Written evidence submitted by UNISON (SPA0011)

UNISON is the UK's largest public service trade union with 1.3 million members. Our members work in the public services and for private contractors providing public services including in the essential utilities. They include frontline staff and managers working in local authorities, the NHS, the police service, colleges and schools, the electricity, gas and water industries, transport, non-departmental public bodies and the voluntary sector. 

We are pleased to respond to this important call for evidence as our members are very concerned about the planned increases in the state pension age (SPA) and its effects on them.  Many are worried about their capacity to undertake work in essential services deep into their 60s as reflected in the personal testimonies of workers in the NHS and schools included in this response.  Increases in the SPA have already outpaced any improvement in employment opportunities and support for older workers, or any improvement in working age benefit adequacy or (un)conditionality.  The consequence has been, as rightly highlighted by the Committee, a dramatic increase in poverty rates for those aged 65 when the SPA was recently increased to 66.    If the government presses ahead with the increase to 67 from April 2026, the predictable consequence will be yet more pressure on struggling households and a significant increase in poverty rates for 66-year-olds.  UNISON believes the government should reconsider, and that life expectancy projections no longer support the decisions that were taken back in 2014 to increase the SPA yet further.  Mitigation is very much second best – but it is clear that mitigation would need to be significant to avoid the worst consequences of increasing the SPA.    

Call for Evidence Themes

1 Characteristics of the Cohort

Difficulties of working into our 60s

Workers aged 60-66 are often struggling to remain in their employment.  Our members’ descriptions of the varied essential services that they provide shows how demanding their jobs are and how difficult it is for them to imagine being able to do them into old age.  Some members emphasise physical aspects of the work that get harder to do with age:

“When I started my job I was fifty years old and everything was fine. I could manage my duties easily.  However I am now sixty three years old... and I'm finding my job increasingly difficult...  [S]chool cleaning is quite physically challenging. I suffer with chronic arthritis and am in constant pain.  The prospect of doing this this until I'm sixty seven years old worries me greatly.” – School cleaner (age 63) North of England

“My role is quite demanding with lots of lifting, fetching and carrying. Some of the equipment is very heavy and sometimes I struggle to lift it, I have to ask for assistance.  My employer has already allowed me to reduce my hours to 3 days a week as working 5 days was becoming too much, both physically and mentally…  I don’t believe I will be working to SPA as I struggle already… I am looking into retiring early and using savings to bridge the gap until I get my state pension.” – Science technician (age 62) East Midlands

In other essential public services, members describe the cumulative toll of physical, mental and shift work demands from their 50s:

“As a paramedic, the physical and mental demands of the job… become especially challenging as you get into your late 50s and 60s. Physically, the wear and tear really starts to show - constant lifting, bending, carrying patients, and moving equipment can take a toll on your back, knees, and shoulders. Years of interrupted sleep from night shifts can also lead to chronic fatigue, slower recovery times, and health issues like hypertension or joint pain.  Mentally, the job doesn’t get easier either. The stress, adrenaline, and emotional strain of dealing with trauma, death, and high-pressure situations can accumulate over decades… Compassion fatigue and burnout are real risks…  Continuing front-line duties under those circumstances could not only compromise my own well-being, but also the safety and quality of care I can provide to patients.”  Paramedic (age 55) South East

Some members mention how the inherent demands of their job have been exacerbated by years of austerity and growing social need: 

“In mental health… there is the possibility of being physically injured at work e.g. via assault or in the deployment of physical restraint. There is also…  the cumulative effects of working therapeutically with, and listening to, the mental distress and traumatic lives of others. Mental health nurses need to be resilient and patient themselves to cope with the distress of patients – it is not fair to the patients to have staff working longer while these human resources suffer attrition of responsive capabilities or even full burnout.  All of this is compounded by having to work in austerity eroded environments with insufficient staffing and pastoral resources – even getting a break away from the work environment is difficult for many.” Mental health nurse (age 63) North West 

Where older workers feel completed to remain in work due to economic pressure they may ignore their own health and capacity issues.  Our case study respondents were all doubtful that they could keep going to SPA, and there was a suggestion from some that their performance levels would drop and/or they might do harm to themselves by trying to work too long.  This can also become an additional pressure on the employer, who becomes obliged to monitor and manage capability issues that would not otherwise have presented. Older people are more likely to be affected by: musculoskeletal disorders, lower aerobic capacity, diabetes and dementia – each presenting significant challenges for employers to manage. 

2  Policy Context

Supporting older people to remain in employment

In the context of essential public services being stretched over a sustained period, members did not readily identify actions their employers could take to make their jobs easier.  The nature of frontline public service work is that it is demanding and there is a limit to how long people should be expected to do it. 

