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.

When i paid my first NI contribution, aged 15, the retirement age was 60. I checked it on the gov website for my birth date and its 67 and 8 months and some days. Im sure it will be 70 by the time i retire. I do have private pensions but Im a low earner and my employer contributions are the minimum, plus when i fist started work your employer didnt have to contribute. I cant wrap my head around how much I'd need to have saved to retire. It seems such big sums. Inheritance tax does seem a potential way to even up wealth between noth /south but I dont know if it would work.

But how can they suddenly be asked to pay more tax on a measly state pension? It’s not their fault that governments haven’t addressed this.

I meant 16 not 15.

When i paid my first NI contribution, aged 15, the retirement age was 60. I checked it on the gov website for my birth date and its 67 and 8 months and some days. Im sure it will be 70 by the time i retire.

Effectively, it's one massive slow-burning Ponzi scheme.

@HereComesMaleficent
For goodness' sake, don't just put the £200 pcm in a savings account, at least put it in an index tracker (eg FTSE or developed world) from Fidelity, Vanguard etc. A no-brainer as it will be far more likely to keep pace with inflation. At the very least, invest half of it per month, or it's a real wasted opportunity.
Ps A 'loan' parent - that made me smile given the topic!

The current generation of pensioners have not properly funded their own pensions through sufficient taxes and left later generations to pay the price.

The current generation of pensioners have properly funded pensions, it's just that they didn't get them, the generation before them took the pensions they paid for. Now they get the money my generation pay in. That's how it was set up.

But both women and men provide care. My husband looked after his mother until she died.

I have several teachers in my family who worked till 65. It’s hardly unusual

It IS unusual. It’s a tough physical job, and mentally it’s horrendous now. I know no one who worked until 60. It was just too physically demanding.

There’s been research to show that increasing the retirement age for women leads to a greater demand for elderly care services. Women can’t provide it for free if they’re working.

It is very unusual. Did they work in state schools or private schools with very small classes and less pressure.

So, I really admire that you are taking the bull by the horns and saving £200pcm for retirement in addition to a private pension. But £200 pcm for 25yrs is only £30k not £60k, a regular savings account isn’t going to double your money. You’d have to be earning an average of 5% interest to get £30k deposited over 25yrs to £60k- does your locked savings account pay that much?

Id encourage you to get some independent financial advice on how to grow your £200pcm savings faster because your goal of having £6k/Yr to live on starting 25yrs from now is too low. £6k/Yr in 25yrs is going to be equivalent to having £3k/Yr to live on today (assuming the rolling average inflation of 2.2%/yr over the past 25yrs but average inflation could well be higher the next 25yrs). In 25yrs, your goal of £6k will buy no more than half of what it buys today….

That’s why you really do need to go after interest and there are many many investment vehicles that will do this and are also easy to cash out…especially since you are saving for a goal 25yrs from now.

A LISA is risk free and might get your £30k paid in to a balance of almost £60k in 25yrs as a few do pay 3% interest and the government does a 25% lump sum annual top up, but you can’t withdraw from one until age 60. You can put £4K a year away in one of these.

Anyway, you’ve taken the hardest step and that is having a dedicated plan to save regularly every month, I’d hate to see this wasted by your money languishing in a regular savings account. Get some advice on how to make your money work for you at inflation busting returns.

I'm sure I've read about 70 years being mooted about for anyone younger than 40.

The other thing to bear in mind with all this, is that a lot of employers really don't want to employ people above a certain age.

I'm 70 this year and working part time, just about to retire. I know a couple of care workers in their late 60s and a nurse in her 70s. Some people are luckier with their health than others, my husband retired in his 40s due to a disability.

Retirement age at 68 is all very well for those wealthy MPs sat in their offices.
What about those people who work in heavy industry, or those whose work involves a lot of moving and handling, do they really think they will be fit enough to still be doing those roles in their sixties? For most, it won't be physically possible.
Then what?
They end up either getting fired for incompetence or they physically can't carry on and end up claiming benefits until they can claim their pensions.
So effectively, trying to save money ends up costing more money.
They talk out of their privileged arses.

Surely pensions are paid for from NI contributions. Some woman only paid a married woman's stamp yes, but other married woman paid a full stamp. I am 61 and always paid a full stamp even though married at 22. I think you will find most woman only paying married woman's stamp are about 80 now.

OP
Part of the reason why the pension age was equalised between men and women was so that elder care can be taken out of the home and made into an industry of paid employees, thereby contributing to the nations GDP calculation. It’s actually a good thing for women’s rights. Except the way it was implemented was shit for the women caught up in the transition who had the rug pulled out from under them.

Pension age is being pushed back to save money…as more people will die before claiming the older they push the age. A prior poster rightly pointed out that this is a bit of a false economy because disability/illness will force many more out of the workforce and onto state benefits the higher you push pension age. So not as many people will be staying in work to 68 as the government thinks imho.

I do think there will be a certain amount of whinging about women and unpaid caring duties- sexism and societal expectation isn’t going to go away. I’ve seen it come up in NHS debates quite often the concept that families (women) should provide care for relatives at home so social care can be scrapped.

I saw this nurse when I had some treatment a few years ago, I think she was late 70s at the time. Lovely lady. www.torbayandsouthdevon.nhs.uk/about-us/news-and-publications/news/2016/09/happy-birthday-monica-one-britains-oldest-nurses-celebrates-83rd-birthday/

I believe she has retired now but I'm not sure when.

I think it would be helpful to have, rather than expecting people to work full time until a certain date in the future, a sort of sliding scale where you can gradually reduce your working hours and have your pension fund the difference. I think it would see more people voluntarily continuing to work 2-3 days a week even past 68 and could reduce the pensions bill without throwing a bucket of cold sick over everyone who's been working 5 days a week and is desperate for a break.

@Itchintobestitchin There's no way UK life expectancy is that low. What is your source please?

@SpottyBalloons that poster is talking about healthy life expectancy which is different to life expectancy

@Itchintobestitchin The ONS states baby boys born in the UK in 2020 can expect to live on average to age 87.3 years and girls to age 90.2 years, taking into account projected changes in mortality patterns over their lifetime.

The current generation of pensioners have not properly funded their own pensions through sufficient taxes and left later generations to pay the price

You make it look like the pensioners chose not to be taxed. isn't that down to government? I thought the current crop of pensioner wren all on gold-plated private pensions and lived in mansions.

Here are the culprits:

www.theguardian.com/money/2004/jul/10/pensions.jobsandmoney

I retired from teaching at 56. I'm still a foster carer to 16 year old who I've cared for since he was 5, but I won't take on any more children now. I paid teachers pension since 22 and also when divorced got a payout of DH pension to balance our pensions out. I had to open a stakeholder pension to get this money paid into. I just also paid extra into it every month. I recently changed 73k into annuity. I get just under £400 a month for life. Teachers Pension of £718 each month for life, would have been higher but I took a few years out when children were small, hence exh had to pension share. When I'm 67 I will get full state pension too. As soon as I started work I was told to pay full stamp for future pension.