Union UCATT has slammed the UK Government's plans to increase the age limit at which workers can collect their state pension.

With proposals in place to raise the rule to 68-year-olds, new research by the TUC suggests that by this age, employees will not be in "any fit state" to enjoy retirement.

In the report 'Postponing the pension', the research reveals one in eight workers are too sick or disabled to work by the time they can collect their state pension.

In addition, 500,000 workers who are within the five years of state pension age have had to leave work for medical reasons. Overall, nearly half of 60- to 64-year-olds have stopped working before the official retirement age.

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UCATT have urged the UK Government to implement a flexible pension age for construction workers and those in other manually demanding roles.

Acting General Secretary, Brian Rye, said: "You cannot expect a human being to work in construction till they are 68 years old and still be a healthy human being. Our spectacularly out of touch politicians need to address this issue now and tailor the pension age to the nature of work that you do. I'd like to see some of these politicians do one year in construction, let alone 50 years.

"We welcome the TUC research because it illustrates what we've been saying for years – certain professions, like construction, which are hugely physically demanding, need to be treated differently. Construction workers need to have options to allow them to receive a pension earlier."

(LM/CD)