Economic gains from robotics should be used to lower the state pension age, according to a report from the Trades Union Congress.
The report, Shaping Our Digitial future, looked at how the rise of artificial intelligence and digitiation will affect the workforce, disrupting the types of jobs that people do.
The TUC suggested the government, business and trade unions must work together to mitigate disruption to working people’s lives, and give working people a chance to benefit.
It suggested using gains from higher productivity to stop planned increases in the state pension age, which are set to affect millions of people in their 40s.
“With the UK failing to make productivity gains in the last decade, we need to make the most of the economic opportunities that new technologies are offering. Robots and AI could let us produce more for less, boosting national prosperity. But we need a debate about who benefits from this wealth, and how workers get a fair share,” TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said.
In July the government said the state pension age will rise faster than had been planned.
Under laws introduced by the last Labour government, the state pension age was due to increase to 68 between 2044 and 2046 but that timetable has been brought forward so the state pension age increases to 68 between 2037 and 2039.
Tim Holmes, chartered financial consultant at Salisbury House Wealth, said the state pension age would still keep rising.
“People are living longer and that puts more strain on the pension and this will only in my view get worse,” he said. But he added that younger people are more switched on to saving on to retirement
“In my day to day experience younger people are more switched on to saving for retirement than they ever have been and more than people in their 30’s and 40’s. Pensions received a bed press which I feel is undeserved and this has put that age group off and they feel property is better as its visible.
"Tax efficiency and good growth coupled with perhaps using a Sipp to even perhaps buy a property makes pensions very efficient and all the clients that we have using this method are more than happy with pensions and their benefits,” he said.
rosie.murraywest@ft.com
