To think we are heading into a pensions disaster

[She11y]

I asked ChatGPT what the median pension savings were for someone in their mid 40s and I got the below reply:

Ages 35 to 44: The median pension pot is approximately £30,600.
• Ages 45 to 54: The median pension pot increases to about £81,200.

This website has a similarly sobering statistic - average pension pot for 50-59 is £96k.

https://www.nutsaboutmoney.com/pensions/average-pension-pot-uk

These are averages and the number will be brought down by some people who have zero pension savings but it's still a very low amount.

How are people going to survive retirement. There aren't many jobs for people the wrong side of 50z

@SparrowsEatUpToHalfTheirBodyWeightADay Mine will be a G&T

I fear ours will be whatever we will be able to brew at home on cheap 😂

I don’t think public sector staff appreciate how high ‘high’ actually is. For most of them, they’ll be paying less in tax than they’re receiving in employer contributions which is insane. At the same time they’ll consider themselves net contributors because they’re paying £10k tax and not on benefits without considering that the taxpayer is paying £15k a year into their pension.

I hear the argument about accepting lower paid public service roles, and while that may be true for those in high powered London careers, for the average Joe there isn’t a great disparity in wages between public/private sector roles; in fact for huge areas of the country the public sector jobs are the ONLY available roles.

Public sector workers moaning that their pensions aren’t ‘great’ because they’re not getting the final salary pension of yesteryear is ridiculous. They are still amazing pensions!

NHS 9.8% per month on a salary of £29,000 + ( so anything above band 5 - nurses, OT etc) I think the next change is about £50,000 + which is 12.5%

there’s no option to change your rate your either in the pension or out of it

I also don't think people quite get how the public sector pensions work. The big unfunded schemes aren't creating a pot.

The employers contribution isn't going to the employee (and nor is the employees contribution) it just ends up in the treasury again and is used to cover existing liabilities. we'd still have to pay those liabilities, but with less contributions from staff as they are now putting money in thier own pot and the employer would have to make an actual them contribution too. It might be a long term solution but it would cost more to begin with.

It makes sense in most cases. The state pension alone is approximately 3x the NMW of my home country. I could live well without my private pension.

I think realistically the job market will adapt to accommodate more older workers - what choice will there be if we have fewer younger workers - and people will semi-retire - part time working whilst also drawing on their available pensions, whilst hopefully having low/no housing costs if they E paid their mortgage off. The real problem will be for anyone still renting at retirement age as they will still be paying high housing costs and so will likely have to work longer hours to am older age.

I'm 32 and I'm not living in any expectation of a golden retirement - if I am still married at that age it should be ok(ISH), if we've ended up getting divorced then hahahahahaaaaaaaaa!!! I'm working til I drop!

If you move overseas I believe your state pension doesn’t rise each year. You still get it but it remains at the value it was when you move.

It is important to work with ambitious and competent people early in your career.

If your kid is one of the very few who end up in the treasury that might happen.

If not then go big 4

Much better career options.

It is naïve to think AI will replace accountants, you get paid the big money because people trust what you have to say on tax or some type of transaction.

Trust is the one thing you don’t get with generative AI

Yeah lots of people are looking at that. We are too tbh. I have EU passport so much easier.
My retire age in my native country would be 64, not 68 (both for now...) like in UK😭 dang

I think there is a wealth of difference between a 16 year old away from home for the first time fending for themselves and a 19 year old who is living with her boyfriend who may rustle up the odd meal. You had a car, you could pop along to the supermarket anytime. They had to rely upon public transport and carry their shopping back. They weren't in a city as I have pointed out a few times, they were stuck in a small village in the highlands having to catch a train after a very tiring day to get their shop or get a job

I'm just pointing out how unrealistic it is for some people to get a job and work during their degree course. But you think otherwise

Many universities still require students to sign a contract saying they won’t work during term time as it would negatively impact their studies.

This.

There will be a lot of poor pensioners in the future if they don't sort themselves out now.

I actually moved out of home at 16 and was completely financially independent from my parents from that age.

I didn't learn to drive till I was 26 and cycled everywhere for 10 years prior to that so I don't know where you got the 'owned a car' bit from.

I think it's more unrealistic for parents in their 40's and 50's to not be able to pay into a pension because they are funding their adult children's higher education (this conversation started off about parents funding university aged adult children, but you took it to 16).

People have different priorities but they shouldn't then feel sorry for themselves (as implied earlier in the thread) because they looked after their kids financially to the detriment of their own old age.

I am saying adult children can contribute pretty well if they put their mind to it - that's all.

God forbid he should have to do such a thing!

I actually loved working whilst at uni - I met amazing people and learnt so much.

I'd go as far to say it made me so savvy and experienced that the world of work was a doddle after that

Wonder if Labour will look at that rather than welfare cuts and everything else.

You said your matches were a 2-3 hours drive away so I presumed you had a car.

And yes they were doing a degree at 16, lots of dance/drama students do at 16. The fact that it was a degree course saved us money as they now have student debt and we don't have debt

I don’t believe it, sorry. I did a professional degree (one of the harder ones) with 2 small kids and working 4 days a week. I don’t believe that a student with no other obligations can’t possibly do a couple of shifts a week somewhere.

I currently put in an average of £350 a month towards my pension.

I will have a nice pot by the time I retire in 35 years time. However, if I don’t manage to get on the housing market I can’t help but wonder what’s the point!

It will all end up going on extortionate rent!

I did not.
But seeing as this thread is about pensions, I did manage to get a job that enabled me to pay off my mortgage early and I am now ploughing 50% of my salary into my pension.

On the uni minibus funded by the sports fed & student union

for my experience in many private sector roles, less than 10% for that kind of benefit is unfathomably low. High pensions contribution would be over 20%.

@Birdist

Take someone working for the NHS for 30 years for £30k pa. They'll personally pay 8.3% contributions. From SP age they'll get an NHS pension of around £16k pa. That seems fine to me- that's the sort of level of pension we'd want someone to have, surely?

So an NHS pension of £16k and a state pension of £12k, so total pensions of £28k. Which is one hell of a lot compared to £30k when they were actually working. And don't forget, there's no NIC on pensions, so their "take home" after tax will probably be the same in retirement as it was when working, if not more.

And presumably a substantial tax free lump sum on retirement too!

Please explain how that can possibly be affordable. Maybe 30 working years, and maybe more than 30 years in retirement. It's clearly unaffordable and utterly bonkers to think it's "fine". It "fine", in fact absolutely brilliant for the worker, but completely unsustainable and unfair on all the other taxpayers who have to fund it.

Nope. They won't upset their union paymasters.