The pension expert on the increase: "A step in a longer working life"

Today, a higher retirement age was voted on by the Riksdag. Mikael Nyman is editor-in-chief of the magazine Pension News and an expert on pension issues. He explains that raising the retirement age for the general pension and the LAS age is about managing our living longer.

The age for when you have the right to start taking out your general pension is increased, from the age of 61 to 62. At the same time, the age limit is increased for how long you have the right to retain your employment, the so-called LAS age, from 67 to 68 years of age. The changes will take effect next year.

- This is part of a longer working life. Pensions will not suffice if people are retired anymore, says Mikael Nyman.

The age limit for the right to start taking out their public pension is increased, from the age of 61 to 62. Who is affected by this?

- There are few who are affected by this change because there are few who go so early, he says and continues:

- But a qualified guess is that it can affect women who want to retire at the same time as their husbands, since women are often younger than their husbands.

Women often receive lower pensions than men, which is due to several things, says Mikael Nyman. For starters, women often have lower wages than men. But another, less-mentioned factor is that women sometimes choose to retire at the same time as their older partner, which means that they have fewer paid-in years for their retirement. It also means that they have more years ahead of them to live on the money spent. The Riksdag's decision today thus counteracts this to some extent.

Mikael Nyman points out that the usual thing now is to "flex" his pension. You lose less working time in the last years of your professional life and therefore few people usually start taking out their general pension at 61, and as of next year, 62 years of age.

The age limit for how long you have the right to retain your employment is raised from the age of 67 to 68. What does this mean?

- This means that the right for the employee to continue working, that is, the employee's severance obligation is moved up, he says and continues:

- This is not like Swedish employers' organizations. They do not think that the state should decide such a thing, but they want to settle it in the workplace.

Mikael Nyman says that it is mainly high-paid and well-educated people who work for a long time and that it is mainly those who can be affected.