to think if the state pension age of 68 is being brought forward.........

[JenniferBooth]

then they need to stop moaning and whining when there are no family members (read women)
to provide unpaid care so elderly relatives can be discharged from hospital
You cant have it both ways.

That's true

in response to @user1471439240

I imagine the pension savings are dwarfed by the costs of lockdown

Each one of us whose mum or dad dies is a saving isn't it?

It depends. If someone pays NI at the basic level for 50 yrs they would pay in 80k ish. Is that enough to give free healthcare for a lifetime, state pension. Isn't giving birth alone meant to cost 5k?

One of my relative takes a lot of medication since 60 & every yr it increases. That must cost thousands!

@safeplanet It depends what type of medication. Some medication costs pennies, some is expensive,

I'm sure there's a mix in there but it's an awful lot.

Shall we think about that again?

The state was obliged to pay their pension until they died.

And they died early because of covid.

In what world of maths is that not a saving?

as in so many tablets.

@verdantverdure I didn't think everyone was entitled to a state pension?

Isn't the state only obliged to pay based on contributions?

Covid costs are something like £350b. 200,000 pensions wouldn't cost anywhere like that much. It's not a saving because the money is already gone.

It will also mean that private pensions that pay on state retirement age, like the one civil servants have been moved to will now not pay out until you're 68.
That's what they're trying to save.
What about NHS pension? Is that linked to state retirement age?
Obviously you can draw it earlier but with penalty.

@crosspusscrossstitcher

stroppy much?!?!

They're not saying you have to work, only that you won't be eligible to receive the state pension. So if you can self fund until then you can retire tomorrow if you want to.

Yes NHS pension is the same.. can't see ne handling patients at 68 tbh

That's great but it isn't the same as leaving school at 14, working a 48 hr weeek as standard with 2 weeks paid holiday a year. Times change, you have benefitted from many changes and you are losing out on retirement age.

Um.no get your facts straight . NHS pension date and I would assume.teachers is tied to state pension age. Can't be taken before without significant ie 25 to 30 % cuts. I sat in a NHS pension seminar yesterday. If you want a 68 yr old pushing your crash trolly when you're heart stops expect ita arrival to be alot slower than now.

People always say this about how much was paid in. If I was paying in say £100 a year when I started work 55 years ago I am entitled to have interest added to that, so in year one it grows to maybe £105, next year interest rates are higher so it increased to £105, plus new contributions of £125 plus interest so now worth £260. The govt used my contributions, in effect I was lending them money to pay out their obligations and with any loan they should be paying interest. Interest rates have been very high at times during my working life.

You'd need an actuary to work out the value of what I've paid in but I can assure you it would come to more then £80k.

I totally agree with you.

Any pension that isn't paid out because the person has died is a saving.

www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/government-saves-600m-state-pension-payments-covid-deaths-surge/

And how much did lockdown cost? And for whose benefit?

It was for everyone's benefit, no one knows when they might need the NHS and if it collapsed because of covid we would all have been at risk.

I thoroughly disagree that it was for everyone's benefit

Lockdown was to protect the NHS. As in "Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives."

If anyone is implying we were only protecting the elderly, discharging COVID positive people into locked down care homes was an odd way to go about it.