Under-45 National MPs back Govt's higher retirement age

Youth Minister Nikki Kaye says her generation understands that NZ Super needs to be more affordable. Photograph by Mark Mitchell

National MPs who will have to wait two more years to get superannuation say they are fully behind a higher age of eligibility.

Just two out of 21 Cabinet ministers - Economic Development Minister Simon Bridges and Youth Minister Nikki Kaye - will get their pension at 67 years old under proposals outlined by the Government yesterday.

The higher eligibility age will be lifted by six months each year, beginning in 2037. That means people born after January 1, 1974, will be eligible for Super when they turn 67.

"I think it's entirely right," Bridges said today.

"People of my generation have always known there are going to be changes coming."

Bridges, 40, said "statistically speaking" he was likely to live longer - as long he "keeps on running and doing the fitness things that I should".

Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett, had little sympathy for her younger colleagues.

"They are going to live longer," she said.

"It's two years - I think it needs to be kept a little bit in perspective."

Kaye, 37, said she always believed the retirement age had to change. Many people in her age-group thought they might not get any superannuation, she said.

Kaye's electorate, Auckland Central, has the youngest average constituent age, but she did not think the policy would hurt her chances of re-election.

People understood that New Zealand Super had to be made more affordable, she said.

Those born in the mid-1970s already had the financial disadvantage of being the first generation to miss out on universal student allowances.

Kaye admitted that her student loan "took quite a while to pay off". But she said it was "not fair to not deal with the issue" of NZ Super's affordability.

She also took a shot at her former rival in Auckland Central, Jacinda Ardern, saying her party had flip-flopped on the issue of Super.

"If you look at a number of statements made, even by people such as Jacinda Ardern, they were very clear that they thought the age needed to be raised.

"They have flip-flopped massively."

Labour campaigned on a higher age of eligibility at the 2014 election, but the policy was dropped when Andrew Little took over the leadership.

Labour's policy is to immediately resume Government contributions to the Super Fund.

Ardern, who was elected Labour's deputy this morning, said her generation would be paying the cost of Prime Minister Bill English cutting contributions to the fund.

"He's effectively said that it's my generation that now has to pick up the tab."

She said that was the same generation who had to pay for their own tertiary education through student loans.