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?

When I started work my retirement age was 60! It's now 67 and if this is to be believed older, I'm knackered now!

I agreed in equalisation between men and women but increasing the age when we are already later in life and have made financial decisions based on the age we have been told isn't fair. My private pension is linked to the state retirement age so I've saved up (well still saving) for the approx 6 year gap between the two.

I fully agree with you. But will we be pushed out eventually as there may well be not enough jobs for the younger generations? I say this as someone who has a 78 year old woman working her my company and to be truthful she has not got a clue how to do half the things, has to be micro managed, she can't keep up with the technology but she doesn't want to retire

Ps I barely got maternity pay, no help with childcare etc but had student loans (admittedly small) so it seems we are being stung at both ends

Life expectancy is one factor, but healthy years of life are another. I work in a part of the country where the former is 82 but the latter is around 62 - it’s not going to work well for many many people. So depressing. I do think we need to change the way we live, but I also think many people will find this almost impossible to do (based on their fixed outgoings and mindset etc).

In my defence I wasn't born but see your point

I'm a teacher and still not sure I want to teach much past 50. I haven't seen a wealth of wfh jobs ready to welcome older people in though. And have already experienced some discrimination in the interviews I've been too - how someone finds a job at 60 or 65 I have no idea...

As a self-employed individual, I was never counting on getting anything other than a tiny state pension anyway. I never had maternity pay, no sick pay and no paid leave so very much have the 'look after myself ' mentality and put what I can into savings plans that I choose. I plan to work at least 1-2 days a week into my 70's should my health allow. I contribute the bare minimum to the state pension and NI contributions and prefer to choose and provide for myself.

Yeah, I don't see how we do this without fixing our broken, artificially propped up housing market. We haven't nearly seen the worst of this yet, given that the age cohort most affected by the issue currently are more likely than younger generations to be in SH or be mortgage free.

Broadly though, I think the intention behind the inevitable future rises is to essentially means test the first few years of retirement. Those with no provision will be increasingly likely to spend the last few years on sickness benefits, and those with a private pension who still want to go at 68 will be funding the first few years ourselves.

Looking forward to dying at my desk then. So grim.

Remember, it’s “experts” saying this, not any of the political parties.

I wouldn’t panic. Yet.

I don’t know why anyone is surprised. Well I do actually, because so many posters seem to have zero idea of just how much the country costs to run and the deficit in tax needed to run it. The Tories have picked off what they can like the vultures they are, and mismanaged virtually everything, but we also have 25% of working age public not working and contributing while continuing to use public services. The ageing population has also put enormous strain on the NHS, housing and social care system. Add to that the number of children who are looking unlikely to achieve a full working life of taxpaying due to poor mental health or other issues, Brexit and the covid debts, we are well and truly up shit creek without a paddle. They need anyone who can/is working to cling on as long as they possibly can. It’s a nightmare but all of the solutions are either impossible or unacceptable to the public.

Because you trust politicians over experts?? 😱😱😱

I think accessing sickness benefits will be the hardest thing. I have never had any benefits in my life and it seems that it is going to be harder to qualify for sickness benefits, so I can imagine me and many others will be working til we drop. It is very worrying to think of living my life and never being able to enjoy a retirement, having paid all my NI contributions and having worked all my life and maybe never actually reaching retirement age, or struggling physically or mentally or both working at the age of 70/71, or maybe even older by that stage.

I think people are picking up that it's the evident direction of travel. Which isn't to say the years and ages are exactly right, maybe it'll be 70 rather than 71 or whatever.

This is how the government test the waters before making announcements that could be political suicide. They have a think tank publish a report floating an idea..if no outcry…next step is to start speeches about unaffordability and how taxes shouldn’t be raised, and the economy requires businesses get the lowest taxes of all, etc.

The time to protest like the French is now.

When the state pension was first introduced it was means rested and life expectancy after payment started was only a couple of years. It has become unaffordable for the government. If the majority of us look at the amount of tax we pay each year it wouldn't cover one person's state pension (it will be 11.5k next tax year and someone would need to earn about 50k this year to pay 11.5k in tax and National Insurance).

Ther government need to look at so much to make retirement affordable and in my opinion the first thing is housing. There would be a lot less economic harship in this country if property prices hadn't been allowed to run wild.

The reason I think it might end up being sickness benefits is because putting people on the pittance that is ESA or similar is likely to be cheaper overall than the alternatives like more bed blocking and overwhelming of social care systems. Also even the ones in jobs will be more likely than a younger person to be taking paid sick leave from them, and the state ultimately funds SSP. Which isn't to say more years of work won't be extracted out of people than is the case now, because I think it probably will.

I would have thought that by the time this comes around most people will have a semi decent private pension so can chose to retire earlier and live off that if they wish. People have been encouraged to pay into private pensions for many years now, many people in the NHS can take theirs at 55, many others at 60. For many state pensions will be considerably lower than what they will get in private pensions. I can take an NHS pension at 60, it won't be an awful lot but will allow me to semi retire if I wish. With health difficulties there will be no way either me or dh can carry on until 67 which is our state retirement age.

Sickness benefits are unsustainable. Taken from the FT:

Government spending on incapacity benefits has risen from £15.9bn in 2013-14 to £25.9bn this year, a real-terms increase of 62 per cent, and is set to climb to £29.3bn by 2027-28 on current projections. The number of people receiving the highest award, with no work-related requirements, has risen by 30 per cent to more than 2.3mn over the past three years.

I honestly don’t know how you can sustain an economy like this? I realise this sounds harsh but we can’t ignore the fact the entire world runs off money.

Esa ( contributions based ) is around £550 a month, then if someone qualifies for PIP it could be up to another £700 a month on top. Plus maybe some means tested benefits. They are talking about making it harder to qualify for LCWRA though by changing/ removing some of the descriptors which people currently frequently qualify on.

I think you’re right but there will be many many many people who don’t have a private pension, and they will of course have to be funded somehow. My sister sacked off work to be a SAHM 6 years ago, told me she has zero intention of working again until her youngest is at secondary school (that’ll be 2032), is in a rocky relationship with her DP and is unmarried. I asked her last week if she had given any thought to her future pension, she looked at me like I had grown another head and said ‘but that’s ages away’. She’s 36.

I wonder which companies will be happy to risk being shamed on Twitter for using free labour.

PIP is different again, I was thinking of out of work benefits. Obviously people above state pension age can already claim Attendance Allowance. I also think we might see a rule where people above a certain age but below state retirement age who can access a private pension are expected to do that, rather than being allowed state working age benefits.

Of course they will, the working and responsible are usually penalised.

That was the case for most, until the state pension age increased from 65. But you can, currently, still access a private pension from 55 even though the state pension age is 66.