§ Mr. Greville Jannerasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many jobs would become available if the retirement and pension age for men were reduced from 65 to 60 years.
§ Mr. BoothFirm estimates cannot be made, since the numbers would depend on the proportion of men who continued to work notwithstanding the retiring age. The latest figures, in relation to the present retiring age, are from the 1971 Census of Population. They show the numbers of men aged 60–64 to have been 1,458,000 of whom 1,010,000, or 69 per cent. were employees in employment. The numbers of men in the next highest age group, aged 65–69, immediately above the present retiring age, were 1,175,000, of whom 289,000, or about 25 per cent., were employees in employment.
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§ Mr. Greville Jannerasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) how much he estimates that it would cost to lower the pension age for men from 65 to 60 years;
(2) whether he will reduce the retirement age for men to the same age as that for women; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. O'MalleyI have been asked to reply.
A reduction in the minimum pension age for men in the foreseeable future is ruled out on grounds of cost. On the assumption that the pattern of retirement of men between 60 and 65 would be the same it is is now between 65 and 70, the extra annual cost to the National Insurance Fund, and in supplementary pensions, of reducing the minimum pension age for men to 60 is estimated to be £1,580 million a year, at current benefit rates.