State pension

[Brexitstolemyfuture]

People are being lied to about their chances of ever getting it imo. So they are going to raise it another year. I'm still 25+ years off it. Aibu to think I'll never get it?

You seriously expect the state, the tax payer, your children, to keep funding you for 40 odd years?

The point is people are paying for something they won't receive themselves. The richest people with good jobs will be ok, but blue collar workers bodies will give up in their 60s and they won't have any money

StillDrivingMeBonkers Thu 20-Jul-17 07:26:15
Simply. Longevity is the problem. Advances in medicine, the population isn't dying off. I'm in my 50's now and I'm failing to see the point of being old, demented, incontinent and in a care home. It's a frightening prospect.

This is so very true. I work as a community nurse and visit many care homes both good and bad. When I see so many of those poor poor residents in those homes, many in bed 24/7 some walking around but usually with severe dementia. They are doubly incontinent, dribbling, unable to feed themselves. What sort of fucking life is that?

The others I see have long term chronic conditions ranging from the age of 50 plus, very very poor quality of life due to the disease and they struggle every minute of every day. Its a massive massive burden on the state.

I started a new career at 43. Am now 57. My director when I was 45 said no point investing in you at your age. I sent him an email the following day saying:

Retirement age for women is increasing to 65. I have 20 years left.
There are 500 substantive staff here and less than 10% have been here for more than 20 years.
Three people in their 20s have been sponsored in the last ten years and have left within four years of qualifying.

I was enrolled by the end of that week. Had a new director six months later.

Am 57 now. Changes have worked in my favour. Have been promoted this year. Hope to be promoted again before I go.

I have two years of contributions left to make for a full state pension. My occupational pension will be 3/4 of a full occupational pension. Not bad as I had eight years off and didn't start contributing until 24. Would be closed to half without the changes.

My grandad worked until his 80s, mybstepfather until his 70s, DH's grandad until he was 90 (in a small way)

I love working

Charley, i hope that a government sees sense and a vote for euthanasia is finally put through in the next decade or so. A really grim thing to think about i know and lots of reasons why its always voted down, but i think that in some cases its the best thing and should be properly looked into being made law. Tough subject though, i know lots would disagree with me!

The point is people are paying for something they won't receive themselves.

That's a ridiculous argument. You obviously don't understand how the system works,read back, it's been explained several times.

yes, so people with cash in their 'pot' for something to line on until they get the state pension?

Bored, i would not want to live like that, yet someone says ;hang on, you cant die either'
i think its wrong. 99 percent of people i have met all agree they wouldnt want to live like that at all. Yet the whole subject is dodged and kicked in the long grass.

stillbonkers what annoys me is that I chose not to contract out thinking it would be better to have the full state pension. Because of my additional contributions I would have got more pension contributions under the old system than I will now. I'm eligible for the full pension but have another 20 years to go. Plus another year now when the change goes through. Someone who contracted out would have had the benefit of that money and still enough time to build up a full pension. So they will end up with more even though we had paid "in" the same amount.

Seriously pissed off....

The gap between those that have and those that have not will grow wider. With pensions you pretty much have to put in what you want out nowadays. I would say a pension pot of £100k plus is the absolute minimum that someone would need to support themselves in retirement to give a reasonable standard of living. Not lavish by any means though. If you want to retire before the state date then it will be a lot more. Perhaps £15-20k extra for each year early. This won't give a great retirement income but you won't go hungry either. State pension alone, especially if single
Won't be enough for our spendthrift nation.

Inheritance will be the solution to many people's retirements but with people living longer, even that is a risky strategy.

StillDriving that is all well and good and would make sense if the government kept their original pledge to keep the threshold at which repayments kick in raising regularly in line with earnings. They have already broken that pledge. If they hadn't the threshold would be around £25,000 by now. Roll forward a few more years and the threshold will still be £21,000 but due to inflation that will be a breadline level of income and repayments will be causing real hardship for graduates who fail to make it onto a well paying job.

People who do the first year at university but then drop out have to pay back at the exact same level as graduates despite having no qualification to boost their earning power, and the high levels of interest mean they will never be able to make repayments faster than the debt grows, and will pay for 30 years for that one mistaken year.

I wish I had paid into a pension as soon as I got a full time job but I was on such a low salary that I couldn't afford it. It is only when I got to 30 that I started paying in and DH was 40, our finances just didn't allow for it before then. It is very worrying and yes, it is because we are all living longer and I do feel resentful of my friends parents who worked for a council for a few years and retired early and get more each year than I do and will do for 30 plus years!

The biggest problem will be those years before retirement. I think getting a secure job would be next to impossible.

