45% of working age people not saving toward a pension at all

That's how it is.

The complete opposite actually - I’ve worked as little as possible and done loads of travelling and wonderful things and spent lots of time with my kids. There’s nothing fun I’ve saved up to do when I’m old and my body’s too knackered to do it. Now I’m mid 40s, I need to get working and earning some money and plan on doing that until I die.

In the 1980s, only around 40–45% of working‑age people paid into any private pension, and only about half of employers offered a pension scheme at all. Today, because of auto‑enrolment, around 88% of employees are in a workplace pension and over 85% of employers provide one. Pension coverage is far higher now than it was in the 80s.

The real looming issue isn’t that people aren’t paying into pensions, auto‑enrolment means the vast majority now do. The problem is that the UK has a much smaller young workforce and a rapidly growing older population. Fewer workers are supporting more retirees, which puts long‑term pressure on the State Pension, the NHS, and social care. This is exactly what the ONS, IFS, and OECD have been warning about for years.

Younger people today often say they can’t afford to pay into a pension, and there’s truth in that, their disposable income is tighter than older generations had at the same age. But it’s also true that today’s standard of living and expectations are much higher: more holidays, more eating out, more subscriptions, more tech, and a general lifestyle that simply didn’t exist in the 80s or 90s.

The real structural issue isn’t pension participation anymore, it’s the shrinking young workforce and the rapidly growing older population. Fewer workers supporting more retirees is the real long‑term pressure on the system.

That is what society is though.
Society helps the vulnerable. That is why we take immigrants at risk in their own country, send funds to wartorn countries etc etc etc

How can you not grasp that?

Yep, I pay a large amount extra into my pension and UC just take the amount on my payslip as my wage (after the pension has been deducted), so I get a decent pension contribution (which is grossed up) and also qualify for UC, which also means free prescriptions, lower water bills and other advantages like reduced entry to attractions.

It has been a mutually beneficial arrangement for you and your daughter, yet there seems to be very little acknowledgement or gratitude towards the state and the wider society that also helped support it through taxpayers and public services for both the care and your pension.

1.84 m out of work. Not millions

Agree that @Eudaimonia11 should not leave the scheme and also curious about how student loan repayment is 15% - why so high a %? And surely only above a certain threshold?

Did you mean to say that you were grateful to live in a society where the state was able to step in when you were no longer able to meet your child's care needs?

I didn't say those exact words, but I did say I was grateful. Twice.

Historically, I believe many people started work at 18, worked until 65, had a generous pension and died early 70s

Now, so many people expecting to study until 22, retire mid 50s and live until 80s. For the vast majority, it's unrealistic and nit sustainable

Did you mean to say that you were grateful to live in a society where the state was able to step in when you were no longer able to meet your child's care needs?

My 35 year old child? Of course I am grateful for her situation now. It doesn't alter the fact that my actions in not accepting a placement offered when she was 16 has saved a huge amount of taxpayer money that would have been spent on her care. That's just fact.

So you base your whole life around work? That is sad.

I plan on working until I’m dead. Retirement sounds very boring.

Not sure what that has to do with parental responsibility or expressing gratitude for living in a society where support is available. It was not a one way street.

There is a gratitude gap we are just not going to be able to agree on.

I want to share a vital life lesson I learnt too late.

I left school and went into the civil service. The wage wasn't good but at that age I did not take into account the fantastic pension I got and to me it was too far off in the future and I wanted the money NOW.

I left the civil service after 5 years for a better paying job, well I got more pay at the end of the month but what I didn't consider at the time was that in real terms I was on less as the new pension was crap. Had I stayed in the civil service I would have been looking at a decent pension now, but I'm not.

In later life I moved to the NHS, again not as good a rate as I would get in private industry but when you look at the pension, its really makes a competitive wage, but again its a deferred income and I needed the money now to cope with rising household bills.

I just wish I had decided to stay on the lower wage and play the long game. I never looked at it in this way when I was younger, When I was a teenager, youth unemployment was 20-25% as opposed to 12% now so swopping jobs was not easy but I apparently made a concerted efforted to sabotage my retirement by not considering the value of pension contributions when looking at my wage.

Do you realise that once the child became an adult, she became the state's responsibility. Do you realise the OP looked after this other adult and saved the state hundreds of thousands of pounds.

I'm in the same position. Though my son is 10 so younger.

I won't be able to work for many years to come.

Paid workers who pay taxes of course. Part of the merrygoround.......until they reach their fifties, have served their purpose of tax contributions. The future of the country is to be populated by under sixty year olds only apparently.

youre a very silly woman. you will soon likely be unemployed, like so many other - what is it you do for work that makes you so impervious? It's always unexpected and there's always a change of tune when it happens to you. If you have managed to get this far without having to stress about paying into a pension then you should be thanking your lucky stars not sitting on your high horse judging those who are caught drowning in the current. `And no, it isnt so easy just to get a job with a pension if youre self employed. and no, you are not superior to those who havent just because you have.

Did you mean to say that you were grateful to live in a society where the state was able to step in when you were no longer able to meet your child's care needs?

Healthy life expectancy in the UK is dropping and I, for one, will be making sure I have a 'do not resuscitate' statement in place as soon as I feel my quality of life is rubbish.

So I'm kind of hoping I'll be gone before the small pension I've saved runs out.

If a lot more people do the same we may not find ourselves in such a huge financial mess in a few years time after all.

Huh? What do you mean by public pensions? There's no such thing. Do you mean public sector pension? State pension is completely seperate from a public sector pension, neither deducted nor included.

Maybe anyone under 60 should press it when their first grandchild is born so we can free up our houses and get out of the housing crisis

Nah. Who'd do the childcare?

Do you know how much carers get? It is about £85pw, and it is deducted from any UC they already get

It was £60 ish a week when I was claiming it. No other benefits at all. I don't think UC existed then.