowest level of real pensions and as a percentage of average wages in the EU).

There are 2.5 million people out of work aged 50 – 64. Raising the pension age by 1 year, then another and another until we reach 70 as the state pension age will just mean that more and more people will be unemployed and on benefits instead of getting their rightful ( and higher) pension entitlements. There is no strategy to market and promote older workers and age diversity to employers from all sectors ( PLCs, private, voluntary and public sector) so there will be no increase in the numbers of over 50s let alone over 65s being given jobs – currently if you are a man aged 55 who has lost his job you have less than 5% chance of getting another permanent job – full or part time.

There is no legislation to enforce the right to work for those over 65 if they wish to do so, therefore many people reaching 65 will be made redundant. While we do not support any legislation which compels people to continue working we do support people’s right to work if they wish to and can do so. Unfortunately one of the main reasons for people so doing is the poverty level of pension provision – even with pension credits the total amount of a full state pension is below the poverty line – thus forcing people to continue to work.

This has to be addressed over the next period of time and we older working age people need to make ourselves heard in any consultation / feedback process which is launched, in order to challenge the lazy thinking behind this. The need for proper pension provision is a basic right in any democratic civilised society and not to force people to work until they drop. The current crisis is not one of just demographics it is the failure of the state to provide a basic living pension, a failure of employers to meet their pension obligations to maintain high senior management remuneration and high share holder returns and the failure of the hardly regulated financial industry to provide reasonable returns to private pension savings ( Equitable Life for example). The problem is not between pensioners and young workers it is between all workers as opposed to the top 5% of earners, shareholders, financial speculation and banking irresponsibility.

If we are to help older people wishing to work until 65 then we need to help them with training and other support – where currently older workers are last in line for training opportunities as well as challenge employer stereotypes.

Equitable Life: Former auditors fined and reprimanded

The former auditors of the Equitable Life, Ernst & Young, have been fined and reprimanded by the accountancy profession's disciplinary body.

E&Y was fined £500,000 with costs of £2.4m for failing to warn Equitable policyholders of the society's problems a decade ago.

Both E&Y and a former partner, Kevin McNamara, were reprimanded.

The decision has only now become public, after an appeal against much more severe punishments two years ago.

Equitable said it noted the punishments.

"We are working with the new government to establish a compensation scheme that is swift, simple, transparent and fair," it said.

Appeal

In 2008, the accountant's joint disciplinary scheme ruled that E&Y and Mr McNamara had been guilty of more than 20 instances of a "lack of professional competence" when carrying out audits of the Equitable's accounts for the years 1997, 1998 and 1999.

Any lessons from our audit of Equitable have long been learned and embedded in our audit systems and procedures

Ernst & Young

It also found that they had been guilty of "a lack of objectivity and independence", which it said had been "the most serious" of the allegations.

At first E&Y was fined £4.2m with £5.75m costs, while both it and Mr McNamara were reprimanded "severely".

However, after an appeal, the punishments were reduced as the appeal tribunal decided that E&Y and Mr McNamara had not, after all, lacked objectivity or independence.

The accountancy firm welcomed the outcome of the appeal.

"We are nonetheless disappointed by the remaining adverse findings of the joint disciplinary tribunal in relation to aspects of the audit for the financial years 1997-1999," it said.

"Any lessons from our audit of Equitable have long been learned and embedded in our audit systems and procedures.

"The relevant individuals at Ernst & Young have retired from the firm in the last 10 years," it added.

Close to collapse

The Equitable Life closed to new business in 2000 and came close to collapse after failing to put sufficient funds aside to pay for the guaranteed payouts it had promised on some of the pension policies it had been selling from the 1950s until 1988.

The disciplinary scheme found that as auditors of the Equitable's accounts, E&Y should have warned policyholders, in 1998 and 1999, about the dangers of the society losing a High Court Test case that concluded in 2000.

The society had launched this action in 1999, to validate a policy whereby it had been side-stepping promises it had been making to some of its with-profits investors.