The NHS Working Longer Group - a partnership of the recognised NHS trade unions, NHS employers and health department representatives was an attempt to undertake deep analysis of the implications for the NHS workforce of working to a later, raised retirement age. The Group ran from 2014 and grappled with these issues in relation to specific occupational groups.  In a context of high demand, limited resources and the COVID-19 epidemic, the implementation of any measures resulting from this activity has been minimal. Given chronic staffing issues and the current financial climate in the NHS, UNISON is sceptical that major strides could be taken to address the inherent physical and mental demands of NHS employment without significant extra resources.  Researchers from Bath University have more recently reported findings on the exhaustion and stress experienced by NHS staff[1]. 

Outside public sector employment, there are some sectors characterised by very high levels of labour market flexibility such that employers may treat labour as a disposable commodity.  There will be little willingness from such employers to adapt jobs or work practices to enable older staff to work longer.  Moreover, in some areas of the economy there has been a move away from formal employment relationships and a clear role for an employer.  Where work is organised on a ‘gig’ basis or through (sometimes bogus) self-employment there is no employer who can play the role of adapting and packaging work so that it can be done by older people.  We have seen something of this in the social care sector, where domiciliary care work is sometimes commodified to the extent that it is contracted on a per visit basis.  Where economic activity is organised on the basis of specific tasks rather than a long-term commitment through an employer-employee relationship, pressure is passed down to individual workers and households.  Efforts to encourage employers to facilitate staff working into old age assume a stable and enduring employee-employer relationship that is sadly not the situation many workers are in.  This points to the much larger long-term challenge to re-regulate employment relations.

There are already considerable problems with younger working age people not being able to remain active in the labour market. Increasing the SPA would compound that problem. 

Recent research commissioned by UNISON from the Fabian Society[2] reported the scale of the difficulties for working age people in staying in employment due to work-related illness and disability.  The report details the lack of support currently available and how the journey out of work is “paved with missed opportunities”.   The Fabian report set out key principles for reform, including the need to promote prevention and support through a national Good Work Standard, underpinned by mandatory reporting requirements and governed by a Good Work Council comprising employers, government, trade unions, and occupational health professionals. It also called for the Government to raise the maximum Statutory Sick Pay, ensuring that workers are better off staying in work than falling out of it. These recommendations crossover with UNISON’s position of prevention, partnership, and fair income protections, which must be central to any credible plan to keep Britain working. 

The Keep Britain Working Review, led by Sir Charlie Mayfield, offers an opportunity to embed Occupational Safety and Health principles within the UK economic strategy. Its stated aims are to tackle the growing challenge of economic inactivity linked to ill-health and disability.

• Occupational health

UNISON’s health and safety approach is rooted in Prevention First and we believe that Occupational Health (OH) in the UK must move beyond narrow interpretations. Prevention based on eliminating hazards before they cause harm should be central to any approach, in line with the International Labour Organization’s comprehensive framework for occupational health and safety. Effective OH policy must prioritise anticipating and mitigating workplace risks rather than relying on reactive responses after incidents occur. 

While most employers currently rely on privately contracted OH service providers, this does not absolve duty holders of their responsibilities. Good practice should always begin with reviewing risk assessments and evaluating whether control measures are effective, as required by legislation, before purchasing solutions. Additionally, robust procedures must be in place to support disabled workers and others protected under the Equality Act 2010. 

Shared language and clear sequencing of interventions are essential to transform OH and stem the tide of people leaving work due to ill- health. UNISON advocates a fundamental shift from a one-dimensional, reactive health-focused model to a preventative, health and safety-integrated structure. Such reform would help eliminate poor-quality providers and reframe OH as a system that supports the health and safety of all individuals in the workplace, expanding beyond individual healthcare interventions and the business-driven emphasis on limiting legal exposure. 

• Working age benefits

Evidence shows that in-work benefits and Access to Work are critical gateways for disabled people to enter and remain in employment. Delays or changes to Access to Work criteria could undermine early intervention efforts, leaving employees without timely support during critical stages. Standardised lists of workplace adjustments, while helpful could risk becoming condition-focused rather than person-centred, potentially overlooking essential changes to roles, practices, and procedures.   

Significant gaps remain in the Keep Britain Working review’s recommendations, including the absence of proposals to increase Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and the lack of robust enforcement and governance measures. Without these, the proposals risk perpetuating a reactive, individualised approach rather than delivering a preventive, rights-based system that keeps people healthy and in work. 

Despite acknowledging that the UK’s sick pay system is among the weakest in the OECD and a barrier to recovery and retention, the Review does not recommend increasing SSP, stating this falls outside its remit. SSP remains £116.75 per week and is unavailable to more than one million low-paid workers below the Lower Earnings Limit. Without adequate income protection, workers are pushed to work when unwell or leave employment entirely undermining prevention, early intervention, and sustainable employment. Raising the level and coverage of SSP is essential to enabling fair work, public health, and genuine recovery. 

