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

Well everyone working for local government, health, police, teachers etc.

Now people are getting paid State Pension for decades and it's simply not sustainable.

Exactly this.

My partner has a family member who worked in a factory all their life. Hard shift patterns including nights, hard labour moving boxes. But essentially it is still going, and it's a smidge above national minimum wage.

They started work at 16ish, retired at 52ish with a small private pension to go on top of full state pension - had some savings to tide them over until the "full" pension kicked in (a few years). Has been claiming pension since was eligible, and is now in their mid-90s. Cashed out a massively bumped up house price to buy a little ground floor flat in their 50s. Has more cash in the bank than they are now literally able to spend or even want to, as is in ill health.

It's both great and depressing in many ways. Imagine a national minimum wage person having hundreds of thousands in the bank by their 90s, but being too ill/frail to really be able to enjoy it (I think they're fortunate to still be able to live mostly independantly with daily visits from carers and family members).

But the idea of working for 40 years then having a longer "retirement" than your working life.. this isn't sustainable at all. If you look at what my partner's family member paid into the system vs. what they've got out.. if everyone expected the same, the country would be bankrupt. We're already on our knees as it is.

Too many have taken out for too long. And the rich aren't even beginning to pay their way - and no i'm not talking about a GP on 90k PAYE a year, I'm talking about the wealthy who pay no income tax at all really.

Well I didn't mean you then, did I?

There are thousands of boomers on very nice final salary pensions. I'm talking about means testing that lot. They do not need the state pension.

But we end up in a ridiculous situation whereby people such as yourself give them cover by taking personal offence to something that wasn't aimed at you in the first place.

Agree! Luckily I will not be relying on the pennies a month I will get from my workplace but I do seriously worry about many of my co workers and how they will survive financially at retirement! Unfortunately many people on MN are out of touch with the real world.

@Mainoo72 but even those schemes aren't as generous now or were you not aware? Plus we also have something called the private sector...

Not much of a choice if the penalties mean the pension won’t last!

Those who are in jobs that are physically demanding, who can't carry on doing them into their fifties or sixties, let alone their seventies, will just have to leave (or be made to leave) those jobs and find other work.
Or more likely, as they will find it very difficult to get other work, they will be claiming long-term unemployment or sickness benefits until they reach state pension age. And if they are over the Universal Credit limits, will get nothing, potentially for a decade or more, or until their savings and assets are depleted.

This is something we should expect and plan for. Could you cope with losing your job age 55 or 60 and funding a decade or so of living until you get the state pension, with nothing but a pittance of pre-retirement state benefits to live on?

If not, have a 'second career' in mind and make plans.

Every teacher I know is retiring early at 58 or 60.

Exactly. Private pensions are meant to help towards a state pension. We won't be allowed to retire soon. Getting pathetic

i don't understand why people over the age of 60 still working don't pay NI.

The whole problem is that we don't and won't have sufficient younger people to take on the jobs. Our population is aging rapidly - there are now more over 65s than under 15s, and that will get more and more so over time. You can't have a shrinking workforce supporting a growing number of those who need it without one of the following:

• Accepting that you're trying to do more with less and so that everyone's standards of living will go down
• 'Importing' young people to make up the imbalance through immigration
• Making people work much longer so that they are part of the workforce rather than the group being supported for a bigger proportion of their life

The problem is, at the moment we're doing all three to some extent but all three are wildly unpopular.

@Mainoo72 No, state pensions are not a top up for most people. Many jobs do not have private pensions attached and very few at the rate you suggest yours is. So, for working class people the state pension very often - mostly - is the pension.

60 or whatever the pension cut off is for their age.

I suppose that's why assisted dying is coming in.

I thought you had to be 55 before you were allowed to take your private pension?

@Mainoo72 Are they that age now? If so, it’ll be because they’re in the old TPS scheme.

Wow honestly there is not much incentive to get into teaching is there. Being attacked, getting ill all the time, working in your own time, shit pension. Do teachers literally only get into it for the holidays off? I just can't see what the incentives are anymore!

I paid it until 66.

We all paid into state pensions so we should all have them. That those who are well off gain from what's left of the welfare state is what keeps them on side and willing to pay in. You do not seem to understand maths.

No it’s not true, teachers can retire up to 10 years before state pension age. Their pension is reduced though to take into account the longer period of time it’s paid for. Most teachers I know are retiring at 58-60.

In my job I very regularly see women in their mid nineties who have been receiving SRP for 35 years. many of them barely worked so heavily topped up with pension credit etc and all the freebies that brings. Great that they are living this long but so many who have barely paid into the system.

• Accepting that you're trying to do more with less and so that everyone's standards of living will go down
• 'Importing' young people to make up the imbalance through immigration
• Making people work much longer so that they are part of the workforce rather than the group being supported for a bigger proportion of their life

The problem is, at the moment we're doing all three to some extent but all three are wildly unpopular.

yep

I am not a financial advisor. I would say yes because eligibility for state pension will, in all probability, become a gateway benefit. If you're not eligible for state pension you, by default, won't be eligible for x,y,z (just as pension credit is now).

We all paid into state pensions so we should all have them.

So why is the state pension age loving out?

Ah ok thanks so it's fake news basically.