To think 71 is too old for state pension age?

[winterwonder1]

This isn't just for people who are 21 now - that's for people born after 1970 - so 55 now. I can't imagine being fit enough to do my job at 71.
DWP State Pension age will have to rise to 71 says report | News Shopper

@Poppins21 DH and I have had 4 friends die 38,41, 54,54 One from blood clots and the other three from cancer. The three that got cancer well two of them were really very much in to a very healthy lifestyle and the other one had a sort of very average life, a little overweight a little alcohol but not anything that was horribly outlandish.

I had always wanted to retire early and I did at 55, I’m 3 years in to claiming my work pension. I took mine out at 21 which was highly unusual back in 1989 ish.

As others have said - where do the govenment envisage all these late 60/70somethings actually working? Clearly not physical jobs. I've always been fit and healthy but at 50 I can already feel my general fitness declining/wear and tear on joints etc. In 20 years time, post-menopause, it's obviously going to be way worse. And employers don't want loads of oldies in front-of-house jobs or even knowledge-based jobs.

So what are people going to do in that gap when they're no longer really wanted in the workplace - say from about age 60 - but have another 11 years until they can claim their pension? It's going to be a whole new level of poverty.

Because people who are 21 now will pay into workplace pensions that didn't exist for those of us in our fifties.

There were workplace pensions then. maybe not for everyone but I know people older than 50 who have a work pension.

My dads a year younger than you and is fairly fit but has a very physical job and at the weekend he was telling me he's struggling now. He works for a small company 3 younger guys him and 1 other and he does most of the graft. He wants a new job but he has no idea what. I keep forgetting he's 54 I mean he has me 33 and my sister 30 and my daughters 11. Still a fair few years before he can retire xx

And who's to say that this, or future governments won't start raiding those private pensions with hefty tax rises.

Yes it is - I am despairing for my children now, bringing them into this shithole country. My eldest (14) has been talking for a couple of years about emigrating, because this country is so shite, financially and society-wise. I only hope both mine end up in the same country so they are there for each other, and ideally I can escape too.

All they need now is for wages to go up and the cost-of-living to go down so they can afford to start saving now.

They don't need to save up for a decent pension. That's not what I am saying.

They need to save up 4 years worth of money to be in the same position they are in today of being able to retire at 67 and they have a longer time to achieve that than a 55 year old.

I'm not proposing they now have time to save up a state pension level income from 67 for the rest of their lives.

It's not great for the 21 year old, but at least they have decades to pay into workplace pensions with a view to early retirement, and can plan ahead

They often have to opt out because of housing costs though.

I remember when I was a student there was a lad who had started paying into a pension at 18. Oh how we laughed. I’m so envious now.

What the actual fuck.
This is so depressing.

@Frowningprovidence but they are not in the same position. I'm like a broken record but uni costs, taxes, wages, housing costs are not the same.

they also won't be getting free prescriptions at 60 either.

I'm 61 and fairly fit. My job is a mix of desk work and managing events.

I have no issues working at the moment and could probably manage another 10 years if needed. However, I run, practice martial arts, eat healthily, drink very little, have never smoked and my BMI is low twenties.

I wouldn't want to try doing a heavy manual job at 70.

More likely they will raise the required number of NI qualifying years from 35 to 50. That way, if someone starts at 18, school leavers will work to 68 and graduates will wait until 71 but, having higher earnings, are much more likely to go earlier and self fund. That would plug the funding gap by ensuring people contribute enough.

I worked from 16, while still at school, and all through my degree, and so already have 45 years, so would need another 5 years.

@Rainplops encourage it. The west will be fighting over the youth. Portugal are looking at tax exemptions for the young etc. I am
doing the same for mine. Yes, it makes it shitter here but.

Life expectancy is now dropping. This ever increasing state retirement age is all about an ever smaller number of workers supporting an ever increasing proportion of aging pensioners, and has nothing to do with whether people are sufficiently fit and well to keep on working. It can only lead to more people on long term sickness and a reduction in productivity.

@OldChinaJug . It’s not just teachers. Those who paid into some pension schemes were ‘contracted out’ of some NI payments, meaning they paid more to their private pension but less towards the state pension. This happened to my DH (local government). Only when he reached retirement age did we discover he gets about £80 a month less than the full amount.

My grandparents didn't either - both died before eligible

Was quite common when I was a child, that someone retired aged 65 ( not so many women worked or were entitled to a pension of their own back then ) and would be dead within a year leaving their wives on the widows element forcing them either back into the workplace or scrimping and saving

When I was 16 and first started work, there were loads of women in their 60's still having to work, aged 18 I worked with a woman who was 76 because she had opted to pay the married woman's stamp

Over 300 applications for one job in some areas there is a lack of jobs in some areas we can't all move for work

Well I’m about to be 68 and I got made redundant at the start of lockdown, found a new job within 6 months, got headhunted in mid 2023, had to work out my notice, started my new job late 2023 and got promoted after 6 months. I did get discriminated against twice in my 2020 job search but that just told me they weren’t the right organisation for me. It obviously does depend on skill set but many companies recognise the value in experience.

71 is too old. My parents are a little older than 71 and I don't think they could cope working to that age. They are well for their age, DM got breast cancer in her mid 60s. Both my parents get tired very quickly now. I am not going to work another 27 years. I have only worked 2 years less (the first 3 years p/t over the years) than I need to do to get state pension.

Being made to work to 71 is 'job blocking' (in a fashion similar to hospital bed blocking) the young ones. There are some jobs which are going to be difficult to do after in your mid 60s. Working in retail (shop) hardly any sitting down jobs and on your feet all day. Nursing, factory work, those engineers that climb up wind turbines, paramedics etc. Not jobs people in their late 60s can do,

It will become a time when there will be no pension, like in the Victorian days. One day, you turn up to work and get informed "Stuart died in his sleep last night. He was 69"

@wipeywipe Yes, some people had workplace pensions, IBM, M&S, public sector etc, but compulsory workplace pensions only came in to place in 2018. A huge number of employees of small companies have nothing but the state pension.

This idea that everyone in their 50s is sitting on a golden nest egg is laughable.

I always get the feeling that the people who come up with these ideas are people who push bits of paper around a desk for a living. Certainly not people emptying bins or bedpans.

It will be fewer ajd fewer old folk struggling on working, and more and more folk claiming some kind of benefit saying they can't work. It's not sustainable.

There is no lack of jobs

Even if there isn't, people still have to have the skillset to do the available jobs.

And they'd then have to be a better option (potentially in their 60s) than someone who is younger and has worked in that field before.