From David Rotherham.
THE announcement (14 April) that the States intend to make most people wait a little longer to become old-age pensioners is a necessary consequence of the way that most people are getting old more slowly in this time of unprecedentedly good public health.

However, I hope that they are going to join up the thinking on this. Unless they couple the change with a move to outlaw compulsory retirement of employees before state pension age, they are going to accumulate a pile of very mature unemployed, too old to appeal to most ‘human resources’ or personnel managers, who are just drawing income support instead of old-age pension, and still putting no more into the pot.

The need is for people to work for longer, not merely wait for their pensions for longer.

It might be a step too far for some, but I would like to see a further development: that they ban compulsory retirement altogether and permit those who are fit enough, and still want a proper wage rather than a mere pension, to work on for extra pension credits beyond the official retirement age, until they do feel ready to go.
Vue des Champs,