To cry over state pension age speculation rise to 75-81

[feellikeahugefailure]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/georgeosborne/12179375/Work-till-youre-75-or-even-81-under-Government-review-of-state-pension-age.html

Where has it all gone wrong? My parents could buy a home one one income for 3 times annual wage. Dad retired at 55, mum never needed to work and has been claiming a state pension for over a decade since 60. I do a similar job to my dad.

Where I live the average house price is 13 times my wage. My pension I've been paying into for over 10 years will if I keep paying into it for almost 40 more years give me 2'000 a year if it does averagely and 1'000 if it does poorly, and it probably will do poorly. Then no state pension until I'm about to drop dead. Can't afford a house or to put money away for retirement.

too many people

And it will only get worse.

Ha, they used that figure to get everyone in a flap and to raise their own profile. Looking at this thread it's been a very effective ploy. Well done them.

But barefoot there has been a surplus for years and still is one , if NI contributions are raised and that money is used to maintain the surplus, as has been done for many years , what is the problem ?

I assume because the amount by which NI would have to be raised would be completely unpalatable to workers, and unfair compared to increased income tax on all, including non workers.

Here are the NI rates

www.gov.uk/national-insurance-rates-letters/contribution-rates

In 50 years time you won't need to work. First world economies will largely be generated and underpinned by the activities of automated systems, robots and artificial intelligence.

Seeing as none of those things are entities that require paying or housing, we will effectively own the means of production, and that means of production will work for us for free. We will simply accumulate the capital, and spend even more time whining on the internet.

In 2007/8 the NI fund earnt £1.3bn of interest on gilts. Rates are much lower now, making it harder to catch up.

I'm a nurse. There is no way that physically or mentally I would be safe to do my job at 75+. Ridiculous!

Does anyone think the govt could consider a Dignitas style system in the UK in the future? It would save them money at the end of the day, and save poor elderly, possibly very ill people having to fill out the myriad of paperwork and make the journey to Switzerland - it's something I've thought about a lot , because you have to not only be of sound mind, but also have the funds and be able bodied enough to fly. Seems unbelievably cruel that we don't have a system like that in this country (all countries) think that's a subject for another thread though ..

"Mr Gummer, then, is right to seek to expose the fiction behind NICs by making it clear that they are another form of general taxation. Last year about £150 billion was raised from income tax and around £100 billion from NICs, including the employer contribution, or “jobs tax”. This compares with receipts from VAT of £101 billion and £41 billion from corporation tax. Cutting the association between NICs and social insurance would instantly demonstrate that the tax on what we earn is far higher than the Government would like us to believe."

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/10658144/National-Insurance-reform-could-cost-us-dear.html

Of the £100bn, I think about 20% goes directly to the NHS, the rest goes towards benefits.

Radicalrooster aren't you rather assuming there that the people who develop and own these automated systems, robots and artificial intelligence will choose to share them with "we the people" for free? Isn't it more likely that there will instead be an underclass who have no means of supporting themselves because they cannot offer any labour that a robot can't do better and thus can only survive through crime or begging?

And from the guardian

www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2015/jul/26/time-to-look-at-national-insurance-the-ultimate-stealth-tax

Why not just opt out of the state pension and manage your own privately?

I think you've missed the point slightly apple

I'm sure I've missed some of them. This is just what we do - state retirement age is irrelevant here.

This is about George Osborne's personal ambition to become Conservative Party leader and, he hopes, Prime Minister. He is cutting everywhere to reduce the size of the state, so he can claim that he has turned the economy from deficit to surplus. He simply doesn't care about the impact on ordinary people.

Bubbly, that's about the size of it!

FishWithABicycle, the spread of technology is democratic. The 'underclass' have access to the Internet, smartphones, cars etc, things that the rest of us have. No reason why they won't have access to the equivalent in the future, and benefit economically as a consequence.

There seems to be some bizarre adherence to a dystopia worldview when it comes to the future when history shows that every succeeding generation has a better standard of living than the one before.

Well this is just a little bit terrifying!

To everyone saying 'you should plan better, work harder, save more' etc. how exactly are some people going to achieve this?

Our household contains one carer, one disabled adult and one disabled daughter.

There is NO money spare at the end of the month to even save a fiver for emergencies, let alone enough for any kind of pension.

I know a lot of people also in this position.

I can just forsee a line of supermarket style dignitas clinics set up around the country. George Osbournes army of clones will just round up the poor and elderly who can't work.

Slightly ridiculous scenario I know as we will all be unemployed anyway when the robots take all the jobs.

barefoot , more unpalatable than telling people there is a chance they will not receive their pension or will have to wait until 75 to receive it ? I don't think so !

What rate of income tax do you currently pay, frumpet, and how much would you stand for it to increase to fund the pensions of those retiring decades ahead of you, assuming you are less than 50?

the spread of technology is democratic. The 'underclass' have access to the Internet
true, Radicalrooster but access to the means of monetizing the internet is not democratic, for the likes of google and face book the internet is like a big cow shed into which the population can be herded there to be milked for data

those with access to massive data sets and the means to mine it will be our overlords
excuse my dystopian hyperbole:o
but you get the point no?

Wasn't pensions first introduced in 1946, a time when the country was struggling? The government still choose to introduce the welfare state . All this talk of 'net contribution' is just a red herring. If we could afford it then we can now. We need a Government that values it's citizens and plans and manages properly, for people rather than just profit. We are the 6th biggest nation in the World, are we all going to just accept less and less?

1911, I think!

Ah, nope, 1909. And paid to 500,000 people aged 70 or more