Who’s going to pay our pensions in 20-30years if the UK keeps its birth rate low and also restricts immigration?

I’m sorry to disagree but I was 20 and a specialist in pensions visited and briefed everyone at my work . I thought everyone knew this ?
im only 50 now but by the time I retire any state funded pension will be so tiny that it would be impossible for anyone to live on it , to the point it may as well not exist.
i imagine those who are eligible for benefits may receive more but the rest of us? No .
this problem predates immigration, there is simply not enough money.

I don't think this will be a problem as life expectancy reduces due to enviromental toxins and lifestyle factors. I think we will all die a few years off 70.

No one official told you that though. As it stands the official line is that there will be one. People can assume/believe there won’t be. And I agree that sensible older people will advise younger people not to rely on it and to start their own.

The problem with saying there definitely won’t be one for ANYONE in 30 years is the same as telling people there won’t be one for you personally unless you keep up your NI contributions. There will be a “pension” (call it whatever if you want) for those that do not have a private pension. The same way there is pension credits now for those that have never paid in. It may not be officially called state pension, but there will money paid to people of pension age the same way there is now.

I was told 30 years ago that there would be no government pension for me and that I should join the work one or start my own, so I would be very surprised if anyone got a pension in 20 to 30 years time that they haven’t funded themselves.

oh don't worry about that, long term unemployment reduces life span by around 10 years, so will only be claiming pension for 3 years, if that.

Feel happier now?

Yes

I don’t think immigration is as linked to this as you are thinking. Sounds like a good argument but it’s not a solution to such a huge huge problem..

Don't be!

One of the reasons we are in such a mess is because the country has been run down.
So not only do we have issues funding state pensions but we haven't the money to fix the infrastructure and the under staffing in public services - 3 years to hear a court case?
Stroke patients put in corridors?

We failed to keep up with mtce, charged health degree students - now we have to replace and rebuild, costing far more and import nurses etc.

"All row together?" the rich say they'll leave the uk if taxes go up, the m/c's say they have no more money and poor, well, they are poor!

Growth escaped the Tories for 14 years but the moment a Govt comes in that increases taxes in an attempt to fix some of the issues, its all disaster and mayhem - without any alternative.

On the other hand we are told AI will take all our children’s jobs so what work will there be for them to pay their taxes from?! What’s the point of having all these children if there is no work for them?

Robots can do the old age care.

A little off topic , but how are people from abroad who work in care for example, background checked ? Do they get a DBS check ? How do they check people from Asia for example?

My job requires security clearance, it’s quite in depth. But I’ve often wondered how they check people who come from abroad , including my job.

What’s unfair in my opinion though is the people who never work and never will do and aren’t affected by this.
Where as people who work all their lives have to work longer with no prospect of having a retirement.

It might not have a huge impact, but I've certainly read posts online from women who've had only 1 child due to not being able to fund childcare and / or university for a second, so it could have some impact. And these are the people we want to be having children as their children are more likely to than some others to become tax payers.

Despite the rhetoric, I don't think immigration will get any lower. Reality is with so many elderly, there is an even greater need for migrants who do care work. Reality is Brexit meant an increase in immigration from areas such as Asia as doctors/careworkers and nurses were needed. Also agriculture and hospitality is largely dependent on migrant labour too. Also a significant proportion of births (20 per cent I think) have mothers who are foreign born. So if not for immigrants, birth rate would be even lower.

Oh that’s lovely. Thank you.

You have most definitely been part of the story @BIossomtoes .. Actually you nearly qualify as one of my closest friends!

Thank you (assuming you were including me!). It’s a two way street, I’ve learnt too.

The last few posters have included some of the posters whose opinions I have most respected here, many over several years, even when we haven't agreed. We may not always agree on the detail, but I would like to say that I always read anything you post carefully.

Sorry - posted twice - on a train with dodgy signal!

Sorry - posted twice - on a train with dodgy signal!

To get the equivalent of the state pension by saving into a private pension, you need to have built up a fund of around £135,000. With pensions auto-enrolment, most private and voluntary sector employers, especially in lower paid roles, (say, below £30,000 pa) are contributing only the minimum 3% of salary. You are likely also only putting in the minimum, 5%. How are you ever going to reach £135,000? This is the reality of means testing.

There are also very many people in all kinds of sectors who nowadays are forced to work under arrangements of bogus self employment where they are described as ‘freelance contractors’ etc and paid their hourly ‘wage’ (although you mustn’t call it that …) without deductions. These arrangements have always been around, but they were turbo charged by the introduction of pension auto enrolment and are accelerating with the changes to employer NI, promises of ‘guaranteed hours’ etc etc in the employment rights bill, and so on.

These people are not just not saving into a private pension. They are not even contributing to a state pension because the employer is avoiding employer national insurance contributions. What a mess.

To get the equivalent of the state pension by saving into a private pension, you need to have built up a fund of around £135,000. With pensions auto-enrolment, most private and voluntary sector employers, especially in lower paid roles, (say, below £30,000 pa) are contributing only the minimum 3% of salary. You are likely also only putting in the minimum, 5%. How are you ever going to reach £135,000? This is the reality of means testing.

There are also very many people in all kinds of sectors who nowadays are forced to work under arrangements of bogus self employment where they are described as ‘freelance contractors’ etc and paid their hourly ‘wage’ (although you mustn’t call it that …) without deductions. These arrangements have always been around, but they were turbo charged by the introduction of pension auto enrolment and are accelerating with the changes to employer NI, promises of ‘guaranteed hours’ etc etc in the employment rights bill, and so on.

These people are not just not saving into a private pension. They are not even contributing to a state pension because the employer is avoiding employer national insurance contributions. What a mess.

All the clever intelligent commenters have arrived en masse. so I am a bit flattered by the attention! It is the big issue we all need to think about, and resolve, and we (all of us) need to row together to force a fair solution. Not a strip the rich nor a shame the getting by.

Exactly.

It was the coalition government that caused all the problems with their drive for austerity. When it wasn’t needed, AND when Europe was heavily investing in their infrastructure and services.

Austerity was a choice not a necessity.

Austerity was ideological and has been soundly debunked by virtually every reputable economist. Every economy was affected by the global crash and those that recovered fastest didn’t slash and burn all their public services. Even if the 2010 government had been a Labour/Libdem coalition that made cuts, it certainly wouldn’t have decimated the country’s public service infrastructure like Osborne did.

No one throws an election, Labour had had their time.

Austerity for 3 or 4 years, yes but we ve still got it 15 years later.

With an aggressive Russia, a crazy USA, a strong EU with UK at the centre is essential, why else was Putin in favour of Brexit?