Who’s going to pay our pensions in 20-30years if the UK keeps its birth rate low and also restricts immigration?

[AlertEagle]

posted from another forum
Serious question. The UK’s birth rate is well below replacement level, meaning fewer young people entering the workforce. At the same time, the political mood seems pretty anti-immigration, even though immigration is one of the only things that’s kept the tax base stable.

State pensions are paid by current workers’ National Insurance contributions, not some magic fund. So… what happens when there’s a huge retired population and not enough working-age people to support them?

Will the government raise taxes, increase the retirement age, cut pensions, or eventually U-turn on immigration just to prop things up?

Feels like a ticking time bomb no one’s really addressing. Curious what others think, is anyone actually planning for this?

Or are we as a nation willing to give up state pensions if it means less immigration?

Agree with you but I don’t understand. IHT isn’t 100%

I'm a genX and I honestly believe that I will be the last generation to see a state pension, pittance though it will be. My advice to my kids has been to plough their pension contributions into a stocks and shares ISA and review it every few years, because there'll be fuck all left when they're ready to retire :(

People always trot out that there are plenty of jobs which can be done in older age, but having worked in admin all my life I can tell them that there comes a time when the brain struggles to keep up with the constantly changing technology. After working for almost 50 years I was well and truly ready to retire at 65 (the retirement age here).

I also took voluntary redundancy at 59, and found it quite difficult to find work after that age.

Pensioners don't pay national insurance because it is covered by the younger generations for them. In turn, the younger generations will eventually become pensioners themselves, and future younger people will pay for them.

Which is fine with pyramid demographics but not when the shape changes.

An even worse cruel joke is that my DC will have to sell everything to pay IHT, leaving nothing for them.

Why would paying IHT leave nothing for them?

It's just another aspect of the welfare state that has got out of control. The NHS wasn't set up to treat every single person for every single tiy blemish, it was set up so poor people didn't die at hospital gates. Free education wasn't introduced so middle class families could go skiing, it was so working class children could learn the 3Rs. The old age pension was introduced so working class folk didn't become a financial burden on their families, so they didn't literally die at the coal face or in the fields age 70.
Most men died before or within a short few years of 65, manual labour is hard work.
That office workers get govt pension at 68 is laughable, on top of their workplace or private pension as well.
It isn't what it was initially set up for but the horse has bolted now.

Denmark moving pension age to 70 is a bit of
a red herring.

They are a rich country with schemes in place for physical workers, ill health etc plus many have private pensions. Crucially many work a shorter working week.

Sorry but this is very bad advice! There’s nothing wrong in using a DC pension plan where you get more tax advantages rather than just paying into an ISA. Pensions aren’t bad, it’s only the state pension that is likely to fail because it’s NOT funded in advance. The problem is that nearly half of working age adults aren’t paying in to a pension so wlll rely on the state pension or will have to keep working until they drop.

People see £30 k in their pension pot and think they’ve saved well but you need to save half a million for a decent pension or any chance of early retirement. Best to start young

Can someone give a link to the claim that 1m immigrants are on benefits?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdx5pw8pwg5o.amp

An even worse cruel joke is that my DC will have to sell everything to pay IHT, leaving nothing for them.

Thisticklishfatball do you realise this is incorrect? Are you trying to mislead or do you genuinely believe this?

Don’t you realise that 100% of a £1m (or £500k if unmarried) plus 60% of everything over that is the same as getting absolutely nothing!

Im just pointing out what the research says about higher density housing, the statistics indicate that high density housing comes with bigger societal issues than other types of housing.

Im not sure terraces come within that category but not sure.

The hashtag childfree people
are planning on having so much money saved from not having kids that they won’t need to rely on pensions. Or public services. Or healthcare. Or the education of younger generation. So that’s all fine then.

I actually can’t worry about pensions anymore. Every way you turn you’re screwed unless you have a pension pot of at least a million.

