Should the retirement age be increased to 65 years?

Should the retirement age be increased to 65 years?

Recently the parliament standing committee recommended that the age of retirement be increased to 65 years from the current 60 years. This initiated a new debate whether this step would be profitable or not.

Although it is seen in the light of 2014 general elections but still its pros and cons must be weighed. Let’s have a look over the feasibility of this decision:-

For
1. Yes the age should be raised because it acts as an important social security measure in the society.

2. Longer serving employees will certainly lessen the burden of new employments in the offices.

3. Early retirement will put an additional burden on the retirement funds and trouble the economy of our nation.

4. Retirement should not be defined by an specific age as it is a matter of capability. If someone is able enough to work even after passing 60 years of age he must be allowed to work.

5. Increasing age of retirement is a productive step for the economy and will yield better results in terms of efficiency.

6. This step will reduce the burden of jobless old people many of whom are entirely dependent on government subsidies and schemes for their survival.

7. The number of people in the retirement bracket of 60 years if increasing and the life span has increased too. If the retirement age is not increased, the number of dependent people will keep increasing which will further increase the burden on the economy.

Against
1. Raising retirement age will impose longer serving employees on the departments irrespective of their capabilities creating lack of motivation for younger employees.

2. Age should not be raised because many elder people need the help of government schemes as soon as they qualify for them.

3. Our nation has a lot of youth population and increasing the retirement age would exploit their talent and productive contribution to the economy.

4. There a lot of jobs which are done manually and it would be exploitive to ask old people to do such stuff.

5. Salary of employees who will retire late will increase the burden on the budget.

6. There is a balance and fixed tenure till which one Is required to work and with such steps the balance tends to lose.

7. The opportunities for young and productive generation would decrease as the old generation would not make a way for them.

Conclusion
The age of retirement can be increased and that is not disputable but one age limit can’t be imposed on all sorts of jobs. Work that involves mental labour can cover the above age criterion but for manual jobs the age needs to be different.

Also, the economic pros and cons of this step should be measured before it is implicated.