Please tell me I am not the only oldish person without a pension plan

[QuentinLettsisAbitofAtool]

Not a TAAT well it is a bit but sod it

I'm having a bit of a panic attack brought on by the MN survey about pensions. I don't have one, have a big mortgage, not due any parental inheritances and am in my 50s.

Please tell me I'm not alone as that might make me feel less dumb!

Oh and I put "oldish" in the thread title because I mean old in terms of a pension. Twenty somethings who don't have a pension don't fit my criteria!

Are you seriously comparing us to Turkey?

I specifically took a new job because it included a LGPS. Tbf I would encourage people to get into the public sector.

And how would I get a place of my own exactly? I don't earn enough to buy somewhere in my area by myself

Then you do what everybody else does.

Commute.

I am interested to know how many people who start work for councils in the housing department then go onto get their own Council/HA properties themselves.

It seems to be a trend. I know a lot of people who got a job with the council and had the pick of flats.

If these people with jobs actually got their own place it would free up places for those that are homeless.

It is like being sent into a camp where the people are starving and there is only a certain amount of food.
Then eating all the food. Then blaming everyone else that there isn’t enough food for those that need it.

According to the geeks on moneysavingexpert.com (site has some good advice although it can be a bit “echo chamber” with people obsessed with saving 20p through collecting coupons or camping out to buy reduced price meat rather than .....actually improving their earning potential? ) it’s important also to look at your potential SPENDING when planning retirement? Work out what kind of lifestyle you want and work backwards from there.

I mean a lot of people say “travel”, but maybe you might want to have a more low key lifestyle.

Work often has a social function beyond paying the bills. I know academics who do OU stuff and it keeps their knowledge up to date and ensures they aren’t out of the mainstream socially

Country cottage often is the fantasy, but tbh it’s a lot of upkeep and the potential for social isolation? I think I’d be fine in a little flat where I could walk to cafes and libraries and art galleries and parks. Meet-up events in the city I live in are full of oldies out walking and basically doing loads of stuff

'It is like being sent into a camp where the people are starving and there is only a certain amount of food.
Then eating all the food. Then blaming everyone else that there isn’t enough food for those that need it'

she isn't eating all the food, she just has the one flat to live in, it's the landlords who are 'eating all the food'.... buying up multiple properties and renting them out

profiteering from the housing crisis

to extend the analogy that you so kindly gave me Oliversmumsarmy
Landlords are sent into a camp where the people are starving and there is only a certain amount of food.
They buy all the food and then make the starving pay over the odds for it

So much is paid out in benefits and housing benefit and the state sector ie hospitals schools etc.Things are getting tighter and tighter.I can see the private landlords being clobbered more and more going forward.And yes house prices have started to reduce and it is only just beginning.

@Wordthe
Well said!

Olivers - I don’t work for the council so not sure where that’s relevant!
There’s lots of jobs where you work with homeless people, not just the council.

You are just being argumentative for the sake of it though, me giving up my one place isn’t going to solve the housing crisis. And I live with my family here, it’s not like I’m subletting it out. I can help a lot more by working and volunteering in my local area, which I do. And by local area, I mean a large part of London. I already do commute to various places for work. Have you travelled from one side of London to the other in rush hour? It isn’t a 10 minute relaxed journey!

When Local Councils were allowed to build social housing to meet the needs of their areas, supply nearly met demand.

Gits like Rachman still rented hovels to those who could not pass the test of the council, but the price floor of social housing kept all rents manageable.

This allowed physical and social mobility for work, for study, for pleasure
as Norman Tebbit used to say "get on your bike"

But then that nice Mrs Thatcher stopped Councils building homes and forced them to sell off the best ones, saying that the market would provide

As of today there are 300,000 homeless people in a country with nearly 1,000,000 empty homes
a shocking indictment of a broken system.

I’m mid 30s & have 19 years of NI contributions, what happens after I’ve paid my full 35 years?

It’s interesting to observe people’s attitudes on here. If you stay at home on benefits, you are in the wrong. If you get yourself a minimum wage job, you are told that it’s your fault you can’t save enough for retirement and afford all your living expenses, therefore in the wrong again. If you manage to get a better paid job, you’re told give up your home. Otherwise you’re in the wrong again.

