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

Really bad example as there are no qualified librarians left these days. It’s minimum wage work as an assistant if you’re lucky - many posts are voluntary. And what about those of us who trained up in that job years ago, thinking we’d be in the sector for life? In jobs requiring skills and qualifications that are now paid less than cleaning? We’re supposed, after scrabbling around for what few jobs are left, to jump out of the way for the men are we?

Plus, your point about pension affordability is that we can’t afford the pension bill NOW. As usual it’s the baby boomers taking everything now, having cushy paid retirements for 40 years or more, being kept alive on the NHS, while all those of us just a bit younger pay for them as well as ourselves. When we get to retirement, we will be the ones affected because we mustn’t upset the baby boomers NOW who are causing the issue NOW. Yet again they will benefit and pull up the drawbridge behind them.

Just where is the motivation for all of us younger to work for a living? Those of us in later gen X have been screwed over again and again. There’s no security, no retraining funds in a changing world, no time for retraining because we have to work longer hours, and having to compete for what few jobs with everyone else in the entire world means nothing is going to change.

Of course you have always paid tax on pension income once it takes you over the tax free threshold. However what Labour did change was the ability to pass on pension savings tax free. They are now included as part of your estate and will be taxed at IHT rate of 40%. Given IHT allowances haven’t moved for years this will drag many into paying IHT esp if you are a homeowner.

So you work hard and do the right thing by saving into a personal pension that can’t be touched until retirement age and if you then die early nearly half of it will go in tax. They are also talking about reducing the lump sum you can take, currently 25%, and the ISA allowance down from £20k, I wonder if the two are linked as people may change their savings habits accordingly 🤔

People who were born without family support and no inheritances to draw on can’t even buy a house let alone save for a pension. We’re too busy paying for that generation. We needed action on this 20 years ago when we said there was a problem, not more doubling down. This is not the country I grew up in - the country I grew up in was aspiring to become a meritocracy, not doubling down on the worse of Victorian and Regency inheritance and social connections politicking. And we can’t now leave so there’s a going to be problems.

“New research suggests”.

I thought that's exactly what state pension is for.Not everyonr hasa job that pays so well that you can save, especially when council housing is almost extinct and everybody has to buy somewhere to live. I did start a private pension as I was buying a flat in London. I only started a private pension when I started a family.

having cushy paid retirements for 40 years or more,

😂

Even my dad who retired at 65 and died at 99 didn’t get 40 years. I - a boomer - most definitely won’t.

What a load of nonsense. Any income above the tax allowance is taxable. You aren't taxed to the hilt, only 20% of your income over the allowance till you hit the higher rate. Tax allowances were frozen by the Tories. The country was thoroughly run down by the Tories, leaving the NHS, military, prison service etc unfit for purpose. It will take years to undo the damage.

Passing on pensions was only introduced 10 years ago, so hardly an historic right. Pensions are meant to be a way to provide income in retirement, not a way to dodge taxes. It is quite right that they should be included in estates, particularly given the amount of tax relief provided.

What gets me is the that Government data sets average Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) at 61.5 for males and 61.9 for females. So they know the last few years of your working life are probably going to be tiring and most likely completed in pain.
I do believe the pension age should be set by the HLE rather than the average life expectancy ages.
That is a lot of years to suffer through pain and discomfort, surviving on pills and potions to make it through. You just don't realise how quickly your body is going to deteriorate when you are forty something. I am fighting it all the way but when I hit 60 wow, just wow.

@thepariscrimefiles
Oh, I am. SPECTACULARLY uninformed. Yet I still manage to realise when things are going SPECTACULARLY wrong. Unlike some.

So pissed off with the Boomer-blaming posts. WTF are we supposed to do, die off to please you, @WaryCrow ?
@Wasteddaysanddays totally agree re health. Comes as a shock, doesn't it? :-(

Still helps to get your facts right.

@Blossomtoes Smug much? You have a good day, dearie.

