to be scared of the future? what will become of people like us?? pensions / housing related

[applejacket]

dh is 42, i am 34, we don't own our house, and never likely to (bad credit in past plus not high enough income for mortgage and barely any savings for deposit etc). we rent a council house atm

dh has worked FT consistently since 15 but he has only just started paying into his company pension as they have to now. but will probably be worth fuck all when he retires

i am a SAHM with 2 dcs, 4 and 7, and one on the way , i worked from 16 - 26 full time and last couple of years have done a bit of self employed cleaning work but hardly anything really and not doing it anymore now i am pg.

dh earns ok money but not enough to either get a mortgage, or save anything. we don't struggle day to day at all really, but dont really have anything to save. and recently i have been really worried about the future

i am intending to go back to work when the dcs are older but god knows who would employ me, i have no qualifications other than some average gcse's and a levels from nearly 20 years ago. and i can't afford to re train in anything either

what will happen to us when we are older?? when we are still renting and retired? will we be homeless? tbh its the fact we are renting that scares me the most, i would feel so much more secure if we owned our house.

i honestly sometimes feel that our only hope is a lottery win or something

I didn't say you couldn't afford your children. What I said was we need to take personal responsibility for our finances. If you earn x amount, you need to understand that whilst it may pay for 3 children, it will not stretch to 3 children, a dream house and a pension pot worth 5 million.

Cut your cloth and choose what you yourself prioritise - and accept that you probably won't be able to go to the big ol' Harrods of life and fill your trolley to the brim.

You need to think out if the box op. look at weekend and evening work. I would have lived to stay at home until dc4 starts school but can't afford too.

I work sat and Sunday, leave for work at 430am...

You have a council house so if your DH lost his job you'd get housing benefit so you wouldn't lose your home. And presumably it would be your home for life. Maybe when the kids leave home you can downsize to a smaller council place. Pensions you're in the same boat as a lot of people. You'll get the state pension which I think is going to be equal for everyone. You might both need to do some extra jobs when you're both officially retired - same as my mum who cleans for £10 an hour age 75. You have a secure roof over your heads so I think you're in a good position - certainly a better position than a lot of people I know including myself.

That maybe so bowlersarm.
If you leave a freshly cooked joint of gammon on the kitchen floor and the dog ate it, who would you blame?
The dog, or the person who left it on the floor?

The government started up all these benefits for low income families, dla, income support etc.
You cannot blame anybody claiming the benefits if they are entitled to them. The government fucked up and usually low income families, single mothers or the unemployed(who genuinely can't find a job) get the blame.
Now that's for another thread

If no one is employed (as per google robots) no one will have any money to buy the products made by the robots!

Google will undermine it's own customers base, and there by fail.
The economic system will need to change or society will not function at all for rich or poor

I get where the OP is coming from, I have worked since I was 16, albiet, the last four years have been part-time as i have a ds and i do pay into a pension scheme but it's not much. I worry I'll just work till I drop! I do have a chronic illness that seems to be genetic as my Grandad had it and it worsened for him/stopped being controlled by usual meds and he ended up at around 60 having to go on benefits as he just couldn't work with it. Full time work is bloody hard to find round here to! Now ds starts school in september i've been looking and most i seem to find is about 24 hours a week. Want to work full time so i'm making NI contributions etc but there's just so much part time stuff only going!

To be fair while 'working till you drop' sounds awful, it was the way of things until 30/40 years ago. How many of us had grandparents who survived much past 70? I had one who lived to 96, but the others died at 69, 70 and 71. It is totally unrealistic to expect 15 years plus of paid for retirement unless we are very lucky

Mulledwine- why are you working weekends if your DH is a high rate tax payer?

I will get a state pension if there's till is such a thing by then.
Dh has a company pension that he has been paying into since he was 30.
He would ideally like to retire early, but not sure how feasible that is tbh.
I would like to think I could go back to work eventually, perhaps even retrain, but it's out of the question ATM with Dhs work patterns and my family commitments.

Four because we need the money.

She said she didn't want one, not that she wouldn't get one

You can afford your children with tax credits. I presume that means that dh is not on a huge salary

no, we could still afford our dcs without tax credits, dh is not on a huge salary (whatever huge is) but he earns good money.

I'm not blaming anyone for taking their entitlements, Four, at all. But I do think the financiial strain of it all doesn't bode well for the future.

The OP has started the thread with the right idea of worrying about pensions, housing etc in the future. I don't think there will be pensions, and only minimal housing help in the future. Whilst I applaud the OP for not burying her head in the sand, she doesn't seem at all keen to address her situation, and prepare for it.

