To think the standard of living for retired people had to change

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I'm a millennial. I will retire in my seventies. Many in my age group will be still paying their mortgage off well into their sixties. Many will never be able to buy. This is not a moan about that.

My mums generation were able to buy cheaper houses in the eighties. Some have also inherited well (houses which their parents owned and didn't have to sell to pay for care, which had risen in price to above a million). They had better pension plans. Some were able to go to university for free and their degrees actually meant something in the workplace: They often paid off their mortgages in their forties. I see a lot of my parents relatives have retired early and have very enviable lives.

Two uncles have retired in their early sixties. They are both in good help. They spend their days on many holidays, eating out multiple times per week, going to garden centres, renovating their beautiful houses, helping children financially and with childcare. They will have presumably worked out their finances and could afford to continue to live like this for the rest of their lives! Possibly thirty more years!

I think they are possibly going to be unique in their quality of life. We will never have that and I don't see my children's generation having things any earlier.

In essence the generation before me were mostly fortunate, unless personal situations changed their financial situation or they lost their homes during the nineties interest rises. Retirements and pensions were never designed to support people for three decades and that things had to change hence raising the retirement age and making people pay more towards their care.

Most money has always come from inherited wealth.

Public sector doesn't tend to either, in practice.

My workplace is hugely ageist.

I’ll be encouraging them to vote to limit free NHS care to under 70s only.

sorry……. WHAT ?? !!!!!

Yes and free prescriptions, glasses, bus pass, even if they’re millionaires.

Iwantcakeeveryday

Its just amazing to me that young people walk around with mini computers in their hand, pay for several different streaming subscriptions to watch ridiculous amounts of telly... and moan that older people who grew up with none of this and eating an average 500 less calories a day, have too much! what a cheek

The argument about smart phones doesn't really work- previous generations didn't have them because they hadn't been invented not because they were too poor or saving for more worthy things.

A phone/Internet connection is a necessity rather than a luxury for most people because so much stuff is online. Look at banks, my town, like many others has no banks at all (there were at least 6 different ones, 10 years ago) there isn't the option to go to the bank to sort stuff out. Lots of council services are online only - which is difficult for some (often older) people who don't have Internet or are not confident using it. I'm dealing with a solicitor at the moment - all correspondence is done via email...and so on....

And for people frothing about pensioners sponging off the state, I pay income tax on my pension, VAT on purchases, road fund tax, petrol tax, tax on alcohol, council tax.

And then I go out and spend what is left of my pension in theatres, shops, cinemas, bars, restaurants, galleries, museums and cafes so supporting jobs and businesses and contributing to the economy.

Weird. In as much as it is relevant to this topic I don’t believe in capital punishment?

I am a centrist liberal. Who can count.

This is not productivity though.

I’ll be encouraging them to vote to limit free NHS care to under 70s only.

sorry……. WHAT ?? !!!!!

I think someone is on a 'let's wind up the oldies' mission. Although given the enthusiasm of some on this site for 'assidted dying it's hard to be sure whether or not it's serious.

Yes, this is how NI works. But by your logic the PP was being 'sponged off' by the then pensioners when she was 'an actual person at work'. So, you expect the PP, having paid for the pensions of the previous generation to not have her pension paid for by the current generation. How is her state pension meant to be paid?

I couldn't retire until I was 66. Retiring at 60, if you need a state pension, is long gone.🙄

Which most aren't.

If I am still around in 30 odd year's time I look forward to witnessing Generation Z slagging off the greedy Millennials for sponging off the younger generation and moaning about how easy they had it.

Yes, this is how NI works. But by your logic the PP was being 'sponged off' by the then pensioners when she was 'an actual person at work'. So, you expect the PP, having paid for the pensions of the previous generation to not have her pension paid for by the current generation. How is her state pension meant to be paid?

Given that I'm 70 next summer and according to MN's resident charmer I shouldn't get free care, I assume she'd like my oncologist to withdraw care and medication and wait for my condition to kill me, thus sorting out the pension issue.

Right, WeightWhat?

Those who complain about the "spongers" are probably the same lot who spent their 20s partying and travelling the world, posting pouting instagram selfies on exotic beaches, then hit 30 and want to settle down, and guess what they can't afford it 😁
Oh dear how sad, never mind 😉

This is a good point but one I addressed upthread.

The paid in/take out has changed so the burden is not the same.

Taxes are now higher, the NHS more costly, and people have much longer retirements increasing the costs.

I, as a Boomer, do not get free glasses or dental care. They are given to those on means tested benefits, regardless of age. Look up the facts.🙄

What an utterly crazy idea. Unless you’re being ageist and feel that there should be a cull of older people and we should just euthanise them aged 70?

I have to disagree with public sector (at least Civil Service)- I've recently worked as a recruitment manager in 2 different CS departments and worked in a few more- they make an almost over-conscious effort to employ older people. It's possible This may be a fairly recent development though.

Oh come on, @Zebedee55. Who cares about facts when you can slag off a whole cohort of people. Don't be a spoilsport.

This

But please could you tell my mum this. She claims her generation had it hardest 🙈

What an utterly crazy idea. Unless you’re being ageist and feel that there should be a cull of older people and we should just euthanise them aged 70?

Don't encourage it, it thrives on the outrage.

Do you have children, Weightwhat?

It's actually making me feel angry. It's an abhorrent, inhumane and quite frankly batshit notion. That any decent, right-thinking people would even conjecture about the idea of denying health and social care to the over 70s is downright evil.

It's sick and twisted.

Really? We don’t actually live in an economy where people are productive any more. We live in an economy which is largely service and consumer driven and funded , if those services then aren’t funded by end users like me and all the other grey pounders who are putting their money into supporting wages and infrastructures then believe me, you would soon notice the difference.

Look at what happened during lockdown, if the government hadn’t stepped in with financial support many businesses would have gone bust because the money wasn’t moving.And as we know many did not survive.

I have worked in the same public sector organisation for over 30 years, and I have personally experienced ageist treatment in the recruitment process. I've witnessed senior managers being pushed aside and a whole cohort of managers recruited, all of them under the age of 45. Please don't discount my experience.

It may happen where you are. It doesn't where I am.