It's amazing how a lot of pensioners seem to think they should be a special case, and not taxed if their total income goes above the tax thresholds. My parents (in their 80s) are the same, my mother recently started being taxed on her savings interest. This is simply because savings interest rates rose considerably over the last few years (although now heading down again I think?) so it has caught a lot of people out. It has happened to us too. I tried to explain this to them. But no, apparently it is outrageous and 'Labour has it in for old people'.

Hmm. They have many thousands in the bank and have been drawing their pensions for 25 years. Absolutely convinced they're hard done by though.

I do love them otherwise!

So they will just kill people off with stress by dragging them to the Job Centre and pestering them every 5 minutes

What the hell were we supposed to do when your generation pushed the house prices up by 400% in less than 4 years and work hasn’t paid as a direct result for more than 20 years? Or when you whine about having winter fuel payments taken off you while we’re sitting damp rented flats? You never cared about us, why do you always expect us to pay for you?

State pension was only ever meant to be a final resort for those too poor to have savings. When it first came in, it started at something age 66, when life expectancy was about 68. It wasn't supposed to fund 20 years of leisure in good health.

The introduction of nest etc pensions is intended to wean people off thinking that state pension can be their only income in retirement. The aim is that by the time current 20 year olds retire, it will be unheard of not to have some private pension, with state pension as a back up plan.

pushed the house prices up by 400% in less than 4 years

In which years did that happen?

As usual it’s the baby boomers taking everything now, having cushy paid retirements for 40 years or more, being kept alive on the NHS, while all those of us just a bit younger pay for them as well as ourselves. When we get to retirement, we will be the ones affected because we mustn’t upset the baby boomers NOW who are causing the issue NOW. Yet again they will benefit and pull up the drawbridge behind them.
What do you mean, not upset the baby boomers? Some of us wound our necks in a long time ago due to the bashing on SM generally and on MN in particular so you carry on being arsey cos it won't upset me. A lot of us exist on quite a low income (in my case £15k a year) and pay* *tax quite willingly on that amount; neither did a lot of us moan about the WFA going because it seemed fair, and a lot of the baby boomers understand it's a difficult time for everyone but you crack on if it helps.

Edited to remove highlight

People confuse NI as solely funding pensions. It doesn't. Its not ring fenced, but even if it was, it would also cover benefits generally, it was originally intended to cover:

• health insurance & sick leave
• unemployment benefits

As well as old age pensions. Its a social welfare levy generally.

I carried on working for 2 years and chose to defer my state pension instead of claiming it. I was surprised that my NI contributions (and those of my employer) stopped - I would have paid it as I was used to what I got monthly so wouldn't have missed it. Presumably there is a good reason why NI drops off at retirement age, but I can't think of one?

Unemployment benefits are half the state pension so theres a 50% saving straight away and you cant have assets over £6,000.

Quite clever really when you think about it

I'm of the "boomer" demographic, (although I normally refuse to use that term as it's puerile, lazy, and stereotypes all people of a certain age), and have children in their 30's.
Both age groups have had benefits and downsides.
But in terms of housing, higher education, employment opportunities and wages, I feel my kids have had a far worse deal than I did at that age.
But blaming "boomers" for all the country's ills is ignorant and pathetic - it pops up regularly and is boring, tiresome, and disingenuous.
I did not wilfully benefit from "free" higher education, did not wilfully push house prices up, and did not wilfully keep wages suppressed. I didn't moan about losing the WFA as I can manage without it, but I know people who can't.
What people like you need to realise is that we are all products of our era - we were able to afford to buy a house, get decent well-paying jobs, etc., because of the country's economics and government policies of the time.
Blaming a particular demographic for having the audacity to be alive at a certain, more economically favourable time achieves nothing except pit the generations against each other.
Oh, and by the way, I didn't vote for Brexit or Reform.
Unfortunately I am not confident that there will be no more "boomer-bashing" from now on - some people just can't seem to help themselves🙄

Well said - I expect this kind of generalisation to trotted out on tiktok and other SM for rage bait clicks, not on a parenting website where we share all of our experiences in depth.
It's lazy and reductive .

We’re still none the wiser as to which four year period saw a 400% increase in house prices then?