Changing the retirement age in an independent Scotland would be affordable, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has insisted.
A Scottish Government paper published today will set out plans for the Scottish Parliament to determine the state pension age in the event of a Yes vote in next September’s referendum.
The UK Government controls state pension policy and the retirement age is due to rise to 66 for men and women from 2018, and 67 from 2026.
The paper says that the “rapid” move to 67 is a concern and fails to take into account that life expectancy in Scotland is lower than in the UK as a whole.
An expert commission would be set up in the first year of an independent Scotland to consider “the appropriate pace of further change to the retirement age beyond 66, taking account of Scottish circumstances”, Ms Sturgeon said.
Halting the rise of the state retirement age would cost Scotland £6 billion in extra benefit expenditure over the period 2026 to 2036, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Ms Sturgeon told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme that the cost would depend on the recommendations of the expert commission.
“We need access to the DWP data; that is why I want to see an expert commission that can look carefully at these things,” she said.
“I suspect like many things we hear from the No campaign there’s an exaggeration involved there.
“It’s right though that we get the opportunity in Scotland to look at these things and take decisions based on what we think is right for Scotland.
“I am not persuaded of the timescale that the current UK Government has set for the increase to 67. I believe a different timescale for Scotland will be affordable.
“Obviously we need to take proper decisions when the expert commission has looked at this carefully to know the number of years that we would advocate changing that from.”
Life expectancy in Scotland for males born this year is 2.5 years lower than the UK average and 1.8 years lower for females, the Scottish Government said.
Ms Sturgeon said the Government was not “shirking” from tackling the issue.
“It is not either or. Of course we are working hard to improve Scottish life expectancy and it is improving,” she said.
“We’ve got a range of actions to tackle some of the reasons that people in Scotland tend to die younger.
“That’s why we’ve taken action, as did the previous Scottish administration, on smoking; that’s why we’re trying to take action on alcohol; we are targeting the big killers like heart disease and cancer; we are focusing very much on healthy life expectancy.
“That is all very, very important but we can’t deny the reality that people face; that in Scotland we still have lower life expectancy and that means that decision and the pension age should be based on those circumstances.”
Labour’s pensions spokesman Gregg McClymont accused the SNP of taking a “flat earth approach to pensions”.
Mr McClymont told The Courier: “The UK pension system is built, is sustainable and it has the spread of population that allows us to pool risks and share resources and Scotland unwinding from that pension system has costs and complexities.”
He added: “It’s not that problems can’t be solved but your starting point has to face the facts, not wish them away. It is in that sense that the Scottish Government do resemble a flat earth society. They are almost the last people standing claiming that the challenge of an aging society can be denied.”