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?

Is there a difference between paying into a pension scheme to paying into a savings account?

yes with a pension you get tax relief on your wages - so the money going into a company pension is taken out before the tax comes off your wages

putting money into a savings account you don't get tax relief on your wages but you do on the interest if you pick an isa, but that has a limit

if you lose your ob you can freeze your pension

if you lose your job and you have to much in savings then you need to spend your savings before you would get any assistance from the government

As others have said - it's because we're living longer, and even though the NHS is doing a much better job of controlling costs than, say, the US, the cost of caring for our ageing population is spiralling.

We pay for a much smaller number of pensioners now than our children will be having to cover when they grow up. If our DCs have to pay all our pensions and medical costs from 60, they will themselves be financially crippled. It does seem so unfair to see the wealthier baby boomers who got free education, often benefited from rising house prices and will be retiring at 60 on final salary pensions - but we will be perpetuating this type of intergenerational inequity if we expect our children and grandchildren to support us through 20-40 years of retirement.

What would you choose?

Working till you are 70 is all very well if you have your health and are in the "right" sort of job....

My poor FiL was crippled with arthritis [2 new knees which did not take was the very least of it] by the time he retired at 65 after a life time in the steel industry....my DM at 60, dragging herself into work [in the nhs] with angina, RA, emphasema and asthma.....no way could they have worked till 70.

So we are all living longer but healthier? Strange but havn't there been lots of reports of how the current generation will be the first to have a shorter lifespan than their parents....and with the state of funding in the nhs who is to say what will be available when we need it.

It probably would be possible to work at 70 sitting behind a nice warm comfy desk....but roofing at 70? Scaffolding? Plastering? Farm labourer any one? What about welding?

And as for saving ....we have paid into our pension for over 30 years and guess what? It has disapeared up its own arse [or more likely into the pockets of some slimey gits in the financal services] and is now worth less than half of bugger all.
Younger ones, how are they to save? By the time they have paid for a house [rented or mortgaged] and all the other bills, just how much is left from an "average" wage of about £25,000pa let alone those millions on minimum wage!

It's because my pension pot seems to be disappearing into thin air that Im keen not to retire at 60 - that idea really worries me, that I'd have to stop working, no longer have an income and have to live off a pension that has largely disappeared. DH has never had a pension plan, and I think he might be right...

Thank you ivykaty44 !

I work in the "arts" where the concept of retirement doesn't really exist - you just keep on working till you physically can't anymore.
Which is just as well because I have no pension provision.

My family were all builders and their bodies were completely shot to pieces by the time they hit their mid-50s.
What happens to manual workers?
And with all these old farts bunging up the workplace what will happen to the young people?

Of course our politicians don't have to worry about this - they are mostly all very rich and living off us.

I will be giving out bedpans on my zimmer frame if I'm unlucky.

I simply do not believe, and have never believed, that there will be a state pension by the time I get to 70.

Its because we spend the money, we have never ever put it away and saved the money for when we are old - spend today and don't worry about tomorrow.

now though we have about a day and a half left - back in the 1970 we ran at about a week ahead - things are getting tight. I wonder in 30 years time if anyone will actually pay the pension....

The thought of still being a community midwife for another 29 years is making me feel knackered just thinking about it.

Who would want a geriatric midwife looking after them? I already feel old and knackered at 41

The problem is that, when pensions were first set up, didn't the average person die within 5 years or so? The system was never envisaged as having to support this many people for this long so, much as I dislike the way this government are doing things, I think we have a straight choice, pay in more or take out less.

DH visited an uncle recently who is now 82 and still fit and healthy. He worked in the public sector and retired at 58 so has had 24 years of personal pension so far and 17 years of state pension. How can any country continue to fund this?

I agree that I don't think the state pension will exist in 20/30 years time

Its not so much how long people live but how many old people there are in comparison to workers

when pensions were set up in 1911 the population was like a pyramid, you had a large population under 5 year old and it tapered upwards to juts a few hundred 90 year olds at the top. This meant that there were plenty of workers in the middle to pay for the pensioners at the top and this was the system used when it was set up. Rather than a system where people were paying in to take out later.

