To wonder how the bloody hell I sm going to be still working at 70?

[ItsAWonderfulCervix]

Nurses, midwives, teachers, etc

Physically and mentally, how?

I'm pretty knackered now. I'll be hobbling with a zimmer by then.

And if we all have to work until we are 70 who will do the free childcare for our grandchildren?

I work in a hospital. I anticipate that we will be working with the patients, then getting into the next bed ourselves!

It doesn't matter - there won't be any jobs anyway by then and we'll all be too obese to care. Onwards and upwards!

It is possible to save into a pension yourself you know....

I am imagining midwives needing hoists to get them up off their knees and tube trains with wslking sticks all tangled at rush hour.

They'll need to put in more priority seating.

My pension is forcast to be wort about £3.50 a week.

And by the time I've remortgaged my house to subsidise a couple of children through university there's not much left to save.

People won't work until they're 70 - don't be daft! They'll probably lose their job in their 60s and then be unemployable so will just have to sit in their cold houses with no food and wait to die.

Cervix, I wonder the same myself.

I saw an mp asked this on newsnight years ago. He said we all had to forget the idea of a job for life and when we got to whatever age leave such jobs and go and work in b&q.

And if we work to 70 what jobs will our offspring do?

And I pay something like £200 a month into the nhs pension and currently won't get that till I'm 67. Which will go up to 70 soon I'm sure.

Fuckit.

I'm going to flog a kidney and buy a boat and go and die somewhere sunny.

I can't afford to pay into another pension as well. And at nearly 40 its a bit late.

Tigress - aren't we saving into a pension ourselves by paying PAYE?

Plenty of people will have private pensions, inheritances, or be frugal with their money and cope fine.

Going to university is not mandatory. My parents couldnt afford to send me and to be quite honest I would not have wanted them to scrimp and save to do that for me.

I do think about selling my house when I'm 55 and going and living on a beach in Costa Rica. I'm sure money from a house sale will be enough to live off for a few years.

"aren't we saving into a pension ourselves by paying PAYE?"

er no...

My MIL is 72, nhs, still working. Perfectly possible!
Her son is set to retire from nhs at 50 on a huge pension... this is why others still have to work. (BIL, not DH!)

Same here! Our life expectancy may be gradually extending but isn't that in part due to improved medical and healthcare keeping people alive longer? It doesn't mean that 69year olds will be acting like 30 year olds.

My mil is in her mid 70s and she has been in very poor health for some time. She is in a care home now, before that she had home care and before that she really needed a care package but refused to accept it. There's no way she could have been working until 70.

I'm wondering the same thing. I'm 35 and training to be a MW, it's hard physical work (ignoring the emotional for this). I can't see how on earth even a fit 70yo would manage it, I'm shattered at the end of a shift now :(

Have you compared it with the cost of a private pension? Yes it sucks to work longer, but we are living longer too so that kinda makes sense. Still better value than a private pension though.

And it affects us in the private sector too - not sure if you are implying the rules shoul be different for certain professions?

squeaky - what is PAYE - isn't that to fund state pensions as well as other benefits? For the current recipients, not us now, but the point is supposed to be that the people currently working are paying towards the costs supporting those not in work, isn't it? So by working and paying deductions, we are supporting pensioners now with the view that the younger generation will be paying for us when it's our turn. Isn't it? Maybe I have the wording wrong and it isn't the PAYE bit that counts for public funding but I'm pretty sure that something does...?

....reminder: this is because we are living longer.

personally I prefer the option to work until 70, live until 80. than retire at 60 and die sooner. I imagine at 70 the former option will look even better

I fear you could be right itsaallgoingtobefine

We are living longer, but it can often be a case of living longer with serious illness and conditions that a while ago would have killed us. Being alive longer doesn't mean we will be in a position to work for longer!