The scheme also found that the auditors should have warned that the 1999 accounts did not give a "true and fair view" of the Equitable's finances, because they did not reveal the lack of adequate reserves to meet those promises.

The result was that in 1999 and 2000 a total of £4.7bn was invested by savers in the Equitable's with-profits polices when they might not otherwise have done so.

They consequently suffered big losses from 2000 onwards when the new management of the Equitable brought in to rescue it slashed the value of the savers' polices to help restore the society to financial stability and stop it becoming insolvent.

Only this year have more than a million savers with the society been offered some hope of compensation for their losses.

One of the first decisions of the new coalition government has been to announce that it will follow the recommendation of the Parliamentary Ombudsman two years ago.

It has decided to set up a "fair and transparent" scheme whereby the Treasury will make payments to Equitable savers to compensate them for their "relative" losses.

Details of the scheme have yet to be published but legislation is scheduled for the coming year.

BBC article

Female presenters out to pasture at 45, says axed Countryfile presenter

No woman is safe in television once she reaches 45, according to a Countryfile presenter who is suing the BBC for age and sex discrimination.

Miriam O'Reilly, 53, was made redundant from the BBC One programme last April, along with three female colleagues of similar age. They were replaced by the younger presenter Julia Bradbury.

"This was discrimination, which wouldn't happen if I was black or disabled," said Miss O'Reilly, an award-winning journalist who also worked on Radio 4's Farming Today programme.

"To be condemned and made redundant, to have my life cancelled because of my age... No, I'm sorry, they can't do that. That's wrong. The BBC has to start listening. We are the disappeared. No woman is safe in TV once she reaches the age of 45."

Miss O'Reilly said her age was no bar to doing the job. "I have got all my faculties. I run, hike, climb - I love being outdoors. My age shouldn't be an issue if I can still do my job, which I believe I can.

"I was good at what I did. I loved working for Countryfile and was passionate about what we were doing on the show."

However, Miss O'Reilly claims that she was made to feel embarrassed about her age. Senior editors would "get very upset" if her grey roots showed through, she claimed, adding that a cameraman once presented her with a can of hair dye and a colleague suggested she try Botox.

On another occasion, she alleges, a director joked that the advent of high definition television would be a critical moment in her career because "we won't be able to disguise your wrinkles then". Another presenter was told to lose weight, she claimed.

Countryfile's line-up was changed when the BBC announced plans to move the show from Sunday mornings to a primetime slot. While the female presenters were replaced, 69-year-old John Craven remained in his job.

Ratings have gone up since the primetime move, but Miss O'Reilly told the Mail on Sunday: "They justify all this with audience figures, but how do you know you wouldn't get those same figures with older women? There are no older women in primetime. Surely that needs to change."

She is due to face her former employers at a tribunal in November. It emerged last week that the number of sex and age discrimination brought against the BBC by female employees has quadrupled in the past two years.

The corporation faced criticism for sacking Moira Stuart, the newsreader, when she was 55, and replacing Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips, 67, with Alesha Dixon, who is half her age.

Newscaster Anna Ford and Gardener's World presenter Carol Klein have also spoken publicly about perceived ageism within the corporation. Other broadcasters have faced accusations of discrimination against older women - Selina Scott won a £250,000 settlement against Channel Five in 2008, claiming she was passed over for a job due to her age.

Mariella Frostrup, the Radio 4 presenter, recently claimed the Today programme lacked women presenters because it was run by "a bunch of misogynists", although she later backtracked and said her remark had no factual basis.

When Miss Bradbury was unveiled as the new face of Countryfile, her age was given at 36. However, it later emerged that she was actually 38.

A BBC spokesman said: "Our programmes always strive to reflect as broad a range of diversity as possible. For example, Kirsty Wark, Maxine Mawhinney and Martha Kearney regularly feature on BBC television and radio shows as well as presenters including Gloria Hunniford, Sheila Hancock, Jennie Bond, Angela Rippon and Annie Nightingale.