UNISON has also responded to recent government consultations on pay gap reporting[3], highlighting the employment and pay gaps associated with disability, and pathways to work[4], highlighting the role of personal independence payment (PIP) in enabling people to participate in paid employment.  

Pensions Policy

• Long-standing NHS workers can access (largely unreduced) workplace pension at 60

The NHS has seen a trend toward staff leaving before the SPA.  Drawing their workplace pension can be a viable option for the current cohort of 60+ year olds in the NHS as the NHS pension scheme can provide unreduced benefits from 60 on earlier service (prior to 2014/22).  This might be viewed as an important ‘safety valve’ that avoids long-standing NHS staff from feeling pressure to stay on beyond when they are able due to economic pressures. 

However, all benefits in the NHS scheme built up since 2022 are reduced if paid prior to SPA.  Future cohorts of 60+-year-old NHS workers will not have the bulk of their service in the (1995) legacy scheme, such that accessing their workplace pension before SPA will be less economically viable. 

• Those with only Defined Contribution arrangements

Younger workers today find it harder to buy a house, may have to repay student loans, and have less access to a good quality defined benefit workplace pensions compared to workers 30 years ago.  The issue of workplace pension inadequacy will be compounded with a rising SPA.  It might be anticipated that today’s young workers may be spending their inadequate defined contribution (DC) saving pots prior to even reaching an increased SPA.  Instead of providing retirement incomes, DC savings may in many cases, just help bridge the gap to the SPA.

3  Awareness of SPA increase

Having been fixed for more than six decades, the SPA has gone through a series of rapid increases since 2010.  These increases have rocked faith in the fairness of the system. It has affected a generation of women adversely, and their negative experience can be expected to be influential on the views of others:    

“I do not think it is fair to expect people to work beyond 65 unless they want to.  When I started my working life it was with a view to working until I got to 60. The government now keeps moving the goal posts!” - Teaching Assistant (age 61) North West 

Our concern is wider than the narrow question of giving notice of increases in SPA.  The fact of recent increases in the SPA (not just the way that negative changes have been introduced) has eroded trust in the pension system and the impact is felt beyond the generation immediately affected.  Our impression is that the details of planned increases in the SPA are not widely known or accepted as fair.  Instead, there is widespread cynicism about the reliability of the SPA.  Younger people know that their mothers or grandmothers did not get what they were promised, and there is a need for reassurance that the state pension will be there for today’s workers at a fixed age -  that will not keep retreating over the horizon. 

4  Impact assessment

IFS analysis shows that the increase in SPA from 65 to 66 in 2018-20 resulted in a considerably higher proportion of 65-year-olds being in absolute income poverty, rising by an average of 14 percentage points. This mainly affected those not in paid work, but the IFS reported small but significant increases of in-work poverty amongst 65-year-olds too.

The DWP needs to model the impact of poverty if the SPA is raised even higher to 67. An equality impact assessment should be undertaken so appropriate measures can be considered to mitigate against the impact on specific groups with protected characteristics and intersectional effects.

Poverty for women pensioners is a particular issue. Today, women make up over half of the UK workforce. 77% of jobs in the health and social work sector and 70% of jobs in education, where UNISON has significant membership, are held by women, often low paid, working part-time, or in insecure employment in multiple jobs and often to balance caring responsibilities at home with paid employment.

We know the proportion of women decreases with age in occupations where pay increases largely with age, for managers, directors, and senior officials. More older women work part-time. The gender pay gap is highest for women over 50. There is an impact on pensions, inevitably. About one in five female pensioners in the UK lives in poverty. For women who are disabled and or from an ethnic minority, for example, this impact is compounded.

5  Mitigations

If a government is going to postpone people in their 60s receiving a non-labour market state pension income they need to be sure that those who are in employment can reasonably be expected to continue, and that those out-of-work have labour market opportunities and support to hold down jobs.  In our highly flexible and commodified labour market, we believe we are a long way from that.  There would need to be compelling evidence of appropriate job vacancies and available support – and this should be in place before not after an increase in SPA. 

We anticipate increased poverty rates for 66-year-olds in the current course.  The government needs to urgently mitigate that poverty risk and provide support to struggling households.

A problem in increasing the SPA is the huge difference between the way the benefit system treats people before and after they reach SPA.  At SPA, the full SP is worth nearly £12,000pa, with the means-tested Pensions Credit paid at a similar level for those meeting the eligibility criteria.  Before reaching SPA, Universal Credit for a single person is worth less than £5,000pa.  We would like to see an increase in the amount of working age benefits across the board

Labour market incomes are diminishingly likely to be available and adequate for people as they get older, so we believe that there is an argument that those over 60 should have access to more generous levels of working age benefits, and without job search requirements.  

December 2025