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.

Yes, but your uncles wouldn't have been able to claim their state pension until 65, so they probably lived off their employer pensions until it kicked in.

Hi Down x 5 ish. I have thought about this long and very hard. Am in my 70s still needing to work, still needing to pay off. Needing to help offspring too. We are from a generation where we had everything to look forward too. Many people when doing ok like to 'pull up the ladder', so others cant live as well, or achieve the same. I look in shame at what we have allowed others to get away with in terms of wealth, and the disparities in this country are beyond belief. I really believed that technology would have advanced enough to permit everyone to work less. I really believed that we would be able to have enough to live reasonably on our pensions. I really never believed that our council housing stock would be sold off and many folk, younger and older would be reliant on private landlords. For many years now I have looked at how we have let our younger generations be squeezed (and it is international), I have looked at others who have inherited and it is ok but with sadness that I have noted how we are being played off against each other and are manipulated into believing that we boomers or some of us caused it. And it is not true.....when I went to university only 4% of the sons and daughters of manual workers got a place, by no means all of us boomers. So, It is just not true that we got it all or took it all.....what is true is that young and old are all in this mess together. We have to change peoples' views and work together for the sort of society we want, not have younger and older pitted against each other. There is not ONE CAKE which can only be cut into how ever many slices. There are other economic systems lets think about them and work together to change this miserable country from the Haves and Have Nots, let's make a different and better cake please. I want a cake that allows homes, schools, healthcare, fun and laughter for all of us not just some of us; and it is possible. It is only together we can do it and we have to throw out all this misinformation first. sorry for the length, but it is important to argue the case.

University was free - for the 5% of the population able to go.

house prices were low - not in relation to wages

pensions were generous - if you were fortunate enough to work for an employer with a scheme and eligible to join it. Many women weren’t.

That generation mostly left school at 15/16 and worked hard for 50yrs. During that time they did not get universal credit and all the other help that's not now available

Universal credit isn’t a universal benefit

I have always paid a lot into my pension because my parents had nothing. I did my degree and masters while working and I have paid for my children’s accommodation and food while at university so they only have their tuition fees. My mortgage was paid off at 45 as I have always overpaid.

house prices were low - not in relation to wages

Prices vs wages are more out of whack now

Not all pensioners are in this position. Many are living on or below the poverty line in this country. Dont judge all pensioners on a handful of people you know. They are very lucky, the vast majority aren't living that way. I know a few millennials who are lazy, self obsessed whingers-but I dont think ALL millennials are like that..Sweeping generalisations aren't helpful for ANY age group.

The saddest thing about this thread is the vitriol being thrown around and some people apparently wanting other generations to have it harder.

I paid those horribly high mortgage repayments in the late 80s and early 90s, barely scraped by, but I don’t want others to have to go through that. It was bloody awful.

Easier ?
Living with outside toilets and only a coal fire for heat ?

It was marginally easier to buy a home but it's only a small percentage difference in the numbers who are buying homes in the different generations

Many pensioners don't own their own home

we need stable affordable homes and that means council homes not private ownership to bring housing costs under control
We need wealth redistribution not it being handed to the privileged half
We don't need squabbled between the generations that allow politicians to get away from making changes that would benefit us all ( but to the detriment of the super rich politicians and their mates )

Surely the only people who don't get a state pension are people who have never worked, such as people with severe disabilities? And people who have never worked in this country?

Most people apparently don't get the full state pension

I think it affects women more than men

Certainly with the current generation of pensioners many women couldn't work if the had a family

aswarmofmidges · Today 18:48

Easier ?
Living with outside toilets and only a coal fire for heat ?

Omg. This again. Yes it's horrible.
But you know what I'm 43 and when I was little that's what we had! I'm just not going on about it! An outside loo and a tin bath in the lounge.
I'm of the view that each generation should be entitled to expect a better standard of living than the one before, though. So I want better for the younger generation than they're getting.

House prices absolutely were lower in relation to wages.

Of course it's a generalisation. There will always be some who paid more and others who paid less. That's how it works in society.
As a group, this generation didn't pay as much as they take, just as I said above.

Good for you for being open to the idea of more taxes on wealth though.