Well I’m sorry but I don’t have a time machine to go back and give myself a decent upbringing where I could have studied at the right age and earned decent money sooner. I’m unable to change the past to give myself better role models where maybe I wouldn’t have ended up in an abusive relationship and had to flee to a refuge (hence why I got my HA place, not by fiddling the council!) Or maybe I should have just stayed with a guy who tried to kill me?

I studied and worked and got my family out of poverty. Something that should be encouraged. That’s why I got into the career I did, because I want to help other people to improve their circumstances. If some of the atttitudes on here are reflective of society’s views (and sadly it seems they are) then it’s unsurprising that people feel it’s just all too hard in the first place and don’t even try. Some people need people to look down on and sneer at. Then they wonder why those people don’t care about “society”. It’s because they don’t feel part of it.

Now when we talk about retirement, people are being sneered at there too. What do you mean you don’t have a pension? Why not? Only an idiot would not have a pension. How dare you think about claiming any benefits in old age. And so on! If this sort of attitude comes from being well off then I’m glad I’m not!

My, my Wordthe you really don't like landlords.

I already do commute to various places for work. Have you travelled from one side of London to the other in rush hour? It isn’t a 10 minute relaxed journey! I thought you meant all over the country, not London. You know, outside of London does exist.

Rents and house prices are determined by supply and demand, not evilness. If supply is being constrained relative to demand, there's your problem.

Well that's blatantly not true as there are plenty of houses. It's just that a third of the population can't afford to buy them. If there weren't enough houses we'd all be living in corrugated huts. But we're not.

Ladygodiva
It is true.
Because there is an excess supply of expensive homes
and excess demand for cheap ones

Supply of cheap ones was stopped as per my post at 19:37
Demand for cheap ones is exacerbated by Universal Credit

Supply of expensive ones is funded by the finance industry which takes commission on rising prices
Demand for expensive ones is being hit by Brexit and tax changes

homeguides.sfgate.com/supply-demand-affects-housing-prices-46754.html

In places like NYC supply is fairly responsive to demand. We can build up with taller buildings and out into the suburbs. Supply and demand reach an equilibrium at a point that is manageable. For some reason that's not happening in your market and the most likely explanation is unresponsive supply. See also

homeguides.sfgate.com/causes-housing-prices-rise-united-states-56413.htmln

I've asked twice now but no answer. So third time lucky.

The people who don't want to buy. Tens of thousands of students, people working away from home of fixed term contracts, young people saving up to go travelling, older people who have sold up to release cash and now want to rent.

Where are they expected to live?

Many factors play a role as discussed in the articles I linked. Lower interest rates will increase demand by making borrowing cheaper for example. That gets expressed as more buyers bidding up prices.

Higher prices should normally increase supply either by bringing more sellers into the market or by motivating builders to build. If builders could make a profit building inexpensive housing they would. You need to find a way to get more inexpensive housing built. Building more social or public housing would have that effect.

What is l
LGPS?

Craft
But its not those we are just talking about.
The problem is all those who can’t afford to buy and have to rent.

LGPS is Local Government Pension Scheme

LGPS = Local Government Pension Scheme

Storm I agree with you.
Not everyone can have a high flying job,indeed where would we be without the people who do the so called lower paid jobs.But truth is the cost of living is high and minimum wage jobs are difficult enough to pay for the day to day,and the future will just have to take care of itself.

The Turkish friends I worked with then have been receiving a state pension since they passed 40 or 45.

So Turkey pays everyone over 40 a pension that provides a good standard of living until they die?!.... About as believable as thinking your pension will be sorted simply by walking to the end of a rainbow and picking up your pot of gold...

Oh God, every now and then I think about pensions and feel myself starting to freak out. I'm terrible with money and being responsible and organised...

I am contributing to a work pension (it's been about 6 years now) I don't think it's much though. I I need to look at how much I'm putting into it and probably increase it if I can. But I'm crap with all this stuff. I really wish they taught us important life skills like money management in school :(