DELEGATES at next week’s SNP conference will be asked to back plans to make pensions in an independent Scotland far more generous than those south of the border.
A recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revealed that workers in the UK have one of the worst state pensions of any major country.
Their analysis suggested a typical British worker will, at retirement, receive a state pension and other benefits worth around 29% of what they had previously been earning. In Italy and the Netherlands it’s more than 80%.
The motion, put forward by the party’s Helensburgh branch and National Council member Chris Hanlon, says that as a minimum, any Scottish state pension should plan to meet the OECD’s average, which is around 63 %.
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Delegates will be asked to support the commissioning of a “Scottish State Pension Plan to sustainably deliver financial security and wellbeing to the pensioners of an independent Scotland.”
Hanlon told The National he thought delegates would back it overwhelmingly.
He said: “Frankly this is an issue that should be a core element of our next independence white paper.
“We should be guaranteeing that no pension paid in Sterling will be adversely affected by exchange rates and making a commitment to being in the top three OECD countries for state pensions by the end of the first decade of independence.
“Scotland is a spectacularly wealthy country both in natural and human resources. There is no excuse for the sort of indignity that the State forces on our parents and grandparents once they pass out of the workforce”.
The country’s population is ageing.
In 2018, just under one in five people (19%) in Scotland were aged 65 and over.
People aged 75 and over are projected to be the fastest growing age group, increasing by 27% over the next ten years and by 79% over the next 25 years to 2041.
Between 2016 and 2041, the population of pensionable age is projected to rise from 1.05 million to 1.32 million, an increase of 25%.
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