To think pensions need huge reform?

Why would this piss off older people? They are already claiming their pensions. It will piss off younger people, who will have to wait till they are 75 surely?

Call me suspicious, but I think this is their work!

There are at least 3 pensioner bashing threads going. Why aren't you all at work?

How about Starbucks paying more than £0 corporation tax (£556 million in sales) to start with?

Also popping on to the third pensioner bashing thread today (nudge theory truly in action) to remind people that the state pension costs roughly the same amount as the interest this government pays on its loans.

You’re all shouting at the wrong people.

No I sit with my coat on in the house as I can’t afford to have my oil heating on a lot. Also have arthritis.

There’s not just pensioners who are affected by high prices etc, but they get the majority of benefits as they go out and vote.

I am 61
When I was about 30 I reckoned there was a fair chance the state pension would not exist by the time I reached my 60s so made my pension arrangements on that basis
So now assume changes in the next 6 years it will be a bit of a bonus for me
I think the current system is sustainable but we would all have to pay more tax

Slightly irrigated at people saying people in their 60 s can’t woRk
i am working as hard as ever and have no plans to retire

Frankly, I wouldn't begrudge Lord Sugar his state pension if he claimed it. He has presumably paid NI for more than 35 years, so like the rest of us deserves it.

OP wants to take money from the those who have worked, so more can be given to those who don't work or don't work, much. Most who qualify for a state pension have worked full-time for 35 years or more and would consider that they have deserved something in return. OP would like to turn us into grateful beggars. Sounds like a leftist to me.

Climate change is by far the most important thing any government should be dealing with right now, otherwise the generations after ours won't even get to retirement age.

I would be no better off be my larger private pension would mean I d get less state pension
son might as well have smaller private pension and get more state pension

also the flaw in your plan is in manual trade are they really going to be capable at 69. -70 to do the job

I paid into my state pension from 18 to 57. I paid £3k to top up to almost full state pension. Now they've not raised the tax thresholds Im dragged into paying g 40% tax ... so ive paid a hefty lump sum to pay more tax. Its bloody madness.

How old are you OP? I’m guessing that you haven’t had much experience of working after the age of 60? I have. I’m now off sick because I simply cannot cope physically or mentally with the high levels of stress in my role. Unlikely to return to work and struggling to find an alternative.

Hold up you think it's unfair to start with the boomers? The generation that owns 55% of property in the country but fair to dump the burden on millennials and gen z who have been plagued with job insecurity, predatory rent, student debt and are facing a world where they're replaced by AI.

I have to disagree with you, @arethereanyleftatall - it is expensive being frail - if you can’t do all the simple things, like shopping or housework in the way you used to, you may well need to get help with these things - and that help is not cheap.

Its possible that fit and healthy people with office or WFH jobs could be working at 75. Less likely for manual workers with heavy physical jobs. Like it not, for most of us, the body weakens and health declines.

I wonder what age you are OP. Many of us in our 50s/60s were effectively promised that we'd get a state pension at some point and planned with that income in mind. Not everyone has a generous occupational plan or the plan hasn't delivered as it should have. Successive governments have been changing the goalposts and you want to change it even further.

Do you have extremely well-off retired parents by any chance or if they aren't would you be happy to see them struggle.

YABU to obsess over reducing public spending. The UK already spends a lot less per GDP on this than most other European countries. This race to the bottom in the U.K. is incredibly grim. Allow older people to retire and live in peace. Consider that billionaires wealth is spiralling and they’re paying zero tax. The rich are getting astronomically richer at our expense, quite literally.

Disagree about raising the pension age.

The only change that actually needs to happen is to change the state pension so that it increases in line with average earnings. If that happened, the pension system would become more affordable, pensions would be guaranteed to keep pace with the economy (rather than faster) and Uk borrowing costs are likely to fall as government spending is under control. It would be a massive win for everyone - including pensioners who would still get increases which are higher than inflation.

So currently my plan is to tighten my belt I pick up extra work to boast my pension for the next 10 years I might as well not bother because your plan would take any extra off me
I might as well have more free time work less and spend more now

I think we need to get rid of the triple lock - it's done its job. I think it's fair for the state pension age to rise a bit, so people spend about the same proportion of time in retirement vs working as previous generations did, and taking account of life expectancy now.

To pull other levers, we could make sure that women don't get penalised for having children, men share the load and we subsidise childcare more, so that we encourage birth rates to go up. If we don't do that, we will need to encourage more immigration so we have more young tax payers to support pensioners.

We could also spend more on preventative health and encourage people to exercise more, eat more plants and wholefoods (like in Denmark) and drink less so that they stay healthier for longer.

Ten years is no time at all for someone to pay into a pension to replace the already meagre state pension. People would never have enough and would end up on pension credit, which costs much more than the state pension because it opens up council tax discounts, warm home, winter fuel allowance and lots of other benefits alongside, so would cost more than the state pension.

You could only make state pension reform work if you start with the generation currently starting work. Everyone else’s saving is predicated on there being a state pension, albeit not until an increasingly advanced age. The advent of mandatory workplace pensions is a good thing, but great swathes of people on minimum wage won’t have a hope of building sufficient funds to live on in retirement without a state pension.

I am a firm believer in the social contract and that we owe our elderly a decent retirement. You could set up a very expensive means-testing system, but that would increase the overall bill. Or you could introduce a special tax band for pensioners so that all those with a modest workplace pension could keep that in its entirety alongside their state pension, and avoid needing additional state help in the form of other benefits. Then you’d still be taxing the wealthiest pensioners, about whom everyone complains, but allowing everyone else to keep the pensions they worked for and based their retirement plans around.