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

According to MN there’s no such thing 🙄

State pension is a pittance, designed to prevent huge poverty. I focus on my private pension and making sure that will cover what I need. Any state pension will be a bonus.

Who is going to support all the dole dossers who've never worked a day in their lives?

I mean. Surely it's their responsibility to look after themselves?

This.

For several decades it feels like the state pension has been phased out for pensioners of the future by compelling companies to provide cost their employees retirement and increasing the pension pot by stopping the option to opt out of the state pension and pay reduced NI.

Seems bizarre now, but company pension schemes use to be a sign of a good employer with many not having them.

In the last 20 years I have only come across 1 person who chose not to pay into a company pension. Everyone else I know will have a much lower state pension than many current pensioners because they have decent private pensions.

Add in the increase of women in the workplace paying into their own pensions - current pensioners often brought up their families on one wage, now most families I know have two working parents.

Now the cost of adult social care will rise with longer life expectancy, but cushioned by people needing to sell their homes to pay for their care.

I agree with those pointing out healthy life expectancy. That is entirely different to actual life expectancy. I can count over 6 friends and acquaintances (including my best friend) who have not made 54 or retirement - all cancer related. For that reason alone, at 58, I have downsized, cut my hours down to the bare minimum (self employed; like my job) and am living my life right now. I'm too scared after what I've witnessed to assume I'll make 67.

Are you on the wrong thread?

Honestly, I don’t get why MN lets people post stuff like “people over 50 should just check out to help the economy” or “under-50s shouldn’t even make it to that age.”

Bet those folks wouldn’t say that to immigrants or people of color—online boldness has its limits, huh?

I’m just glad I’m not into any “-ism” that supports that nonsense.

I’ve always been the type to overthink everything—like, seriously, I’ll imagine the worst-case scenario for even the smallest stuff. Weirdly enough, I kinda find comfort in doomscrolling through my own life drama. Been super careful with money since I was a teen, and now that I’m in my 40s, I own every financial misstep I’ve made, no blaming my parents or their generation. I’ve been working hard to build and grow my wealth, hoping my retirement is chill and secure. My life? It’s on me—no excuses, no blame, especially not toward my parents who are in their late 70s.

If you’re stuck and blaming boomers, use the internet you’re already paying for (it’s not cheap!) to turn things around while you still can. There’s a ton of free help out there.

People don’t pay anywhere near enough for the level of healthcare they expect either.

I have no intention of being cared for and will see to it that that doesn't have to happen. I'm more concerned about my children's generation. If things are looking bleak now, Gen Y hasn't got much to hope for in terms of housing, healthcare or retirement.

I think governments should support family life because that is beneficial for all of society.

They don't seem to, however, and I am in my 40s and have never expected the state pension to still be around when I am of age. My future planning is based around receiving nothing from the state.

Don’t forget (only read page 1 so forgive if already mentioned): state pension was never designed to give decades of funded retirement. It was meant to give about 2 years, so people didn’t die in harness. It’s also not a savings scheme. I don’t pay in now on the expectation of getting something later, I pay now for pensioners now. I’m almost 50 and not anticipating getting a state pension.

HEALTHY life expentancy

I also expect we will see a break in the hold pensioners have on government budgets. They will lose the golden protected status, the triple lock will go, and over time the state pension will devalue just as other benefits have.

Not for current pensioners. There are already more over 65s than under 15s so voters will vote for what benefits them.

Well in that case they should be paying our pensions like we pay for today’s pensioners

Do you not see the problem with the demographics though. 5 workers to 1 pensioner like in the 60s is a very different ratio to 2:1….

What if you’d prefer quality over quantity?

Right now I am concerned about AI related under employment in the future, and a lot more concerned about my kids generation than anyone else's. I have limited sympathy for millennials looking wistfully at how rich their booomer parents were, or indeed for gen X (my generation) doing the same thing, as most of us have at least had some kind of meaningful chance to work already. Obviously the implications for pensions are terrifying for everyone though.

And I will have nobody to care for me if I get il, hence why I am offering to ‘take one for the team’

You took my comment that I can’t see any other option and you extrapolated that I wanted all old people to top themselves. Quite the leap. Lots of people have taken the question down to a personal level.

And hmm, you feel old people should just kill themselves to avoid being a burden on a society that can't support them. Interesting wasn’t the nicest or most accurate comment I have ever seen.

It's daft to me that older people want the government to pay for their old age but also want to leave a load of assets to their children!

yes it’s giving on one hand & taking away from the other!

There are other ways to get NI contributions increased than having children who cost the tax payer a lot before they can work.

immigration can have a massive impact why grow our own when we can get in fully formed tax payers

"They were a generation of workers"

I barely know any women whose mothers worked more than odd jobs, here and there, nanny, shop work, part time on and off. The generation before that, my grandmother's, never did a days work in the lives after marriage around 24yrs old... A few years as a secretary in the WAAF in 1943-45, then marriage, then claiming full pension from the 80s to about 2010... 30 years of pension claims after about 3 years of full time work.

My mum always said they were entitled to full pensions because their husband paid in for long enough...

Whatever the case, arguing the older people all paid in and worked hard is rubbish. Most of the women in my family had lovely middle class lives 3 or 4 bed homes from mid 20s, and never really worked, ever... Bit of voluntary befriending in the hospital, but never really had a boss.