The Liberal Democrats today set out a raft of new ideas designed to address the opportunities created by Britain’s ageing society. A key proposal involves creating a new flexible decade of retirement to help ease people from the world of work into their old age.
A new policy paper looking at helping people moving into the so-called ‘Third Age’ of life proposes policies designed to enable active elderly people to make the most of their retirement so that their skills and energies are not lost to their communities. The Liberal Democrats’ Third Age Campaign Team, commissioned by Charles Kennedy and Chaired by former MEP Nick Clegg, was tasked to find new ways to engage and support people making the transition from work to retirement.
Launching the new Third Age policy paper, Party Leader Charles Kennedy said:
"I am determined that we Liberal Democrats will continue to do the hard thinking ahead of the other parties -spotting and exploiting the opportunities created by the changes in our society. And I am determined that in the 21st Century, every generation in Britain is given the opportunity to exploit their talent, experience and potential.
"We see the so called ‘demographic timebomb’ not as a threat, but as an opportunity. Britain must change its mindset. We must see older people as a resource. It is a national scandal that a third of all people aged between 50-65 are already out of work, most of them involuntarily, with a cost to the economy estimated at £16 billion.
"One of the most striking features of people in the third age is that they are retiring from work, but are still able and willing to be even more active in their communities than before. It is a gross indignity to subscribe to the notion that a person’s contribution to society, and indeed the economy, stops when you reach 65. We should see retirement much more as a process, rather than a single irreversible event.
"In the context of longer healthy living, a fixed retirement age for all can seem more arbitrary than ever before. Current Government legislation does not actually prevent people from working beyond 60 or 65, but it does encourage a culture where retirement at that point or earlier is normal and expected. So we are proposing a flexible decade of retirement to help ease people from the world of work into their old age, with a particular emphasis on allowing people at the end of their careers to work part time whilst drawing on a part of their pension income."
ENDS
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