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Wealthy people should be ineligible for pensions, OECD says

By Conor Coyle

Date: Thursday 27 Apr 2017

Wealthy people should be ineligible for pensions, OECD says

(ShareCast News) - State pensions in the UK should not be handed out to wealthy people in order to ensure that benefits for those on the lower end of the pay scale can be given out, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has said.
Currently pensions are afforded to any citizen who has paid national insurance for a period of 30 years, irrespective of their wealth.

However, the Paris think-tank has said that removing pensions for the the richest people in the country would free up extra funds for other state payouts.

OECD deputy director for employment, labour and social affairs Mark Pearson told the Financial Times that an ageing population brings its own issues.

"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."

According to OECD figures, basic state pensions are currently worth £6,359 per year, with a new full scheme having been introduced recently which will see some pensioners receiving £8,297 per year.

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