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

How so? State pension is currently £11.5k a year, hardly a fortune.

I don't think this is a sound plan. A lot of young families rely on grandparents for childcare, but if grandparents are all working, the government will have to pay for more child care or people will exit the workforce to raise their families and therefore not be contributing to the economy.

Additionally, there are so many jobs that would be impossible to perform well in later in life for the majority of employees (no, not all) but employers would face discrimination charges if they sacked their 70 year olds on age related grounds. But if working until 70, i imagine a lot of builders would be a bit slower going up and down the scaffolding or couldn't carry as many bricks up ladders. I imagine insurance policies would also increase, buildings would take longer to be built and costs would go up even more. Prisons would be full of riots as the septuagenarian staff are over powered by the inmates. Editors wouldn't be able to read as they would be awaiting cataract surgery. And those surgeons would have shaky hands. Teachers would not be able to carry all their marking home let alone have the energy to mark it. Speech and language therapists would be too hard of hearing to hear their patients. Waiters and waitresses and shop workers and factory staff and people working in museums, libraries, cinemas, galleries wouldn't have the energy to be on their feet all day!

You would get pension credit and access to other benefits such as free dentistry.
I have a so called gold plated pension that young people go on about that will be worth £12k a year. Why should someone bother paying into a pension for years if they end up no better off than someone who has never worked or just spent all their wages? I paid into the pension to give myself a reasonable standard of living.

I've got a feeling though that a good many of them have seen their pensions safeguarded on the triple lock. Free dental care, free further education, affordable housing. Frustratingly, a significant proportion have voted for measures that have meant that our generation and the ones after us won't get the same. And it upsets me greatly to hear about "avocados and how everyone saved more and that was why".

@InvisibilityCloakActivated They just find some way to get rid of you. Unemployment is already higher amongst 55 to 65 age group.

Fine, but advising young people not to invest in pensions remains terrible advice. You have no way of knowing (none of us do) what the state will provide in the future.

The state will always provide something.
When I was young lots of older people told me they were worse off with a small private pension than they would have been if they had no pension. The government needs to make it worthwhile for ordinary people to save and have pensions. Otherwise the benefits bill is going to be enormous in the future.
Because even if pensions no longer existed, the number of people on sickness benefit from sixty plus will just soar and soar.

I agree Gutsy. It's really terrible advice to rely on the state for anything. I think it's unlikely that they will be able to provide much within a decade.

We already have more young people not working on sickness benefit, than people fifty plus. You really think those young people are going to work until eighty? Not a chance.

And you seem to be missing the simple fact that if you retire tomorrow, you receive a larger state pension than people who have been retired for a while. The Conservative government increased the state pension, but did not backdate it. The state pension has got slightly better, not worse. My friend gets a state pension of £8,000. Worked all her life.

Then your friend has missing years. The annual increases apply to all state pensions. Unless she moved overseas to a country that does not have a reciprocal agreement with the UK.

An honest government would ring fence pension contributions, invest them and use the fund to pay pensions, as happens in other countries.
A profligate and irresponsible government would spend the contributions and take pensions (unfairly) from future generations.
Care to guess which type of government we have in the UK?

cough Michelle Mone cough

There WILL be another Glasgow bin lorry man type incident

I'm 47, mine's currently down for 67. I'm not in any hurry to retire, I'm looking forward to going back to full-time work, but with looking after two SEN kids that'll be at least 6 years away, so I'd like to work as long as possible. I have a private pension so I can draw from that in 8 years time if I wanted to, but I want to be able to work more. My FIL has just retired at 80 and I'd like to do the same, I feel like I've had too many years of having to be part time and be a carer, but I love my work in our family business

If you want to look at the history of pensions, the original age was 70 - 5ish years older than typical adult life expectancy. Most people would have died before receiving a state pension.

state pension was always a bit of a Ponzi scheme in that it relied on more people paying in (young workers) than those receiving payments. Fine while our population and economy were growing, but it doesn’t add up when the we have a declining birth rate and longer life expectancy. Not just for the UK - pick any mature economy and you will find the same demographic challenges and resulting pressure on pension systems.

i understand the feelings of unfairness, but no amount of outrage is going to change the numbers.

Not on the newer state pension Read the WFA threads

But that isn’t how the pension system was designed - pensions paid today come from current workers. There is nothing to invest.

and again, this is not unique to the UK - it is a concern for pretty much every developed economy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pensions_crisis

Thank you. We do own nearly all of our house though but I had hoped to downsize and give kids a large deposit. I am better off than a lot I appreciate that. Obviously if the state pension goes which I honestly have been told by pension providers though work that it would form part of old aged income then we need that money ourselves.
just disappointing that I have worked for large Financial institutions and you have thought they would have got employees a good deal. I guess that stocks and shares go up and down.
I am definitely going to sit down and work out exactly what I’ve got and improve it. Am healthy so must keep on at the gym ! An overhead I won’t be cutting anytime soon but prob downgrade to a cheaper one.
and Dd2 will be forced at weekend to open one up even if we need to put £50 a month from her rent money into it
need to take this warning seriously

Too old. My stepdad was fine last 60s. He hit 70 and completely went downhill and has aged a lot. He’s like an average 80 year old. He wouldn’t have the cognitive function to have a job.

What a load of utter codswallop. Do you actually live in the UK ? This kind of nonsense has lead to our demise. I have posted how many people are on sickness benefit by age. Needless to say, you are wrong.

We get the government we deserve, frankly. We've voted for a majority Tory governments for decades. Even the Labour interlude of Tony Blair was quite a right wing Labour government.

Oh and please don't start blaming this Labour government who've have had to pick up after the most corrupt decades of Tory so called leadership.

We'll have Reform next.

I agree the numbers won’t stack up (probably don’t now).

In which case should NI not be reduced in line with low/no state provision and everyone made aware it’s a fend for yourselves scenario?

But it wasn't designed like that, even way back when it was introduced. Nobody has ever paid in to a ringfenced public pension fund. It's a bit late for that now. It needed to be addressed 50 years ago when the upcoming pensioner boom was obvious. But it wasn't, and nobody (including most upcoming pensioners) cared until it looked like it might hit them. You get what you vote for, and the hole is too big to plug now.

@Digdongdoo I cared. So did some others. But remember we have a population that voted for Boris Johnson. Enuff said