State pension age to increase to 75 WTF??

[mrselizabethdarcy]

Just seen this article. I'm so worried about the future.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tories-raise-state-pension-age-18953679

I don't see the issue with it ... Assuming you are fit and healthy that is

So you do see the issue.

Apologies I thought you were arguing in favour of the proposed change.

No, that's why I said earlier that I don't think it should happen, but that it will.

And also my point about women and young people being disproportionately affected by the changes (women in many ways - competition for jobs, childcare, lower pensions generally because of time out etc)

As I said though - small child slept for 45 mins last night so I'm not making myself clear probably! Sorry

ghostofharrenhal

Not now they don't but they certainly will in the not too distant future. Getting to 100 will not be unusual in 30 years time.

My Dad retired at 65, I really don't know why if I'm honest as he's fit and healthy, runs marathons. Besides my grandmother who died earlier from complications due to a disability, all the members of my paternal family lived way into their nineties.

He just didn't want to work any more. Fair enough, he's worked hard all his life, I understand that. But his pension is not going to last him another thirty years.

I fully expect there to be no state pension when I finally retire. I've planned for this and am in a position to do so. Many people aren't in that position. I have no idea what the answer is.

I guess the age will have to go up as people are living longer. Surely one of the problems is not enough people paying tax and/or national insurance to put into the pot?

So many people I know are on minimum wage and/or benefits and either pay no tax/ni or very little.

Hopefully by the time I'm in my seventies euthanasia will be legal in this country and I can just off myself with dignity if I become so ill or infirm I can't work at all. I watched my grandmother die that way and I wouldn't want it for myself.

Surely one of the problems is not enough people paying tax and/or national insurance to put into the pot?

Also massive lack of education amongst young people around money. It should be taught in schools I think. At least giving people a chance to plan!

I've just posted on a similar thread on AIBU.

Sorry if this point has already been made (haven't had a chance to RTFT). Recent research shows life expectancy is stagnating. So we're not living longer, certainly not younger generations.

Also, how would younger people (school and college and university leavers) find work if no-one is retiring? (Obviously the reality is that many people won't be able to keep working but will be forced to claim disability benefits - if they still exist).

I also think flexible working needs to become the norm. People would be able to work for longer in many cases if a better work/life balance was prioritised.

Not now they don't but they certainly will in the not too distant future. Getting to 100 will not be unusual in 30 years time.

But life expectancy is now slowing. And people currently in their 50s are mostly not going to reach 100, nowhere near, and the proposed change would affect them.

Also the trouble with pension schemes is they depend on the younger staff members paying in. You could have a 40 yr old paying into the TPS for yrs, this money is helping supplement the already retired teachers. A NQT decides not to pay in so who funds the 40 yr olds when they reach retirement?

Also I don't buy into everyone living healthier life's & surviving till their 100s. Younger generations are likely to have work more for less & be more stressed so life expectancy may decline. If you have a generation of people who retire in their early 60s & have higher socioeconomic status then they are likely to have higher life expectancy than those who retire in their late 70s.

And people currently in their 50s are mostly not going to reach 100, nowhere near, and the proposed change would affect them.

My mum is 54 and fully expecting to continue working into her seventies, should she be lucky enough to remain healthy. She hasn't got enough in her pension pot to retire at 65.

My mum is 54 and fully expecting to continue working into her seventies, should she be lucky enough to remain healthy. She hasn't got enough in her pension pot to retire at 65.

WhatNoNotYouAgain I am your mum's age (well a year older) and am now a full time carer for my spouse who is 57 and too ill to work. We are lucky to have small work pensions plus savings to keep us going and we have planned carefully how to manage til state pension age. If we have to wait til 75, we will have to claim benefits at some point. Or I could go back to work full time and let the state provide my husband's care.

Your mum may be planning to work until she's 70 and I hope she does, but once you get to 50s all bets are off because you have no idea what life will throw at you healthwise.

Jojosm2, I think you are labouring under a common misapprehension. When you pay National Insurance, that is NOT used to fund your own future pension. It’s to fund the current pensions of people who have already retired.
Your own pension will be paid for by the young generation coming after you.
And that’s the problem - there’s not enough of them compared to the number of us oldies!
If only the government had had a crystal ball, they could have started national insurance for 20 year olds and below, without paying any pensions out, until that generation retired - and got their own contributions back. But they wanted to start providing pensions straight away, hence the scheme we are lumbered with, of paying forward.
It will become unsustainable with our ageing population. As will the ratio of care homes and workers to dependent old souls needing care.
I repeat, I think the sensible solution is to encourage workplace pensions and make the state pension taxable and means tested, so it’s only a safety net for the poorest.
Otherwise, my generation will have to be shipped off to Dignitas en masse!

