old age

A very different animal from private sector pensions, the public sector pension was set up to be effective immediately, and thus did not work on a pension pot principle.

Private sector pension schemes are usually run in larger companies, such as those in the FTSE 100 of Britain’s richest corporations.

What's the issue?
Pensions across both the public and private sectors are under attack, with increasingly strong measures being taken to try and reduce the amount paid to workers on retirement, and increase the amount of time spent at work before retirement is an option.

Who's affected?

"We have seen a rapid and sharp increase in the number of calls from older employees who are very, very concerned, many of whom are angry," said Michelle Mitchell from Age Concern.

Asked to give examples of how anarchist ideas work in practice most anarchists would probably suggest the collectivisation of industry during the Spanish Revolution. If pressed to give more recent examples then some of the surviving small-scale worker co-operatives set up since the late 1960s, or free schools such as Summerhill might be suggested.