Call to up state pension age faster to beat deficit

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) says the government could help tackle ‘lacklustre' projected growth for 2011, currently at just 1.5%, by increasing the state pension age (SPA) to 68 by 2020. In October's spending review, George Osborne announced the SPA would increase to 66 by 2020, instead of 2026 as planned by Labour. However, the think tank says the SPA could rise much faster: "In the longer term the government should set itself a more ambitious target of running sustained surpluses to prepare for the cost of population ageing. "As an alternative t...