AS HE provided an overview of the Government's agenda for the current parliamentary term on Friday, Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, spent but a few seconds outlining a proposal that reverses years of government policy.
Mr Armour said the Senior Citizens' Pension (Amendment) Bill would modernise the senior citizens pensions scheme and would 'complement' what he said was 'the proposed increase in the age of retirement from 60 to 65.' He framed the measure as a gift, not one affecting their pockets: it would allow older people to continue to contribute.
There was a time, however, when the Government's position was different.
In 2018, Finance Minister Colm Imbert denied claims that the Government would shift the retirement age. As recently as Friday, its official website still carried an undated report saying such a change was not government policy.
But in the budget Mr Imbert had noted raising the retirement age was a way to deal with issues facing the National Insurance Board. He also noted countries such as Grenada, Jamaica and Barbados have already raised the retirement age and said his ministry had 'recently completed our consultations' on the matter.
The U-turn by the Government reflects the fact that before the pandemic, the idea of raising the retirement age was a relatively straightforward matter.
If given the choice between raising contributions and raising the retirement age, the latter seemed preferable, given demographic trends the world over.
More and more people are living longer. Between the years 2000 and 2019, life expectancy increased by almost a decade. The global average life expectancy, as of 2019, was 73.
Forcing people who are living longer to retire while they remain productive has been seen increasingly to be not only inappropriate, but it has also created awkward problems for the State. For instance, too often officials are forced to put highly skilled personnel on special contracts to allow them to continue to work beyond retirement.
Yet the impact of the covid19 pandemic has upended a lot of assumptions surrounding this issue. Research has suggested the disease, with its disproportionate impact on the elderly, has brought about the biggest decrease in life expectancy since World War II.
With the climate crisis continuing and the prospect of more frequent pandemics a very real possibility, it is suddenly less certain people will live longer.
This underlines the fact that the Government needs to do more than just focus on the numbers.
It needs to attend to the quality of life enjoyed by its citizens, including the need for quality healthcare and for income streams that reflect increases in the cost of living.
Age is just a number, it is often said, and the same is true when it comes to the retirement age.
The post Age is just a number appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
