§ Mr. Nichollsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he now has any proposals to introduce a common retirement age for men and women; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Newton[pursuant to his reply, 25 February 1986, c. 540]: In the Government's Green Paper on "Reform of Social Security" (Cmnd. 9518) we made it clear that our preference was for a flexible age of retirement between defined limits rather than a rigid single age for both men and women. We believe that such flexibility is important to increase individual freedom of choice. As the White Paper on reform of social security noted, consultation on the Green Paper produced no useful suggestions on how the substantial initial costs of this development could be met.
We are continuing to consider how best to achieve our objectives in this area.