It scares me too, I haven't worked for 8 years now, i have a pension on hold from when I did work it would currently pay out £750 a year when I retire. DH also has a work and private pension that are worth a bit more at the moment.
The only thing that gives me hope is that at 30 I only have 8 years left on my mortgage so will be able to put the current repayment amount into my pension for 30 years and if I am blessed with good health retire in my late 60s on a slightly better than the basics lifestyle but it won't be the luxury filled retirement my parents have now in their 50s.

I dont get why people who are relativley well off as OP is (sahm is a luxury many can't afford - technically neither can she if tax credits fund it)

dont pay into a pension, and then moan thay they havent paid into a pension?! dh and myself earn below the national average but you can damn well be sure we both pay 8% into our pensions ~ the company puts in 10%

its like when some people on mumsnet do all the work at home and their partners have never ever changed a nappy ~ don't be a mug and then complain you are a mug ~ do something about it!!

we are the choices we make

i will have right to buy my council house in about a years time, but honestly i don't think anyone would give us a mortgage

Why? Because of a poor credit rating? Unless you have been made bankrupt and don't have thousands of pounds worth of debt now, a poor credit rating shouldn't hinder you for more than six years.

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You'd need £7500 deposit on a £75000 Council House which if you were cleaning for £10 an hour would be just 15 hours work a week for 12 months - just 3 hours a day (as you wouldn't be liable for tax). To get a £68000 deposit, you would need to be earning around £25000 between you if you have no debt.

Those are very simplified figures of course but you have time and options.

Although, do bear in mind that if you buy, you wouldn't get housing benefit if you did get into trouble. Being in a rented council house with a lifetime tenancy is probably the most secure you can actually in housing terms.

also, what happens if you have paid in to a private pension for years, and upon retirement do you get told, oh you have a private pension, you are not having a state one (assuming there is one of course) ?

and say your pension only covers the very basics, what happens if you are still renting? do you get housing benefit?

obvs no one can say what happens in the future, but i mean say if it happened now to someone?

If the OP can afford to be a SAHM and have 3 children then she can afford to save into a pension. She could also if she was so concerned about the future work evenings or weekends when her DH could look after the children, thus saving her the cost of childcare. She could then put all of her earnings into a pension fund or some other investment designed to fund her retirement. This is what my DSIL a SAHM for 17 years with no qualifications has done. She doesn't enjoy working and doesn't enjoy losing out on time with her family, but she is concerned enough about the future to do it. There are pretty much always choices, they just are not necessarily ones that people are willing to make.

Would you be entitled to study for a degree? You say you did GCSEs and A levels but you haven't done a degree yet so I think you're eligible for the loans. You could study after the baby is born and have that degree when it's due to start school, hopefully improving your chances of getting better employment than what you think you could get now. The loan would not be due to be paid back until you reach a certain income level. It would also hopefully allow you to apply for a mortgage (any training schemes your DH could apply for to improve his job prospects too?) or you could stay in the council house and still have the two incomes, allowing you to pay into a good pension scheme. There are opportunities to improve your lot but it won't be handed to you on a plate.

To be fair to Rpeg, had OP not had a third child she may be back in the workforce or even in some kind of work training by now or at the very least earlier than she would as things stand.

I don't understand how people don't plan for their own futures and then moan that the government is not doing enough for them! Where's the sense in worrying?!? Carry on working weekends, look into self-improvement opportunities at the job centre, will your LEA fund or partially fund further education? What about apprenticeships? Can you train to be a child minder? Start making a plan NOW, worrying is useless.

Your kids are ultimately YOUR RESPONSIBILITY and not the government's!

At the moment OP there's pension credit I think. People that are too old to work get a pension and their housing benefit paid for. I really can't see that changing - the government can't stop all benefits as there would be mass homelessness. However, things are tightening and I think they'll tighten more. Your best bet is to maybe do what I suggested in my last post - take the situation into your hands to improve your lot. I'd keep the council place but maximise your income for the rest of your working life to benefit in the future on retirement.

Yes I agree it's shit but where is the money to come from?
If you don't/can't pay into a pension fund, but then expect to retire at 65 and live for 20/30 years, who is going to pay for your pension and medical expenses?
We've all been brought up to expect something for nothing - spend today and pay tomorrow - but that only works if tomorrow never comes.
I've been paying into a pension since I left uni - it was hard at times when others were squandering spending their money on exotic holidays. And don't get me started on those who borrow £25k to pay for lavish weddings. But I intend to be comfortable in my old age.