I do feel resentful of my friends parents who worked for a council for a few years and retired early and get more each year than I do and will do for 30 plus years!

Those golden pensions are long gone now though. I worked for the council for 8 years, on a reasonable wage, and my pension pot with them is worth 2K per annum!

The 'baby boomer' generation never had it so good, now we, their children and grand children are picking up the slack.

I also cannot imagine doing my job until I'm 68. My skills just would not be relevant and I would be blocking it for the younger generation. Yes, and many of the baby boomers think we just need to make better choices! Many people in their thirties are still saving up for a house deposit and not worrying about a pension.

I dont know anyone whose children are early twenties with a mortgage - my son has one friend who moved out to a cheaper area and managed to buy a property, but out of all his friends, he is the only one. He also has a girlfriend that works, so i think they managed the cost between them and found jobs in that area and had a bit of help from mum and dad.
he has friends that are married and still living at home saving up for a deposit. Most people i know have their children still living at home and probably will do until their 30s or 40s at this rate.

I do feel resentful of my friends parents who worked for a council for a few years and retired early and get more each year than I do and will do for 30 plus years!

I hate to admit it, but me too. I know people in a house worth over a million now (bought for buttons), only one parent worked, had one job for life, where they didn't have to work crazy hours or reapply for existing position and knocked off at midday on Friday. Some of these people have spent more time in retirement than they did working, but still claim to have "worked for every single penny" .

I do think we have a selfish wealth hogging culture here. In other countries - Italy maybe - the older generation vacate the larger family sized home for the next generation to move into. I do accept that these properties are their homes but I'm sure most of us know pensioners rattling around large properties they can't maintain properly anymore etc when families are squeezing into two bed properties because it is all they can afford. It just seems rather messed up.

I am a stay at home mum and have been since I was 20 (I'm thirty now). Due to a few reasons the child benefit has been put into my DH's name.

I've been an idiot and these threads terrify me. I have no idea what I'll do when I'm old .

My inlaws and dad are council tenants, so they couldnt move.

Some members of my family are the same ( baby boomers, older than me) , have 4 bed detached homes with fair sized gardens. One niece is renting a small home for four of them. one lives in a 2 bed flat , yet their parents have acres of space. However, neither want to down size and say ' oh we need the space' - lived there years, so i can see their point and even they say its a bit unfair, but if you like where you live and dont want the expense of moving or down sizing, then its the way it will be i think. Renting privately costs so much more - living with a small mortgage or none at all, then you would stay put. Until the prices drop, or there is more affordable housing built, then i cant see how things will change. We still have a mortgage ourselves, so we cant help our kids out yet with a deposit or anything much for now anyway.

I am really stressed about this. I am only 31 - I have 5.5 years of a teacher pension, just had a career break to look after babies and am about to re-start but could only get a job in an independent school part time, which pays into a private pension. Not a very good one! My DH is very diligent about money and pays into two private pensions but neither are great - it is hard to make any extra savings on top of this for old age - we try to save a bit of money for our children so they have a few grand when they are in early adulthood and any other money goes on our mortgage and living costs.
I don't suppose I'll ever get a state pension!

In other countries - Italy maybe - the older generation vacate the larger family sized home for the next generation to move into

Do you have any evidence for this? Four years ago, one-third of adult Italians lived with their parents. I imagine it's more by now. It doesn't look like the oldies are going anywhere.

Where do these older Italians go?

I'm one those types who live in a house bigger than I need. though working full time, as baby boomer in my early 60s. If I want to live miles away from all my friends, the beach, hospitals, culture, etc, I could downsize tomorrow. What I can't do is downsize to live where I am. Property developers and overseas buyers have seen to that. BTW, I am a baby boomer in my early 60s and still working full-time in a demanding job, because I have to, not because I want to.

When the pension payments started, they were only paid to people that were still working 4 years past the average life expectancy, allowing them to 'retire' for a short period of time before death.

Then we got to the ridiculous situation where it was possible for people to 'retire' at 50 and expect to receive good pensions for more years than they actually worked. This is what people now believe that they are entitled to.

Why it's taken until now for anyone to realise that this is not sustainable amazes me. Everyone now has to work longer and pay more because people live longer and cost more.

Simple.

Proofreading would help.

I have a relative who is a retired police officer, their 30 years service came up at 49 they got a very good pension due to being an inspector and have now forged a second career which will land them a lucrative 2nd pension as well. Fair play to them though they've worked their arses off for it and missed out on their kids childhoods so as far as I'm concerned they're entitled to the money

Fair play to them though they've worked their arses off for it and missed out on their kids childhoods so as far as I'm concerned they're entitled to the money

This could be said of so many jobs.