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

It's just a think tank, not a proposal

Nearly £900 a month with likely no housing costs isn't that bad. It's a lot more than young people will get.

And 50 years in most cases? Strongly doubt MOST people who want to retire at 65, started working at 15 and never had a break, especially women.

What is it you are supposed to save if you are on minimum or slightly above wage? There is not much or anything to save.

the whole State pension thing confuses me, probably because I don't live in the UK. Mum and Dad both paid into it via their employers years ago. Surely that being the case, and it was privately funded as I'm lead to believe, is it the Govt's business to be setting an older retirement age?

Seems to me the Govt shouldn't be managing these funds and rules at all.

Why do you assume no housing costs? Many people have rent to pay, as well as council tax and utility bills. Retirement age is 66 and most people retiring now started work at 16, only women who have had children will have had a break in their working life. Unless you have a reliable crystal ball you have no idea what young people will get.

Plenty of working class people have worked more years than this. When I was young, most people started work at 16 years old. My state retirement age is older than 65. And maternity leave was 3 months. I am 61 and have had a break of 6 months my whole working life.
Most people my age work many more years than younger people will.

I'm 40 and I'm saving hard for retirement (despite also paying nursery fees) and overpaying my mortgage (can only afford £100 per month but its something)

We all have a responsibility to save for our own retirement and the state pension must not be relied upon.

God save me from a believer... You outsource raising your children so you can go to work to save for your 'retirement' - i.e. once the capitalist system has used you up and spat you out... Sounds idyllic... "We all have a responsibility to..." Who instilled that belief system in you? I can think of a zillion better things that we should "all have a responsibility towards" than our own mythical future that is not a given anyway. I'll put your belief system, dear voter, down to some weird kinda Stockholm Syndrome or a complete lack of imagination

@Anxioustealady Also no one who has saved into an employer pension my age gets £900 a month state pension. We all get lower than this. The rules have been changed so that younger people will not get this deduction.

YANBU. I'm 45 and have been working for 23 years since finishing university. I'm not entirely sure how I will physically manage to work for the same length of time again plus more

This is me 😵‍💫 3.5k to be exact.

And you would be surprised how well off we are compared to most of our peers in wealth generation. Ie. How much assets we have compared to wages/ debt.

So it’s slightly paradoxical.

I have looked at the compounding etc. tax efficiency. And that’s all great. But as half this thread states you can’t get at the money anyway! What good is that.

Im looking at 40 years until pension age or potentially never.

If it’s one thing our generation have been taught is never sign up to any financial agreement where they can change the terms and conditions at any moment or sell the product on (student loans looking at you!).

So currently we are all out on our own. And the ladder is constantly pulled up. Dividend allowance, capital gains tax and now even talk of crushing Cash isa allowances!

@Toddlerhelpplease123 I am 61, I will have worked 50 years before I get my pension.

Thats not what I am saying.

I am saying that here they are talking about changing the rules for those born 1970!

So they only have 20 years left and they are still moving goal posts.

I dont feel inclined to pump money into something which double that amount of time left. Change the rules once a decade and I have four sets of rules to get through before I know where we stand.

Im not quite going as far as let’s keep cash under the mattress. But do I trust these governments and financial institutions. Not really. I came of age c. The 2008 crash era and the landscape has been fucked ever since, and ladders continually pulled.

The end of state pension is insight

It will exist but be means-tested, as it is in Australia.

Economically the job market isn’t a zero-sum game with a finite number to go around. The more people work, the more wealth is created that supports more employment, all other things being equal.

Between nursery fees, student loan repayments, increased mortgage payments, ridiculous food and energy bills now it's about paying more into private pensions too.

@Toddlerhelpplease123

If it’s one thing our generation have been taught is never sign up to any financial agreement where they can change the terms and conditions at any moment or sell the product on (student loans looking at you!).

This with bells on.

Re private pensions, they’ve already raised the age to 57 and there is nothing to stop them raising it further, hence when able I’m putting savings elsewhere as contingency.

I do not need a crystal ball. The social contract towards younger people was tore up years ago, we get less of everything compared to previous generations.

Uni was free, then £3k/Yr, then £9k a year... houses are harder for young people to get. When I was young most the moms stayed at home or worked part time, now almost all mothers work.

The only thing we maybe get that older people didn't is subsidised nursery, but that's only because life is so expensive most families need both parents working.

OK I only got to page 7, so someone may already have pointed this out.

The report cited came out over a year ago - here it is linked in The Guardian

ICL are a Think Tank, they don't speak for the UK Government (of any party).

I can only conclude that the news aggregation site linked in the OP - which is remarkable cagey about dates is seeking to stir discontent.

I was born in the late 70s and it’s never occurred to me that a state pension would still exist when I reach retirement age - not that I’m sure what that is now. Definitely older than 65.

its still 55 at the moment. Will change in 2028.

The electorate chose precisely two of them.

Just spotted that @mitogoshigg (also p20) pointed out it was a think tank, but just to emphasise this was published in Feb 2024 by someopne with NO connection to government, and at a time when the Conservatives, not Labour were in charge.

Yes big conversations about pension provision need to be had, but they need to be had in a calm and (correctly) informed manner.

ETA: You should always check sources and triangulate the results - there is a reason that the Right (esp the Press) spent years persuading the public that Media Studies was a 'Mickey Mouse' Degree, it was so they would be less critical of disinformation. (And anyway, do you know how much Mickey mouse is worth? 😉)

Totally agree. It might work for people in some middle class occupations, where the person feels valued is in good health and wants to continue working. But thats a very limited set of circumstances.

I mean what about a bricklayer or the guys who collect the bins in all weathers? Unfortunately it is middle class people, who no doubt have good private pensions, that make the decisions.

I think we have to change the model and expectations.
No one should rely on the state pension, eventually.

Young people need to accept that they should be contributing to their own pensions by setting up one privately, from the minute they start work.

Older people need to also accept that they can and should contribute to a private pension even if they're in their 50s. The government at the moment tops payments up by 20% pa.

The current model is unsustainable- although no one likes to talk about it.

At the moment, the young people who are working are paying higher and higher taxes to fund the state pension.

David Willetts has written about this at length and how it's unsustainable.

The state pension age was originally set when life expectation was around 70- so 5 years of state pension.

Life expectancy now is closer to 80/ 85.

That's why it can't stay the way it is.