The UK’s state pension should not be given to rich people. That’s the view of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), which says that cutting the payments made to the richest 5-10% of retirees would allow more to be given to the poorer pensioners, who need more support. At the moment, the full state pension is paid to everyone who has paid national insurance contributions for at least 30 years, regardless of how rich they are and whether they have a private pension. This comes at a time when there is also much ongoing debate about whether the government should drop the “triple lock” for state pensions in its election manifesto.
The Guardian reports –
“Mark Pearson, deputy director of employment, labour and social affairs with the OECD, said that like other countries, the UK faced the rising costs that an ageing population brings, with more pensioners and fewer people of working age… “Faced with these pressures, are you going to ask people of working age to pay more, or people to work longer before they can claim their pension? Or another way to ensure an adequate pension is to think about whether the pension should only be paid to those who really need it, to ease the tyranny of the maths. Giving less [pension] to the people at the top would free up resources to increase general benefits.”