"Any suggestion that the presenters of ‘Countryfile’ were replaced on the grounds of age is absolute nonsense.”

Daily Telegraph

Wise Owls ageism and the myths

Myth Chronological age determines health and age brings illness and disease.

Myth Getting older is associated with a loss of cognitive capacity.

Myth Older workers have less physical strength and endurance.

Myth Older workers tend to have poorer sensory abilities such as sight and hearing.

Myth Older workers have more time off sick.

Myth Older workers have difficulty adapting to change.

Myth Older workers find it hard to learn new information making their knowledge and skills outdated.

Myth Older workers have more accidents in the workplace.

Myth Older workers are less productive.

NHS age discrimination manager awarded £147,000

A senior NHS manager has been awarded £147,000 after winning a battle to prove that she was passed over for promotion because of her age.

An employment tribunal in Leeds found that Linda Sturdy, 60, who worked in the breast screen clinic at the city’s Seacroft Hospital for 17 years, was subject to age discrimination when a colleague 13 years her junior and with 35 years less experience than her was promoted to run the unit.

Sturdy had been the preferred candidate for the role until she revealed she had just over three years to go until she hit the retirement age. A manager at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust told her: “I didn’t realise you were so old,” before giving the promotion to the younger woman.

Sturdy was subsequently sacked in May 2008 after refusing to take a more junior position.

Last year, Sturdy was awarded £40,000 in damages after it was proved that her managers had behaved in what was described this week as a “high-handed, malicious, insulting and oppressive” fashion.

According to the Yorkshire Evening Post, Judge Christine Lee, said at the hearing that her dismissal had broken employment law and that the Trust was trying to “defend the indefensible”.

“It’s one thing to have a threat of dismissal handing over you and another for it to be carried out in such a high-handed fashion”, she added.

The latest payout was to cover Sturdy’s loss of income and pension, injury to feelings, aggravated damages and any interest owed. She now intends to pursue the Trust for legal costs.

Jackie Green, HR director at the Trust, said that every effort had been made to resolve matters outside of court and avoid further expenditure on the case, which came out of public funds.

“The Trust has accepted that mistakes were made in the handling of this original issue, and that regrettably Mrs Sturdy has, as a consequence, been the subject of less favourable treatment and is, therefore, entitled to compensation on that basis,” she added.

Wise Owls feature in new book

Wise Owls and their campaign for an age audit has featured in a new book named 'The dynamics of Managing Diversity' by Gill Kirton and Anne-Marie Greene. Wise Owls continuing campaign to get an age audit conducted across the country is still gaining momentum and will continue until an age audit is promised by the government.

Ageism has no role in France claims Kristin

The 50-year-old beauty, who has long lived in Paris, believes film- makers in France have a far healthier attitude to older actresses. Kristin, who appears in French movie Leaving, says: “I think it’s because England tends to follow America so strongly or they’re making films for children – and when I say ­children I mean anyone under 25.

“I’m really getting evil in my old age! French cinema is not afraid of women of my age. I think it’s less terrified of disobeying the rules of what is beaut­iful and what is acceptable to look at.”

The actress, whose film credits to date memorably include The English Patient and Four Weddings And A Funeral, is required to bare all in her latest flick, which focuses on a woman’s struggle to escape her unhappy domestic life.

“Obviously I haven’t done scenes like that for a very, very, very long time and I don’t think I’ll be doing them again any time soon!” she tells Easy Living magazine, before modestly insisting that her well-toned appearance was courtesy of “good lighting”.

She adds: “In fact, strangely, I feel much more confident about my appearance now, even with wrinkles on my face, than I did when I was 25. Which is bizarre isn’t it?

“If one could preserve ­oneself at 45 then I think that would probably be ideal – but you can’t.

“Unfortunately lots of women try to do just that and that’s where they come a cropper because it doesn’t really work does it?”