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Millions of Brits face
Retirement Poverty
(12/10/2004)
These areas have suffered respectively during recent years from employers cutting contributions to their workers' pension schemes and loss of public confidence in retirement savings.
Up until the publication of the Commission's report there has be no overarching review of UK retirement provision. The report identifies a series of stark choices for policymakers, including:
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Raising taxes to pay for the state pension
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Increase the savings levels
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Increase the state retirement age
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Accept that the number of poor pensioners will grow
But under the Commission's remit, it need not make recommendations as to how the pension crisis should be tackled until Autumn 2005. Those recommendations could provide the bedrock for future pension legislation.
There are basically four ways to solve the pension crisis and anything that anyone comes up with would fit into one of the categories - to save more, to pay more taxes, to retire later or to accept less money in your retirement.
Malcolm McLean, chief executive of the Pensions Advisory Service (OPAS), commented that there was no easy way out of the UK's pension problems.
'I expect what will emerge is the clearest picture yet of where we are going.'
'But there is no silver bullet solution for the UK's
pension problems and this report is just the start of what promises to be a long
process.'
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