As kids ,coats on our beds, no heating , frost on the inside of windows, no tv or phone, outdoor loo , no fitted kitchen with running water just a pump in the yard , no bathroom . Left school at 15 and started work the Monday after . home made clothes , hand knitted jumpers , no car till our twenties , no mobiles , false nails , or foreign holidays but we were happy . Married and scrimped to have a reception costing £40 , as we were saving a deposit for a house . when we had kids , no help with childcare and we'd followed government advice and moved to find employment , so travelled hours and many miles to visit family who were too far away to help with Childcare . Then the tough years with 16% interest on our mortgage , but we managed . No passport till in my sixties , never been abroad on a foreign holiday till then .

Yep we've lived the life of Riley .

As a group, this generation didn't pay as much as they take, just as I said above.

Do you have some statistical evidence for that? Because it really doesn’t sound remotely credible to me.

I'm actually quite glad this thread is almost closed. It's really sad the amount of people who just don't give a shit how hard it is for younger people. It's like because things were tough for them when they were young they want youngsters today to feel hardship too. Only without the likelihood of things getting better as they go though life because the odds are stacked so far against them now.

I don't live in the UK - would it surprise you to know that things are much the same here, except that I see places for sale in some parts of the UK which wouldn't get you a garden shed here?

I am a long term renter, I have owned a house but due to a marriage break-up and the timing of it I have never been in a position to own again. I'm now in the position where I also have inherited money, it isn't enough for me to buy outright, and I'm too old to get a mortgage, so I decided to work part-time for a while, then retired a year before I am entitled to national superannuation. I might as well get some pleasure from the money - I'm sick of working, and being able to not work is far more pleasureable to me than spending money on travel, luxuries, etc.

I don't actually care about home ownership, and other than the chance that I might have to move find renting so much easier. My last flat had several major plumbing issues - I just sat back and they were fixed, at no cost to me (and I was paying low rent for a nice place). What I think is needed, and it's rare in this country, is housing which people who do have a bit of money (there is a threasehold for social housing) can pay a sensible amount of rent, and stay there for life if they wish. Sadly, I doubt it will happen in my lifetime.

What is needed I think is affordable and secure housing for everyone, but why does it have to be via ownership?

Yes, but if you don't have any other income, you get topped up by Guaranteed Pension Credit. My DP is retired. He lives in a Council maisonette, gets Pension Credit and gets all his rent and Council Tax paid. Plus, he has a health condition so also gets Personal Independence Payment. He can't live the high life, but he gets enough to manage on.

Your ideas are simplistic and based on your narrow experiences.

My PIL inherited nothing. They bought a flat, sold it and bought a terraced house- which they paid for many times over during the course of a 30 year mortgage. Both worked full-time throughout their working lives and paid into a work pension. As teachers, they chose early retirement when my FIL was diagnosed with a chronic illness. They both took reduced teacher pensions- which they had paid into for almost 40 years- so they could retire early. (They are no where near full pensions but having the time while his health was still good was more important to them.) They lived on those, with no additional benefits, until they got their state pensions. I'm not sure why you think they are privileged?
They will leave a house, unless they have to sell it to pay for care. It is worth nowhere near a million pounds. The people who will benefit are DH and his sister.

I certainly don't see them as well-off. They are comfortable, as they should be after working full-time and paying into work and state pensions for almost 40 years.

It could also be asked why younger people think they are entitled to an easier life than previous generations? What is so special about the younger generations? How do you know things won't get better? Some of us have been around long enough to know that things change. Stop whining and work on making the life you want, rather than blaming others for what you don't have.

People who don't contribute receive help but that's another story!

Your feeling that you want your subs back if you pension is cancelled (which clearly it won't be) is magnified for the younger generations who really may have their pensions cancelled. As I have already said above, this is likely to cause understandable resentment. Even more so when current pensioners demonstrate unjustified resentment towards these very people.

There's too much back and forth and hyperbole on this thread.
I think it's always been hard to buy, but now it's harder and it's hard and expensive to rent. Not a great situation.
OP is there a way you can gradually save for a deposit through the lifetime ISA? I think if possible it's better than a lifetime of renting.
If you don't buy you can cash it in at 60 as a pension. I don't have a very good pension as I took time out so am continuing to work hopefully until 67. But I've got a good job so am lucky there. But they keep changing the goal posts wrt pensions and pension age.

That sounds like gas lighting to me. Of course things change, they have been changing for the worse though, for years. Do you think younger people haven't noticed? Perhaps they are more observant.