Retirement age in Denmark set to raise to 70

[MikeRafone]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg71v533q6o

I hadn’t realised Denmark was presently in line with uk on retirement age and now raising it to 70

and that’s for people born 1970 onwards! I wonder if this will be used for uk to fallow suit?

I’m already aware that 1970 babies are on target to retire at 70, it’s already been mentioned.

Do you have a link to this I was aware it was on track for it to be 67 and a few months for those born in 1970 but not that it would be 70.

This is ridiculous. How are minimum wage, manual workers going to work until they're 70? Care assistants, nurses, road workers etc.? Can you imagine teaching at age 70?! How can they transition into 'easier' jobs when they've worked all their lives doing physical work? Easier jobs won't even be available at any rate. People's physical health will decline but they won't be able to get sick pay, so they'll end up on unemployment benefits and be tormented into applying for 30 jobs every week by the unemployment centre. How will they pay their rent seeing as it's unaffordable for even workers now?

Great. So people doing those physical jobs mentioned above are likely to die before they reach retirement age and never receive retirement benefits.

Those doing less physical jobs or not working due to wealth accumulation or wealth inheritance will actually double benefit.

More inequality.

It is only a matter of time bfore the UK follows suit. The pension system is designed for people living 5 years after retirement. We are no longer in that situation thanks to improvements in healthcare and wealth.

That was the intention when the state pension was brought in.

Very few men ever received it if they worked in manual labour, not many women did either.

Not saying this is right, just how it was intended.

Retirement at 70 may be necessary and become necessary in the UK, but 1970 is a brutal cut off. Doesn’t leave much time for those who were working toward it being earlier to make changes to accommodate. 1980 would be a more reasonable cut off.

wage slavery needs to be tackled!

We were never meant to have decades in retirement though. My concern is people being too sick or not able to keep working in their jobs. More preventative medicine, more government funded retraining and more reasonable adjustments to allow older people and disabled people to work will be needed.

Retirement age isn’t the same thing as state pension age though.

Governments here have been in a long campaign to get people to make private pension provision to cover a period between actual retirement and state pension age. Introducing compulsory employers contributions and incentivising employee’s contributions.

Public sector pensions can be claimed before state pension so the gvt clearly doesn’t expect everyone to actually be at work til 67 / 70.

People without enough savings or pension will still, presumably, be able to claim unemployment benefit or PIP if infirmity has left them unable to work.

This is why at 50 I’m doing an MBA levelling up my earnings for the next 5-6 years to try and save a bigger pension pot, at the moment I can’t retire until I’m 67 I won’t have enough and I have a feeling it will go upso I really need to spend this time maxing out my brain power. I’m going to be covered in HRT patches and push through, then collapse in a heap at 55 🤣 especially if I have to move to the Middle East for 2 years I’ll melt!

I am fully accepting that (as someone age 51) I will be expected to work until I am 67, and for anyone (younger) than 48 I think this is already slated to be 68.
I have made plans and am fortunate enough that I can save into a private pension, aiming to have income earlier. Again, I am fortunate that my house will be paid off, I have a good level of income at present, and just seeing last kid through uni this coming year will reduce my outgoings a lot. I also have planned to change jobs into something less active and busy as I get over 60.

So yes, retirement age will increase.
But I think we all need to make plans to adapt.
That said, I really feel for some jobs like teachers, nursing, manual work etc where it is physically exhausting yet you face getting to 60+ and have to step away from all those skills and experiences into a (much) lower paid job....

Yes but people on minimum wage cant afford to put any money away so how is this possible. Its easier said then done that everyone can find job for more money abd contribute into private pension. My only option is to die young as no way i will be able to do my job when i am old as i am in my 40s and already struggling to find work as no one wants to employ me.

The state pension was never intended to support everyone for as long as it does, that’s the problem. It’s always been unrealistic to expect to work until 65 then be supported by the state for 20+ years. It was never going to be a viable long-term solution.

It’s not a popular view on here but I honestly think anyone expecting to retire at 65 and not work for another two decades or more is a bit delusional, tbh.

It’s just going back to how the state pension was originally designed to work - it was there to support those who physically had no choice but to stop work, it wasn’t supposed to enable everyone who reached a certain age to stay at home and never work again.

There is no option for the UK. The present state retirement age is unsustainable given current life expectancy.

The pensions industry and the actuaries' professional body have been arguing for a state retirement age of 70 (some wanting 72) since the 1980s, but no government had the guts to do anything about it. Only now has the situation got so serious that action must be taken.

FWIW, the original (pre-1944) state retirement age was 70.

I wish previous governments had gotten to grips with this sooner, as the boomer generation (not blaming them) have now set expectations for everyone younger that it is feasible to expect to have 20/30+ years of retirement.

As @faerietales says, that wasn’t the point of the state pension when it was introduced and one of the reasons we pay so much in tax for worse public services is because of the huge state pension bill - roughly half of all benefits are state pension. Add in the extra costs to the NHS of people living longer but increasingly in worse health and you can see how we got here.

Trouble is that, like with social care, no party is willing to look the electorate in the eye and have an honest conversation about it.

Yep I'm 48 and think I fall into the 68 category. I've joined the civil service - the pension was a big factor - and with some carefull planning, if all goes to plan! - I'll be able to go part time at 60 and retire sometime shortly after.

My mum suddenly passed 18 months ago aged 69, that'smassively put things into perspective for me.

@GOODCAT

article, albeit from 2024

The bigger issue is that employers are not interested in anyone over 60. How are people supposed to manage in the 10 years to their retirement. Most people that age are starting to have serious health issues but with the state of the NHS long waits for treatment are very unhelpful. I can see the benefits bill climbing enormously because people are all claiming UC and PIP to keep them going until they reach retirement age.

We are slowly returning to medieval times where when a member of the family died they were fined by the local lord, and if anyone complained about it, they were told it was God's will. The only difference now we are told the billionaires worked hard for it and so deserve every penny whilst we are lazy because we dared to get sick, old or die 😂

one of the reasons we pay so much in tax for worse public services is because of the huge state pension bill - roughly half of all benefits are state pension.

Another way to look at that is that is shocking that we pay so much in taxes to pay a huge benefits bill that comes to twice the amount of the state pension!

Especially given that the state pension is paid to those who have contributed t NI all their working lives.

I am not bashing individuals who have no choice but to need benefits, not at all - it is the whole system that is wrong, and unbalanced. Including paying state pension for up to 25-30 years.

I think it's inevitable that retirement age will rise or even disappear. It does concern me as my DH has an auto immune disease and I'm not sure he will be able to keep going to 67 never mind 70. To me this is all very dependent on the person, the job they do and their health. My Dad is still working part time at 71 while my mum was unable to work past her early 60's. I am not sure it will go if both retirement and disability benefits are eroded.

I don't think there is any real alternative. The thing I'm angry about is the inequality of the system. The fact that they have knowingly allowed working people to fund today's pensioners to retire at an unsustainably young age knowing damn well that today's working population will retire later and poorer. No attempt has been made to make things fairer and force baby boomers to pay their way.

Public sector pensions can be claimed before state pension so the gvt clearly doesn’t expect everyone to actually be at work til 67 / 70.

No longer the case, they are tied to state pension age.