So now we have an inverted pyramid with lots and lots of old people and not so many workers or young people and so the system we choose back in 1911 - or Llyod George choose - just will not work and will continue not to work

Vivalebeaver it depends. If the pension is defined contribution then yes because your pot of money has to buy an income that will be paid for longer so is more expensive. If defined benefit, some reduce for it being paid for longer, but usually not by the full cost of the extra years. Some don't reduce and some even top up the pension by giving you credit for the years you would have worked had you not become too ill. It's all dependant on meeting a certain level of incapacity and some schemes have a multi-tier approach - so the iller or more injured you are the more generous the benefit.

Simple!

Ana I agree. I don't think there will be any state pension by the time I am 70. I am 31. I'm reckoning it'll be working until you drop by then.

DH has been a tyre fitter since he was 15, he is 49 now. He has worn out his joints in his shoulders and knees, and the vertebrae in his lower back and neck. It is a hard physical job, out in all weathers. If he continues as he is I don't think he'd see 68!

I know a man of 74 who still works as a plasterer. He has cut down from 7 days a week to 5 though and is self-employed so can suit himself which jobs he takes on. He enjoys working and has no wish to retire.

He is a good example of a 'survivor population'. When we study manual workers we find that most will succumb to muscle and joint problems eventually, but there is always a section of survivors who seem immune to such things. Doesn't mean everyone can do it though.

Anatanacoat nails it on the head- if you're

Now people are usually qualified in a few trades so as I get older Im just going to go for more sedentary jobs. I think thats the best way to keep geeting a good wage. Dh works with 70 year olds who do half a year in spain retired then work in uk half of year. Thats what I would like to do.

I'm 35 and I'm not sure I trust there to be a state pension by the time I'm retirement age.

I think it will either be a private pension or if you haven't got one keep working until you drop or you'll have to move in with family or be offered a bed in workhouse style housing.

I don't trust any of the political parties with my retirement.

Working til 70 seems reasonable to me and expecting 35+ years of well paid retirement seems somehow unrealistic.

And it doesn't have to all be in one profession either, you are llowed to retrain, or go part time etc.

but after working for the NHS for 40 years I'll be in no fit state physically or mentally to retrain for anything.

I don't think it has really been thought through. It's just numbers on a screen to the policy makers. Not real people in a real economy, trying to find work, or continue to work as they age.

How will it work in reality?

I've known for a long time that retirement will never be an option for me. I do pay into a pension, have done for 15 years so far. TBH I'm not sure why I bother really because my current estimate says by 65 I'll be entitled to a pension of £9 per annum. If anyone can work out how to live on that you deserve the Nobel prize for economics.

Upping my payments further really isn't an option because what's left after tax and pension only covers what I consider essentials I.e.rent, council tax, gas, electricity, internet (for studying dc's homework and job hunting hunting store I'm flamed), insurance, commuting, food and clothes for dc (they keep growing) and I replace my shoes when they fall apart.

I selfishly and lazily hope I drop dead suddenly while still employed. If I don't I get to chose between freezing/starving to death or suicide. I'm moving towards suicide, that's my 'retirement plan'.

I think myself and others like me should be allowed to be sad that we'll never have the opportunity to have fun or enjoy ourselves. I think it's ok to be sad that due to the level of physical exertion that will be required of us in our 60s and 70s we're unlikely to see our grandchildren.

We have to accept that we will be pushed to breaking point, accept that society wishes us dead etc but we don't have to be happy about it. We certainly shouldn't have to accept a rich politician (someone to whom this is irrelevant) implying we are lazy and entitled if we express wistful thoughts about what life might be like if we could look forward to having some sort of future. Being wistful does not necessarily mean we are being unrealistic.

Well said grumpyoldbat

Both my parents still work and are both 76. I'm hoping this bodes well for my future (in that I'll be as fit as they are at their age). I hope so since DH certainly won't be able to do his job at 70.