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

But we don't do that with working age benefits. My taxes go towards working age benefits of others. I've not claimed job seekers benefits or any type of income support since the few weeks I had to after graduating in 1995. However if something happened to me and I became unable to work or got made redundant, I am very glad of a system which enables me to claim it. There is no way to foresee what private pension pot someone will have accumulated by the age of 50 when they're just starting out in their early 20s. We will always need a backup social security pot for people whose pension plans go awry through no fault of their own.

And what do you do about feckless or incompetent people who burn through their private pension pot and end up with nothing left after a number of years? Throw them out on the streets? Send them to the workhouses? You can't tell them "well, it was your fault, you deliberately chose not to save into the state pension scheme so now there's not enough in the public pot to go round everyone, so you get nothing." How do you prevent that situation?

We're already on dodgy ground giving people choice over how to use their private pension pots when they just aren't financially savvy enough. Is there going to be someone there to say "no, you're drawing too high a percent each year, you're not going to have anything left by the time you're 80." Annuities are one thing, but drawdown as a choice is way too risky in a system in which a person's ONLY source of income is that pension pot, and there is no state backup for them.

Read Nomadland - I know there is a film but it didn’t seem to cover (from my friend’s description) what I took from the book which was an impression of a swathe of pensioners, made itinerant through chance not choice, and who were exploited as uncomplaining and reliable labour despite the huge cost to their bodies and minds.

Sorry meant to say it’s set in America but that US model doesn’t feel as far away as it once did.

I'm not sure that report is talking about anything that is actually going to happen, which is just as well because 71 is pretty old to be doing either a manual job or one that requires quick thinking and a reliable memory.

Yes but how is that going to help your 55yo? Or even your 40yo?
And that’s assuming you get the 25% top up of the government…

So yes that’s what I’m advising my dcs to do. They’re at Uni. They’ll start working soon so it makes sense.

But first those of us who started to work at a time when work pension weren’t a legal requirement etc… that’s a totally different ball park.
Not even going into what happens if you get ill and have to stop work for a while/depend on benefits etc….
But seeing that 1 in 2 people will develop cancer first example, that will be a lot of people who will be ill and maybe unable to work fir a while before they reach 71yo.

It’s difficult for older people to find employment now - with the best will in the world and as many ‘equality in the work place laws’ as you care to create - this age range will struggle to get employment and not be eligible for the state pension.

So whether the government are paying out pensions- that have been paid in to by national insurance contributions (its origin for creation) - or employment benefits is a moot point which is more beneficial.

I voted YANBU but the UK is in terminal decline. We have an aging population, businesses are struggling, and wealth generators are choosing to move elsewhere meaning fewer people paying into the system. The birth rate is declining because people can’t afford to buy a home or pay rents and bills, let alone afford to have a baby - which means fewer babies being born and growing up and contributing to the workforce. This plus the ever increasing drain on resources mean that taxes are bound to rise further, the government will keep increasing the retirement age and people will start to feel that they can’t afford to retire. All very depressing really.

I completely agree with you, doesn’t apply to older people.

I think pensions should be taught to young people and the government should hammer home the message in a big way.

But instead they went for a headline grabbing IHT raid on pensions. Which I think was entirely the wrong message to send out.

Or family carers. So social care had better get its act together

The birth rate is declining world wide. It's not just a UK problem, it's a humanity problem!
Ultimately employers will have to hire older people since there wont be enough younger workers to fill the roles that need to be filled.

Yes, I saw the film and it was sad despite the beautiful landscapes they travelled through. People who should be retired doing shitty, temp jobs in warehouses.

This concerns me. I manage a 69 year old in a professional role and her memory has gone to pot over the past year. Really tricky, as physically she’s well and she likes work. I’m hoping she sees 70 as a natural age to retire, as I don’t ever want to tell her she isn’t capable. She’s lovely and a great (kind) team member 🙈

MIL is 71 and hasn’t worked for 14 years. She’s physically well, but complains at least once a day about how tired she is. She would be irritating to work with 😂

Yep that is my situation can't find work am in my 50s and I need to work....it is extremely tough....but not due to get state pension until 67

It could be that releasing the report is getting us ready for some kind of rise, just maybe not to 71 just yet.

Yes but alot of pensions e.g NHS pension are tied to the state pension age. So as state pension age goes up you cant take your company pension either

so you lose your job at 65
cant get a job
claim unemployment benefit?

It is back door taxation. The government will expect you to take your private pension early and top it up using the lump sum element to live on. That way they are depriving you the bit of fun it would bring, or more likely the security if you have health problems.

we should be more french!

Compared to the UK state pension, US social security is far more generous (plus it can be taken from age 62).

This just isn’t true, for years now you are automatically opted into a work place pension (rather than having to request it). Anyone who has worked in the past 15 years at least will have something. I have one from a supermarket, a private pension from another job, and two DB schemes. Anyone under the age of 40 will have multiple pots (am not saying they are sufficient) but every job has to offer one.

There are definitely jobs you could do at 71 if you remain healthy but equally there are jobs you couldn’t, I think the thing is none of us want to think our whole lives will consist of school, work and very little else which is what people face as the proposed pension age keeps increasing

It’s hard enough finding another decent job in my late 30s and completely exhausting. I cannot imagine doing this in my late 60s!!

That's their fault

You have always been able to get a forecast on your pension and pay in any shortfalls, I had to buy 6 years and now have to work till 64 to get full pension ( moot point as my pension age is 67 )

You have x amount of years for which you need to contribute or get credited for - depending on date of birth - its up to an individual to ensure they know if they owe anything and get it paid up

If you want full state pension you have to buy enough years

We're already on dodgy ground giving people choice over how to use their private pension pots when they just aren't financially savvy enough.

This is the argument for a UBI I guess.

I have long thought that, for something which affects everybody, the tax and pensions system is way too complicated. So many people just don't understand it fully, even pretty well educated and intelligent people.

I also don't understand the rationale behind the push to get people to pay in their missing years' contributions if there's no hope of them getting their pension until 71, if at all. Wouldn't they be better putting it into a private pension?