That is a common misconception amongst older people, because that is what the Government used to say, even if it was not true.

@WhatNoNotYouAgain 65 year olds and running marathons is unusual. Policies should not be based on exceptional cases.
Stephen Hawkings worked all his life so I could equally say it is rubbish that disabled people need benefits and they should simply work, because Hawkins did.
You need to look at what is realistic for most people.

I think the sensible solution is to encourage workplace pensions sure but this policy of increasing the state retirement age will discourage many people from contributing to workplace pensions for the reasons explained above. As many workplace pensions have a retirement age connected to the state retirement age then people will see their careful planning and decades of contributions suddenly devalued with nothing they can do about it and for many it will be too late to mitigate the problem. This kind of change has repercussions for decades to come because if you take away from those who have been prudent then you teach the generations below that they can't trust the system. Once you do that you have a shortage of new contributors (so the schemes risk collapse) and yet more generations of people who haven't provided for themselves.

@Babdoc I understand that the current state pension is being paid out of new contributions coming in. However, I don't think the government can charge me NI for 45 years and then turn around to say that they won't pay me a pension after I've paid the contributions. They'll need to find money to make up the shortfall. E.g. State pension age going up + raising taxes or NI etc.

I'm 39 and already worried sick about retirement. I didn't start consistently paying into a pension till I was about 30 and I'm doing my best to make up for lost years but I think I'll be very lucky if I can afford to retire at all let alone before I'm 75.

Our team's PA is in her late 50s and will probably be retiring in a few years. She's down to 4 days a week and there's nothing particularly wrong with her bar the usual niggles that people get as they get older, but she says she's tired and some days it's really a struggle, and (not being unkind here) some days she really does look worn out. She also looks after an elderly relative and this causes her lots of stress. She would love to retire now, not from laziness but because she's just so tired.

We don't do manual jobs, we sit at desks for most of the day, but even so I can't imagine how tired I'd be if I was still doing this at 70. What about the people who have only ever done manual jobs? Surely a 70 year old can't be expected to still be putting in 40 hours a week on a building site, but what's the alternative for them? Retail type jobs are already competitive with teenagers/students and mums of young children wanting jobs that fit around school hours all applying for the same jobs while half of the high street seems to be shutting down.

I don't want to get old at all. I've seen too much of it lately. Family and friends who have been fit and healthy all their lives ending up having to go into residential care because they have dementia; people downsizing and getting rid of 90% of their treasured possessions so they can go and live in a tiny retirement flat; people being plagued with pains and illnesses of every kind and people requiring care to be able to wash/dress/go to the toilet. There are very few people I know aged say 80+ whose lifestyle I would be happy to have if I live that long. I think I'd prefer to enjoy the money I earn while I can, knowing I'd be taking myself off to a nice clinic, Soylent Green style, once I turned 75 and so wouldn't need to fund a miserable retirement.

And those of us with chronic diseases, who aren’t ill enough for PIP but struggle every single day with poor health are doubly fucked.

I’m 39, work part time, have paid into an nhs pension since I was 23. I feel like I’m on my last legs already. The future is seriously worrying.

@evilharpy That is me in my fifties like the secretary where you work. The pace of work is fast. I don't know maybe the pace of working life is more relaxed where MPs and civil servants are? But that is not my experience.

@lyall Totally understand being sleep deprived and not making complete sense. I am totally guilty of it too.

I don't see the issue with it ... Assuming you are fit and healthy that is

Because even fit and healthy people tend to have lost quite a bit of their strength and agility by the age of 74- and plenty have developed arthritis and stiffness in the joints. Not a problem if you've got an office job, but what happens to the roofers or the care home workers who have to lift heavy patients or cope with violent ones?

Dh works in commercial archaeology. Job involves kneeling for long hours in the wet and cold, swinging a mattock, pushing wheelbarrows, shovelling rubble and mud. Physically very similar to construction industry. By the time his workmates got to 60 they were struggling with bad backs and knees. Dh, who at 59 is also showing the effects, was able to move on into a desk job, but obviously there wouldn't be room for all of them to do that: no firm can afford to radically alter the ratio between site workers and the people administering them just because their workforce happens to be ageing.

I'm started to think I should just save enough for 15 yrs, retire at 65 & ship myself to Dignatas in my late 70s.