To not have realised that my pension age has gone up?

[IIdentifyAsInnocent]

I'm 45, 46 this year. Checked online 2 years ago and my state pension age was 67, which I thought was bad enough, for some reason checked again today and it's gone up to 68!!

I knew that the govt were thinking of doing this but I have no recollection of being told it had actually happened. This affects my work pension which I now can't take until 68 too as it aligns to state pension age.

Annoyingly, my brother who is 2 years older can still retire at 67!
Have I missed some huge public announcement?

I have paid into a private company pensions since 1995
This was voluntary
So pensions have been around for some years.
However, some of my older friends who are in their 60s told me that they were not offered the chance to join a company pension.

It has only been recently that companies have had to offer employees the chance to pay into a private pension. However, people can decide to opt out & not join the pension.

I am so glad that I have paid into private pensions, compound interest & free contributions from my employers

I honestly won't live until I'm 85!

Yes? I’ve know this forever. Rather than assuming something I tend to check official websites to be sure. Just like those WASPI women should have done before deciding to retire at 47 or other idiotic moves. I also know that the government might well increase the age before I retire which is also fine/expected. When state pension at 65 for men was introduced the male life expectancy was 67. The idea that people can have 20+ years of the state paying for them is unsustainable.

I have savings, I have a house that will be paid off before I'm 60 that I can downsize, however I cannot, even with that afford to take another 7% actuarial cut in my pension to retire a year earlier still. So no, I can't stretch that out for another year, I was already stretching it out for 7 years.

I also have a very physical job and osteoarthritis of the spine. I regularly go to patients who are much younger than 68 who are dying or can't walk. The Government pretending that quantity of life means that I will have quality of life is frankly an insult. Some days I can hardly walk now after work, in 22 years I am fairly sure I will be in a wheelchair.

Is this based on some in depth actuarial research of mortality rates? Or just your gut feel. Lol.

Eeekkkk! I’m lucky then that I’m almost 55 and can access mine then, though it’s such a small amount but the little lump sum will help my daughter at uni. Might be best to tell our children then to be saving in investment funds that aren’t pensions so can be accessed much earlier. Might be the way to go for those of you that are younger also.

I can't believe the number of women saying they thought their state pension age was 60. The 1995 pensions act changed that. We do all have to take some responsibility for ourselves and not just blindly go along like sheep.

The changes for the Waspi women is a different issue.

well retire at 61 or 62 instead of 60 then 🤷‍♀️
why are you expecting people to feel sorry for you? I also find it hard to understand how you didn’t know it was 68 when that’s been the case for a long time. If you want early retirement, pay into a scheme that will make that possible. The state pension is a benefit and liable to change depending on who is in government at the time. Would be like moaning about tax credits changing and having made plans on the basis of the amount you thought you’d get.

I've not seen a single post where women still thought their state pension age was 60?

I'm not asking anyone to feel sorry for me, but you appear determined to have an argument. Did you mean to be so rude?

The current state pension age in UK for people now is 66
If you are younger, eg in your 50s it will be 67
Younger it will be 68
Younger TBA possibly 70
You can check by requesting a pension forecast or log in to your Government gateway.

If you looked the stats, more people are living into their 80s, 90s, 100+

Women’s retirement age set at 60 was because on average women were around 5 years younger than their husbands and this would allow them to retire together. Women were (and are) far less likely to have a physical job, many didn’t work at all after kids and women have a longer life expectancy. So the idea that women are being forced to work til they drop now is nonsense- the lower pension age was never based on a physical need for women to retire earlier than men.

Tories are thinking of removing state pensions all together

As for people saying that people born between 1980 and 1982 have a life expectancy of 76 for women and 70 for men - bullshit. I just checked the ONS calculator. I was born in 82 and my life expectancy is 87 apparently with a 10% chance I will live to 100. For men born the same year, it’s 84.

Look up the stats

@PassingStranger

Round here the rent would be £600 a month. Care home fees are £1200.....a week!
Because she owns her house it has to be sold to self fund her care until the money runs out. I dont have the money to buy it

I plan to go part time once the mortgage is paid off. Probably at some point in my 50s unless I get lucky.

I’m 45 too and I also thought it was 67. How depressing. My bigger worry tbh is that there won’t be one at all by the time we get there…

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/feb/05/uk-state-pension-age-will-soon-need-to-rise-to-71-say-experts#:~:text=The%20UK%20pension%20age%20of,71%20before%20claiming%20their%20pension.

May be 71 according to this…

My mum died at 73. From about 60 she wouldn't have been able to hold a full time job due to health issues. How many people are going to be able to work full-time in their late 60's? They will be spending out a fortune in sick pay and universal credit (or whatever system is in place then).

I’m in my 40s, there won’t be a state pension when I get there. It’ll be means tested like universal credit. Also think anyone who didn’t hear about the changes since the 90s must have lived under a rock- it was all over the news!

It depends what sector of society you are talking about. There will definitely be a class divide here as in middle class professions like law and academia, it will be no issue at all for most people to work til late 60s. Probably not so for those engaged in heavy manual labour or on their feet all day.
And remember that the current highest pension age now is only 3 years higher than the age that men have always been expected to work to and that seems to have worked okay. Women should never have been given a retirement age of 60 and it’s certainly not the case that most women will be incapable of working even in their mid to late 60s.

Yeah I’m not expecting one either. To make long term plans based on what you might get in 20+ years time is madness.

Women wanted equality and they got it. The problem was a culture of retirement in your 50s was allowed to permeate. My mother in law retired at 55 and she was fit as a fiddle. She's 88 now and pretty soon she will have been retired longer than she worked! That's just not sustainable in any society.