To think we are heading into a pensions disaster

Yeah that was obvious really, sorry

Really - everyone I know in the private sector pays 4% which is the government minimum. Which makes over double seem a high contribution rate.

Pension ages and generous pension schemes were established at a time when most people didn't go to university, and died within a few years of retiring. Many people worked from 16 to 65, then received a pension for 3 years

Now, too many people hope to go to university, retire aged 50 and live until 80. Working from 22 to 50, then receiving a pension for 30 years. This was never going to be realistic long term

One option would be to increase pension ages far higher eg 70 plus. But I'm not sure public would vote for that

So, I have no doubt that assisted dying will be introduced, due to economic necessity dressed up as respecting autonomy. IMHO, people with limited / no savings who can't afford their own care home fees should be very concerned about this

That doesn't look right - you could buy an annuity of £24,000 with £500,000 surely or am I even worse off than I thought?

Sounds like a pretty miserable existence! And totally dependent on the whims of the state and benefit cuts down the line. That state pension isn’t going to be able to maintain its value long term, it’s just not going to be economically viable. It’s 3/4 of what we spend on the whole NHS. It’s more than all other welfare combined. It’s 1.5 times the interest on our absurd public debt, 1.5 times the whole education budget, and 2.5 times what we spend on defence.

in reality, employee and employer contributions to private pensions are going to have to be ramped up significantly, triple lock removed and the state pension inflated away to subsistence level safety net only for those who didn’t make any provision for themselves during their working lives, similar to what Australia put in motion decades ago.

80% of NHS costs go on the elderly and this enormous bill for pension welfare, and this will only rise as the birth rate falls further and the population ages. It’s sucking all the money out of the economy that needs to go on education, infrastructure, technology, cheap energy generation to make our products conpetitively priced for export, support for business start ups etc, if we are to have any hope for the future.

Nope. They won't upset their union paymasters.

@Birdist

Take someone working for the NHS for 30 years for £30k pa. They'll personally pay 8.3% contributions. From SP age they'll get an NHS pension of around £16k pa. That seems fine to me- that's the sort of level of pension we'd want someone to have, surely?

So an NHS pension of £16k and a state pension of £12k, so total pensions of £28k. Which is one hell of a lot compared to £30k when they were actually working. And don't forget, there's no NIC on pensions, so their "take home" after tax will probably be the same in retirement as it was when working, if not more.

And presumably a substantial tax free lump sum on retirement too!

Please explain how that can possibly be affordable. Maybe 30 working years, and maybe more than 30 years in retirement. It's clearly unaffordable and utterly bonkers to think it's "fine". It "fine", in fact absolutely brilliant for the worker, but completely unsustainable and unfair on all the other taxpayers who have to fund it.

for my experience in many private sector roles, less than 10% for that kind of benefit is unfathomably low. High pensions contribution would be over 20%.

On the uni minibus funded by the sports fed & student union

I did not.
But seeing as this thread is about pensions, I did manage to get a job that enabled me to pay off my mortgage early and I am now ploughing 50% of my salary into my pension.

I currently put in an average of £350 a month towards my pension.

I will have a nice pot by the time I retire in 35 years time. However, if I don’t manage to get on the housing market I can’t help but wonder what’s the point!

It will all end up going on extortionate rent!

I don’t believe it, sorry. I did a professional degree (one of the harder ones) with 2 small kids and working 4 days a week. I don’t believe that a student with no other obligations can’t possibly do a couple of shifts a week somewhere.

You said your matches were a 2-3 hours drive away so I presumed you had a car.

And yes they were doing a degree at 16, lots of dance/drama students do at 16. The fact that it was a degree course saved us money as they now have student debt and we don't have debt

Wonder if Labour will look at that rather than welfare cuts and everything else.

I actually loved working whilst at uni - I met amazing people and learnt so much.

I'd go as far to say it made me so savvy and experienced that the world of work was a doddle after that

God forbid he should have to do such a thing!

I actually moved out of home at 16 and was completely financially independent from my parents from that age.

I didn't learn to drive till I was 26 and cycled everywhere for 10 years prior to that so I don't know where you got the 'owned a car' bit from.

I think it's more unrealistic for parents in their 40's and 50's to not be able to pay into a pension because they are funding their adult children's higher education (this conversation started off about parents funding university aged adult children, but you took it to 16).

People have different priorities but they shouldn't then feel sorry for themselves (as implied earlier in the thread) because they looked after their kids financially to the detriment of their own old age.

I am saying adult children can contribute pretty well if they put their mind to it - that's all.

This.

There will be a lot of poor pensioners in the future if they don't sort themselves out now.

Many universities still require students to sign a contract saying they won’t work during term time as it would negatively impact their studies.

I think there is a wealth of difference between a 16 year old away from home for the first time fending for themselves and a 19 year old who is living with her boyfriend who may rustle up the odd meal. You had a car, you could pop along to the supermarket anytime. They had to rely upon public transport and carry their shopping back. They weren't in a city as I have pointed out a few times, they were stuck in a small village in the highlands having to catch a train after a very tiring day to get their shop or get a job

I'm just pointing out how unrealistic it is for some people to get a job and work during their degree course. But you think otherwise

Yeah lots of people are looking at that. We are too tbh. I have EU passport so much easier.
My retire age in my native country would be 64, not 68 (both for now...) like in UK😭 dang

It is important to work with ambitious and competent people early in your career.

If your kid is one of the very few who end up in the treasury that might happen.

If not then go big 4

Much better career options.

It is naïve to think AI will replace accountants, you get paid the big money because people trust what you have to say on tax or some type of transaction.

Trust is the one thing you don’t get with generative AI

If you move overseas I believe your state pension doesn’t rise each year. You still get it but it remains at the value it was when you move.

I think realistically the job market will adapt to accommodate more older workers - what choice will there be if we have fewer younger workers - and people will semi-retire - part time working whilst also drawing on their available pensions, whilst hopefully having low/no housing costs if they E paid their mortgage off. The real problem will be for anyone still renting at retirement age as they will still be paying high housing costs and so will likely have to work longer hours to am older age.

I'm 32 and I'm not living in any expectation of a golden retirement - if I am still married at that age it should be ok(ISH), if we've ended up getting divorced then hahahahahaaaaaaaaa!!! I'm working til I drop!

It makes sense in most cases. The state pension alone is approximately 3x the NMW of my home country. I could live well without my private pension.