Who is going to pay for your state pension/ care in old age?

The issue isn't that individual people don't have children. That's a choice.

The issue is that the pension system is built on wrong assumptions and wasn't adjusted ages ago.
So some generations enjoyed long nicely sized pensions, and some generations are just paying for that.

Economy has not recovered since 2008 so promises of growth are a lie.

Yes & an ageing population compounds the productivity issue.

Yes, the same for those claiming benefits. It’s possible to get full NI credits without having worked a day in your life.

And we all pay, or public investment as you call it OP, regardless of having children or not towards those children now. We pay education, child benefit, NHS, nursery subs. I always find this argument of paying more for people to have children a bit short sighted, esp when complaining about older people having pensions. It’s not sustainable. There's too many people on the planet and we are robbing it blind just to feed us all.

This doesn’t make sense to me, a reduced global population? yes. A reduced but largely older population? nope. Ideally we would have a softer landing which is why successive governments have chosen immigration.

When State Pension was launched most didn’t have equity or other assets. I think the age will rise and there will be tapered entitlement in due course. Means testing. For pensioners who have significant assets they may not need SRP. Likes of those with highest public sector pensions for example. Immigration how they plan to solve birth problem, and 4IR going to lead to under and unemployment for many. Reality is social contract broken, our generation and those that follow royally screwed in many cases. Economy has not recovered since 2008 so promises of growth are a lie. Hence GDP morphing to wellbeing economy, BBC futures call it Sustainability on a Shoe String, which = Make Do & Mend really for the masses looming, pensioner or not. Western Countries essentially bankrupt so now is as ‘good’ as it gets.

I bloody hope not! My grandma died at 102 😳

UC for a single unemployed person is £400 a month. State pension is £996 a month. It’s a massive difference.

If the government had kept it like this and behaved like any other pension provider investing your pension contributions for your pension then there wouldn't be an issue as everyone one would have provided their own pensions, but instead the government spent it and decided current employees should fund current pensioners. If private pension providers did that they'd likely be in prison

@andweallsingalong its a pyramid scheme, the majority won’t have pad enough into the fund to provide for themselves so if they were acting like a private fund they would be upping the contributions considerably.

Well they keep putting up the retirement age and underfunding the NHS so maybe the plan is we all die before retirement.

Home responsibility protection - if you get child benefit then you get the national insurance credit paid for your pension.

I will retire later this year at the age of 67, having worked solidly full time since I was 22. I have never expected the state pension to be enough to support me in my old age. No-one else in my age group should have assumed that either. Young people now should certainly not assume that. It's below the minimum you need for a reasonable life in old age and that situation will get worse. After Covid, there is no buffer to support the damage to the world economy from Trump's war so we will all be tightening our belts even more than we already have done.

Remember much of the west is facing ageing populations. So there will be incentives to attract workers to other countries, it already happens now. Obviously it exacerbates the issue though if we lose lots of skilled young people.

Have I? I'm in the same position at 60. My DM is currently 88 and not looking like dying soon. My Grandmothers both lived into their early 90s.

I'm fucked with a chronic illness. Statistics mean little. I may well live to a ripe old age. I won't be healthier than they were or enjoy the quality of life they have and I have worked full time in a stressful job all my days, which they didn't.

At 26/27 we have accepted there will be no state pension. Probably going to sell the house/downsize and retire on that plus private pension. Our children will probably not inherit much as it will be split three ways.

Perhaps maybe this is unsustainable.

Let's hope we get assisted dying in after all but then that's another discussion.

The question I would ask would be why does the government get to flout the rules when private pension providers have to follow them.

It use to be clear. You paid National Insurance exclusively for your state pension and the NHS. Then tax was for everything else. Then the government blended them.

If the government had kept it like this and behaved like any other pension provider investing your pension contributions for your pension then there wouldn't be an issue as everyone one would have provided their own pensions, but instead the government spent it and decided current employees should fund current pensioners. If private pension providers did that they'd likely be in prison.

I don't know, I always thought you got a LOT less than the full time workers who have never stopped.

Just kicking the can down the road. More children now, even more children later to pay for those children.

And we all pay, or public investment as you call it OP, regardless of having children or not towards those children now. We pay education, child benefit, NHS, nursery subs. I always find this argument of paying more for people to have children a bit short sighted, esp when complaining about older people having pensions. Its not sustainable. There's too many people on the planet and we are robbing it blind just to feed us all.

@andweallsingalong but company pensions are far less generous now even with auto enrolment

How did she manage that?

That’s how is currently works, yes. May not be the case going forward though

I don't think having more children is the answer when we don't even know what the future of the workforce even looks like. You can't just assume that children born now will pay for your retirement - we don't even know what jobs will be around 20 years into the future. Having a pyramid scheme to fund retirement is not the answer, however much it's being used now.
By the way I don't really know what the answer is, but I do think it's rather short sighted just to keep doing what has been done for the last 100 years in the hope that it will all work out.

We will get state pension won't we? My mum hasn't worked for over 30 years and gets a decent state pension considering. It's only £100 ish than my dad who worked from 17 to 67. I imagine it's even more for pensioners who aren't married/alone too? The way I'm heading 😂

Same.
I'd rather not live to 100 if the last 30 years are miserable