ALMOST three million Scots will be affected by the Tories' plan to raise the state pension age beyond 66, Labour claims today.
The UK Government wants to extend the retirement age from 66 to 68 from 2037, which Jeremy Corbyn’s party says will see 36.9 million people across the UK having to work longer.
New analysis by the party suggests tens of thousands of people in virtually every parliamentary constituency will be affected, given they are currently under 47 years old.
This includes 56,547 people in the Prime Minister Theresa May's own constituency of Maidenhead; 59,290 in South West Hertfordshire, the constituency of Work and Pensions Secretary David Gauke, and 61,753 in Chancellor Philip Hammond's constituency of Runnymede and Weybridge.
In Scotland, some 2.9m people across 59 constituencies will be affected, according to the analysis based on House of Commons figures.
Numerically, the worst hit will be the constituency of Edinburgh North and Leith with 72,331 people affected while the least hit will be Na h-Eileanan an Iar with 12,388 people affected.
Across Glasgow’s seven constituencies, some 375,000 people will be affected, according to the figures.
Last month, when the Government announced its decision to raise the state pension age from 67 to 68, it was claimed that Scots would be hit disproportionately hard.
Anyone aged between 39 and 47 will be affected by the change, which will now be phased in between 2037 and 2039, rather than from 2044 as originally planned.
Derek Mackay, the Scottish Finance Secretary, said it would force millions of people to wait longer to access their state entitlement.
"This is particularly worrying given some parts of Scotland have low life expectancy due to historic and deeply ingrained public health challenges," he said.
The TUC echoed the point, saying raising the state pension age "risks creating second-class citizens" because in large parts of the UK the state pension age would be "higher than healthy life expectancy".
But Mr Gauke told MPs, even accepting the recommendation made earlier in the year by the Cridland Review, future pensioners could still expect on average to be in receipt of the state pension for more than 22 years.
He stressed how while welcome, increasing longevity presented challenges to the Government.
“There is a balance to be struck between funding of the state pension in years to come whilst also ensuring fairness for future generations of taxpayers," the Secretary of State told MPs.
The move to raise the state pension age will save the Treasury £74 billion by 2045/46 compared with the previous proposals.
Official forecasts say the number of people over state pension age will grow from 12.4m in 2017 to 16.9m in 2042.
Today, Debbie Abrahams, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, launches a "national state pension tour" to meet pensioner groups and others around the UK to highlight how Conservative plans to extend the state pension age would mean in total some 36.9m people across Britain would have to work longer.
"Conservative MPs must explain to the tens of thousands of people in their constituencies why the burden of Tory austerity is being pushed on to them while corporations and the richest individuals receive tax breaks," declared Ms Abrahams.
"Theresa May should answer her 56,547 constituents and the 36.9 million people across Britain, whose hard-earned retirements are being postponed because of her government.”
She insisted: "Labour will keep the state pension age at 66 and this tour will help us review, as part of our commitment to people-powered politics, the pension system, with a view to guaranteeing a secure and healthy retirement for the many, not just the few," she insisted.
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