Letter: Bring down retirement age to ease unemployment?
Tuesday 22nd November 2011, 8:36AM GMT.
I have just heard the latest unemployment figures. The number of unemployed people aged 16 to 24 is now 1.016 million.
These figures are concerning and government intervention is urgently required.
Is it not possible for the Government to bring the retirement age down to about 58? This would free up numerous decent and worthwhile jobs for young people. I am sure that many older people would be happy to retire early.
The future looks very bleak for young people in this country. I believe it is high time that our politicians acted to ensure that young people have the opportunity to work.
The politicians need to cease serving the private bankers and start serving the common people.
J Clift,
Shrewsbury
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What a stupid idea , retirement is the choice of an individual not a government .
People can retire when ever they wish, all they need to do is fund it themselves if below the current age where they are entitled to a state pension ,not to much to ask for is it?.
State pensions should come in as now planned .
People living working longer does not affect the young who are unemployed, why is it we have a lot of jobs taken up by EU workers? simple anyone under 21 wants to earn the same as a 30 plus nobody wants to start at the bottom anymore.
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This may seem like a good idea at first glance, but, the people of 58 who are retiring, need to be replaced by someone capable of doing their jobs.
OK, there are some more basic positions that can easily be filled, but, in the many cases of people who have been doing a skilled job, there are no trained people to take over.
I worked in steel fabrication for many years, and I never saw one apprentice on the shop floor.
This inept government needs to invest in a workable apprenticeship scheme to ensure that we have a constant flow of skilled workers for the future.
By workable, I mean training our youngsters, and, at the same time, pay them a wage that makes it worthwhile going to work. Anyone claiming benefits who refused an offer of a reasonable apprenticeship, should have said benefits reduced.
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Nice idea, but in reality many businesses have early retirement schemes. Inevitably this results in the retiree’s workload being lumped onto an existing employee rather than recruiting a replacement. I experienced this myself in the 1990s when I ended up taking on about four people’s duties as they took the “early bath”. Pity the poor soul who picked up five jobs when I walked away with my early pension. Five jobs gone, boss richer, remaining employees stressed to the limit, no change to the unemployment figures – that’s how it works in post-Thatcherite Britain.
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UK employers love them.
There are 7.5 million economic migrants in this country, eager to accept any job regardless of how low the pay rate, provided that unlimited
overtime is available. They send the bulk of the wage they receive back to their country of origin.
Leaving the EU will enable us to repatriate them all which will force UK employers to pay the going rate. Then will we see how many UK citizens cannot be bothered to do a fair days work for a fair days pay.
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