I started work at 16. Worked in low paid jobs until I went back to education at 24. Started better paid (talking like 35k not stupidly high) job at 27. I have been working in this job for almost 20 years now. My pay has hardly changed (40k now) so what was a decent paid job 20 years ago isn’t that great anymore (I do realise it’s not terrible). It’s a healthcare profession and quite physically demanding at times. I now have constant pain which started about 7 years ago. I pay for private physio once a month to try and keep it under control but I have been told the damage is done and it’s a case of only managing it now unless I change careers. But it will likely get worse. I KNOW I will not be able to do this job at 70. Not a chance. I’m worried I won’t be able to do it in 10 years if I’m honest.

Pensions were not really talked about when i started work at 16. So I didn’t have one when i finally started my better work at 27. Then I was self employed. So no employer benefits or company pension with employer contributions. I had to fund my own holiday/sick pay etc. I do regret not starting a pension then. Then in my 30s I did have a fairly decent amount of savings, infertility hit. We spent thousands on IVF that failed so all my savings were gone. My husband and I had already moved house to a bigger house (and bigger mortgage) from our 1 bed flat because who thinks you’ll never actually have a baby? My husband earns less than me so he’s not one of those high flyer types everyone is married to on here. I finally got an employed job at 40 and now have a proper pension. But it’s obviously never going to be a huge pension. My career also doesn’t have any progression. So I have no further extra earning potential unless I totally changed careers. And as I’m closing in on 50 that just isn’t going to help as there’s no time to progress.

With a state pension between us my husband and I will survive with our small private/workplace pensions to top up. Plus we’re more than happy to downsize and live off house money in the future. That was the plan. But then you take away the state pension and we’re screwed. Ok so we’ll sell the house. But reading on here everyone is desperate for a property price crash so if that happens we’ll have nothing from that either. So you’ll need to have your kids help you then. Oh you don’t have any? Well you’re just one of those selfish people who should have loads of money. You don’t deserve any help because you’re just taking from other people’s children who have sacrificed everything so their kids can wipe your bum.

I didn’t plan on having this life. Yeah I wish I’d chosen one of those office careers that pay 100k plus and you work from home every day. I made a mistake working with people and trying to help them and choosing a career that’s crippling me and isn’t well paid. I wish I could have seen in the future and seen that no matter how many thousands I threw at IVF etc nothing would work. I wish I hadn’t had hopes and bought a bigger house in preparation for the family I couldn’t have. Yes I wish I had started a pension at 18. But I was earning like 3.25 back then so it wasn’t really on my radar.

I guess everyone on here should be quite happy though because my parents both died in their 60s (they were those decent boomers who died without taking hardly any state pension. Mum 2 years, dad none) so if I follow that trend at least I won’t need to worry about pension either because I’ll be dead. None of your kids will need to wipe my bum.

I'm with you. I want to be able to go when it makes sense for rather than when modern medicine says my body can longer be kept breathing.

People don’t have to work until 70 or whatever state pension age is, we are always told trades are a good wage, trades can invest in pensions as well you know to retire early.

@ThisTicklishFatball you pay half your salary tax and you think IHT is 100% - who thee fuck is giving you tax advice? Get a better accountant.

Well not really if there is a lower birth rate

If we need say 3-4 workers per pensioner then older workers are needed

Is this sarcasm? Please explain!

Exactly.

They need to tackle the unemployment issues. I’ve got absolutely no problem with people who are so disabled that they can’t work. However, most disabled people can work. Some just choose not to and take handouts. It actually makes me sick to the stomach to fund a lifestyle like that when I’m out working everyday.

People see £30 k in their pension pot and think they’ve saved well but you need to save half a million for a decent pension or any chance of early retirement. Best to start young

But realistically how can someone save this much outside of a public sector scheme?

Basically you are just the same as the vast majority of the population then? I imagine most don't earn more than 40K. You have your own home which is more than a lot of people have.

Don’t you realise that 100% of a £1m (or £500k if unmarried) plus 60% of everything over that is the same as getting absolutely nothing!

What does this mean?

Yes I agree. But then you read these threads where you get people panicking that their pot is only worth 500k at age 30 and how they’re worried about it. And then everyone chimes in that there definitely won’t be a state pension soon so you’ll need to just work until you drop. Well quite honestly with my job I’ll be dropping sooner than most. I’ll be on disability payments. Then you get told there won’t be those either. You’ll actually just rot and starve. Unless you have children to look after you. Which I don’t.