Government to conduct review into state pension age

[lookingforwardtoautumn2]

https://news.sky.com/story/government-to-conduct-early-review-into-state-pension-age-13399571

Some news sites are saying the rise to 68 may be brought forward.

It doesn’t really make sense when they’re also saying pensioners will be poorer in the future compared to those today. Why is the answer to raise the age further?..

The SPA is 68 for me at the moment but I wouldn’t be surprised if it rises into the 70s, especially if they keep the triple lock.

When the state pension came in the first too receive it were those that largely left school aged 12. So many had to work from age 12 to 65 to receive it = 53 years of work.

That's nonsense though, the majority of adults didn't work from age 12 to 65. And completely ignores how the role of women in the workplace has changed. Plus it used to be 60 for women...

Nowadays most people don't leave school (uni if you will) until aged 21 and currently will get the state pension at 68 = 47 years.

My state pension age is 68, I had a Saturday job & started paying NI from 15 or 16, I am not unusual.

It also ignores the fact that the majority won't have paid enough for their pension if you think logically about what the pension is and average salaries.

i am gloomy about it on a country wide level because if Labour cannot manage this issue with a huge majority then we will get a government that is probably even less sympathetic to human frailty post 2029.

But we can’t admit something about the UK which is that the majority of working people are not net contributors in tax, and if you want a welfare state like we have now then you need cuts, tax increases and more people working. You need all of those just to keep what we have. I do not think this government will manage it. They cannot deliver even the WFA cut.

But do people have to be housed by the taxpayer?

Well they do when earnings don't cover extortionate rent, unless you want increased numbers of homeless people on the streets.

But do people have to be housed by the taxpayer?

What would be the alternative? And again we did it for previous generations

taxpayers money shouldn't be getting funnelled into landlords hands though.

Well you can see that coming a mile off. You’ll change the cap on housing benefit and reduce what is paid out. You get a room, not a flat. You get the benefit but you get much less.

Actually the House price to salary ratio has increased markedly since the 1960s in virtually all parts of the country, plenty of graphs out there to give you the facts and why the current generation struggle to buy vs 30-40 years ago. Plenty of people can no longer afford it and often where the jobs actually are.

Isn't the majority of PIP spend on the 50-state pension age bracket? I don't know how you reduce that tbh.

It’s still non pension welfare - it is unarguably unsustainable.

It’s hard to see an exact breakdown, but it seems actually no it’s mental health issues for younger people driving the rapid increase https://ifs.org.uk/publications/health-related-benefit-claims-post-pandemic-uk-trends-and-global-context

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/cost-of-living/dwp-issues-pip-claimant-update-31877060?intsource=amppcontinuereading&inttmedium=amp&intcampaign=continueereadingbutton#amp-readmore-target

there's a breakdown here, it's increased amongst the young but majority goes to older people

"By contrast, 45-59 year-olds made up 29.9% of claimants in April, down from 37.2% in 2019. The figure for 60-74 year-olds has risen slightly over this period, from 29.3% to 30.8%."

@tramtracks why is pension welfare sustainable though?

If people are disabled, renting, ill, old we can't really not support them. It will just increase healthcare spend.

I agree with this and it seems fair. My retirement age is 67 and I will have worked for 46 qualifying years plus 3 at uni.

The large part of it isn’t pension ‘welfare ‘ but pensions payable to government workers who contributed to their pensions in lieu of salary sacrifices etc. for example the average soldier’s salary is say 10-15% less because the gov considers that this would be their contribution to their pension. It would be extremely difficult to lower these pension payments.

Probably the gov could abandon triple lock of the state pension and increase the state pension age but it won’t be enough to get this total welfare bill down.

Oh that’s interesting. So we’d say roughly 50% would be age 50-74, and roughly 50% would be 18-50. That’s surprising, thank you, I couldn’t find an age breakdown in the figures

I couldn't find a government source.

– What takes up the biggest share of the welfare budget?
Spending on pensioners.
Some £150.7 billion was spent on pensioners in 2024/25, accounting for nearly half (48%) of the total welfare budget.
Besides the state pension, this spending also includes pensioner housing benefit, pension credit and the winter fuel payment.

The next largest chunk of spending goes on Universal Credit, which made up 28% of the 2024/25 budget (£87.8 billion

Why is welfare spending rising?
The OBR identifies two main drivers of the increase.
The first is higher spending on pensioners.
This is because of the UK’s ageing population and the “triple lock”,

Of the forecast £60.4 billion extra spending on welfare in 2029/30, pensioners are responsible for just over half of the amount, at £31.3 billion (51%)

Spending on disability benefits, which includes disability living allowance and personal independence payments, accounts for £14.9 billion (25%) of the £60.4 billion extra spending on welfare in 2029/30.

They aren't in gov at the moment - I'm just commenting on the present situation. Weak leadership from Kier Starmer who can't get any spending reforms through without a rebellion and then him backtracking.

Yes - Thatchers ridiculous policy of allowing social housing to be sold off so cheaply and then not replace it.

All of this is irrelevant if the Gov can get the economy growing. More growth and less cuts. Post Brexit I think the only option is to turn ourselves into a low taxation economy and become the Singapore of Europe.

There's a lot of chat on here about why young people should push the gov to crack down on welfare spending.

Just to say as a young person in my 20s a lot of welfare spending say universal credit is housing benefit, pensions and paying universal credit to people IN work, wages in this country are low I have a friend who works in tech for a US company and her US colleague told her they opened up in the UK because they can pay lower wages in the uk.

Councils are going bankrupt because of adult social care costs and the huge spending on temporary accommodation because private renting is crazy expensive.

We actually have the least generous spending in the OECD on welfare spending

Thank you, I'm glad you can see the bigger picture. What does make me wonder about all this debate regarding increasing the retirement age is this:

Which age group is it who is expected by the state (and quite often their own family) to step up and care for their very elderly and frail relatives in their 80's and 90's?

Well I never. If it isn't the very people aged 60 plus who would normally have had the time if they were so inclined.

@blacksax

That's a very good point.

I have already commented with a list of reasons why Labour's idea is not feasible.

But it makes to add to that that indeed people in their 60s who often are expected to look after older relatives will no longer be able to do that if they can't retire and have to continue to work until 70 just to survive.

Then it means that the government will need to pick up the care bills for people in their 80s/90s more than they do now.

Yet another concept that Reeves seems unable to grasp.