Retirement for those born after 1970 is likely to rise to 71 in the future

[Tiddlywinkly]

This Guardian article was a tad depressing to read:https://amp.theguardian.com/money/2024/feb/05/uk-state-pension-age-will-soon-need-to-rise-to-71-say-experts

I fully acknowledge that we are living longer, are having less children etc, but for many, our health might not be up to working for that long. There'll also be a knock on effect as to how much we'll be available for helping with grandkids/ very elderly parents.

I just wondered what other people thought?

Well someone in their 60s with a paid-up mortgage needs a lot less to live on than a 20s something with a student loan, massive rent and avocado latte habit to sustain.

Anecdata, I know, but a couple of colleagues my vintage (fucking ancient) have got roles by sneaking well under the salary threshold. And they have over a century of experience.

And I'm not sure how they are going to tell people who are working and paying tax that they won't get a pension and those that don't will! Interesting times ahead!

... and high level of immigration. But the government won't admit to that!

@DancefloorAcrobatics 100%, don't understand why people don't see it though.

People can't predict when they are going to die , so the term ' coffin dodger ' is a bit mean
With medical advances and vaccines and better treatments for disease's like cancer , of course people are going to live longer
Maybe the government should get the NHS to withhold any treatment over the age of 70 for everyone so we can go back to people dying younger and they won't have to pay for any pensions at all
Be more money around then for the likes of Michelle Mone and other conservative doners and so on and so forth.
( I am being sarcastic, but I'm sure this is how a few people may think!)

My Mum is 72, and is literally the only member of my family who even reached 71! Four Grandparents, my Dad and my five aunts and uncles all died in their 60s.

Lol. In terms of future -proof planning, 'hope I don't develop a chronic health problem between now and age 70' is pretty ropey.

As for the benefits of working, please. Spare us. Every adult in the UK knows what working feels like. We don't need you or anyone else telling us how marvellous it is.

My dad, born early 1900s, died before he was sixty. No pension for him! Only one of my husband’s grandparents made it to 60. I got a state pension at 60. But being a (oh so lucky) boomer, there were no NI credits when I was at home looking after my children. I did agency work, on and off to fit child care round my husband’s work (no maternity leave, few nurseries), and paid a reduced rate stamp for a few years because we were hard up. My state pension is the princely sum of around £82 a week. Fortunately I have a small occupational pension.

My children have been aware of pensions since they started work almost 30 years ago. Neither they, nor their partners expect to work full time past late 50s-60. They may work part time, or retire fully, depending on how far their pensions will stretch. I suspect there will be many like them.

Not surprising at all. I was born in 89 and I expect it will be higher than 71 for me.

I don’t think immigration is contributing to this issue. The majority of immigrants are youngish adults of working age. Some intend to work in the UK for a few years, then return to their home country with enough savings to have a decent quality of life.

I think the idea of getting anything in return for paying tax is a bit old fashioned. What are you, some sort of communist ?

The gov needs immigration but has to pretend to be tough on it as the public aren't so much of a fan

62 here and have worked full time since 17, no maternity of any kind, working and caring for parents at the same time, and in jobs where there was no pension provision in many, or the comapnies went bust (lived through 3 recessions now) and wages which barely covered living costs (don't get me started on wage stagnation), let alone having anything to contribute into one. I had friends that didn't reach 40, a Mum who'd started work at 15 and died at 58, a Grandad who'd been a Miner from 15 years of age and managed 6 months of retirement, at age 60, as the work killed him as it did so many. Now I support those that have low education attainment, special needs, disabilities and at much younger ages than you'd imagine to try to find work, or training and the issue is what jobs can they do and for whom and how to access training when the costs are so beyond your income either now, or in the future! We even fail to consider that building in green belts affects health and wealth, cutting many off from the social mobility so important to be able to learn / earn / to fund a pension! The focus should be on how we stay well for longer, improvements to our environment and housing that is of a quality that improves lives and not shortens it, so more proactive health care, improvements to our education system which is on its knees (which impacts on future health, whether mental or physical) and how we encourage young people to want to do jobs that are essential roles in our society, when they are making choices that are about them and not about what is needed or valued, so paying for roles that make a difference to communities and not those that make a difference just to an individual's pocket. There are no quick fixes here and the way we are allowing water companies to pump sewage into our water sources, big food companies to push ultra processed foods on to us (issue is more heavily regulated elsewhere, but not in the UK), queues for public services, our future generations are going to be lucky to get to any form of retirement. Maybe we should all be shouting for improvements to our society now and for a better life for all and not focusing on retirement, but improving all of our here and nows.

Lol yes.

Cold-desking! The future of business.

Improving health would involve (for example) incentivizing walking or cycling over driving, healthy eating over fast food and convenience food, making proper provision for enjoyable exercise. Decent secure affordable housing.
Things which work against the interests of big business and existing power structures.

But you make a valid point @the80sweregreat - we've dug ourselves into a bit of a hole with medical advances (cancer treatment etc prolonging life - great!) with living longer (too long in some cases?) with dementia. I don't see a solution to that.

I think this is right and necessary. Should be a wake up call for people to live healthier lives, so many older age illnesses are preventable.

Who ever is in power has same demographics and numbers - and limited unpalatable ways of coping with that.

I think it will be some mix of more immigration to fill jobs, targeting pensions and pension age of future pensions so current lot don't vote against you - cuts in services and encouraging more saving in working population and more national debt.

Though health care is also a worry. As it stand at minute once house is paid for and kids leave home we could probably slide into p/t work in 60s and last till 70 if we can find employers happy with that - if NHS goes or goes partial private - that adversely affects those calculations. Health and social care is another area badly impacted by aging population and under funding.

'The article is about research into maintaining the current ratio of workers to pensioners, which indicates the age would need to be 71. But it's not a realistic policy option'

So the real problem is the shortage of workers to support the older population. There is an obvious solution then, more immigration and supporting people to have more children.

@Cattenberg I was commenting on low birth rates.

A market economy needs more people to buy more goods.

If you keep people working for longer, they will need cretin goods for longer - eg 2 cars, work clothes, ...

So my conclusion is: more immigration (due to low birth rates) and increasing the retirement age for a healthy future economy.

and fuck the environment! But I am very cynical about this issue in general

I was born in 1964 and retire at 67 ( well I'm hoping to do it earlier but who knows..) My husband is 9 years older than me and has been retired for three years now.
Previously, it was 65 for men and 60 for women, which although it seems weirdly out of date, worked so well. Whatever we think, men are usually older than women when we marry ( in a traditional relationship of course) and this would have meant we could be starting to spend some time together. As it is, I'm working full time and he's doing lots of things alone - which is hard. Booking holidays or just going out for a day is hard.
I do love my job, but like many others. it's very stressful and mentally I'm going to be exhausted in 7 years time.

Many people simply won't be fit to work that long. What will happen is that pensions will effectively be replaced by whatever form of sickness/disability benefit is in existence at that time.

No, Dementia is the 'golden goose' for those MPs with shares in care homes ..
You can't predict how long your going to live for , you can't make the decision to go to Switzerland as you haven't the capability and most of the time people end up in care as it's so hard to live and care for someone who has it.

The solution is obvious but is it feasible?
Will it not be the case that all developed countries are competing for immigrants from the less developed ones? And as those countries develop they will also be subject to the same shifts i.e falling birth rates.
I don't think any other countries have succeeded in incentivising people to have more children 🤷🏼‍♀️

Yes, 'care home' is code for 'mechanism with which to transfer wealth tied up in housing into said MPs bank accounts'