The Government has no intentions to change to the country's pension age, despite a recommendation from the OECD's New Zealand economic survey.
It recommended increasing the superannuation eligibility age of 65 by linking it to life expectancy, and to also take measures to "limit the impact on disadvantaged groups".
The report stated that linking pension eligibility age to life expectancy was "essential for credibly ensuring pension sustainability".
When asked about this, Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said they continued to believe 65 was the appropriate age for the superannuation.
“The Government has made that commitment, not just the PM, and it’s a strong policy commitment of the Labour Party to maintain our current age of eligibility for the superannuation at 65.
“We have prioritised dignity and support in retirement."
He said the amount New Zealand spent was not out of kilter with a number of other countries.
Robertson said he was aware of the issues caused by a large ageing population, but said that was more of an issue in terms of health spending.
The report acknowledged the Government was opposed to increasing the age, "partly out of concern that groups with shorter life expectancy, notably Māori and Pasifika, would be disadvantaged".
"It would be preferable to address these concerns through measures to limit the impact on these groups instead of freezing the eligibility age for everyone. One such measure could be to provide the pension on a means-tested basis from age 65 until the life expectancy-linked eligibility age, at which point the pension would no longer be means tested."
Green Party senior citizen spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March called the conversation around lifting the retirement age, a red herring.
He said the answer was not to lift the age, rather it would be more effective to tax wealth and to broaden income support systems.
When asked about means testing superannuation, Menéndez March said it could be "cumbersome and not particularly effective way distribute wealth".
"The goal should be to have an income support system that is universal."
The Green Party's policy on wealth tax remained set at 1 per cent on net wealth over $1 million and 2 per cent on net wealth over $2m.
He said he was concerned around lifting the age, due to populations such as Māori and Pacific more likely to be working through to 65 and have a lower life expectancy.
"We're more likely to put them in hardship, therefore into poverty."
National's Christopher Luxon had not read the report yet but said National's policy to increase the age progressively to 67 from July 1 2037 remained.
Former MP Peter Dunne unsuccessfully proposed a flexible superannuation in 2013, which would have allowed people aged 60 - 64 to receive the Super at a reduced rate and people aged 66 -7 0 to received a higher Super than at 65. The rate would have remained unchanged for a person’s lifetime.
The Labour Party previously had a policy to gradually raise the age of NZ Super to 67. But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern maintained keeping it at 65 during her first term, her coalition agreement with NZ First specifying it is to be kept at that age.
A report by the NZ Initiative in 2018 found the NZ Superannuation model produced low poverty rates for the elderly, was relatively affordable and was simple and efficient.
However, it said this did not necessarily mean the current model was the best redistribution of resources in the future.
It made recommendations such as linking pension age to health expectancy and indexing it to Consumer Price Index (CPI) rather than CPI and wages.
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