Who is going to pay for your state pension/ care in old age?

[itsadlibitum]

Apparently birth rates are falling, and this is putting future pensions (and I would imagine general tax income) in jeopardy as the population will proportionally age.

What's the solution? Should we just write off our paid for "right" to a state pension and state support for care in older age?

Does this change your view on public investment in supporting people to have children if you otherwise thought this was a personal choice and you should support/ pay for your own children?

AIBU to think that NI contributions for "pension" is essentially government mandated mis-selling and state pension will go out the window in the next few decades?

Do you save into a pension now? Why do you feel that you need to work until you literally drop? If you are over 55 now then a) you are very likely to get a state pension at 67 and if you are under 55 now you have time to save towards retirement.

You must have a particularly healthy social circle. I would assume that certain demographics impact the average. either way your anecdotal experience does not trump the statistics.

Ditto

interesting. I’m nearly 60 and all my same age friends are still working, travelling, in very good health. Older friends in their 70s are enjoying a healthy, active retirement. Parents in 80s however are going down a bit. Yes I have some school friends that died of breast cancer but they never got to retirement age so they aren’t the ones we are talking about. Maybe it’s regional. I’m in London and middle class. Everyone I know eats well, exercises, isn’t overweight. I don’t consider 70 that old.

Generally speaking more affluent people are generally able to maintain better health.

Who advised you that?tit's been around for 8-14 years now and with both your and employer's contributions would have added up to something. Why do you think you won't qualify for a state pension? If you don't get a full state pension and have no other incone you would get pension credit (under current system).

I was self-employed from age 35. I made certain that my pension fund was nailed on from then. No one was going to contribute a half penny to my pension except me, and the tenant of the industrial shed I bought, who paid me rent. Thirty years later, the rent is £40k, the mortgage is paid off. It's not riches, but i STILL have the asset producing an income.

Great to hear. A lot of self employed don’t have that foresight at a young age and realise too late.

If you don’t begrudge it, what point are trying to make?

Honestly, you have had very poor advice. Everyone should take any contribution to a pension being offered. The time is the main factor, very seriously; pension money builds slowly in the first years, and then it starts to accelerate after about 15 years.

And a lot because they can afford to and want to. I’m a soon to be early retirer. No way the governments guilting me to carry on working. I’m making way for the kids.

But a pension is always something you have to consider over a 25 -30 year period. Nothing else is comparable.

I'm completely against encouraging people to have more children. We don't need more children, there aren't enough jobs for the children that are already here.

More children are just even more of a drain on the system as they will be claiming UC. They would make things worse not better.

According to Google we have 700,000 graduates out of work and claiming benefits. We do not need more children.

It was a different time

There's a 10 year age gap between my mum and dad but I think what they experienced was the norm for the time my dad passed his 11+, did a levels and then did a degree (fully funded). My mum did not pass her 11+ and like everyone else who didn't, went into employment straight after school (on the YTS scheme?

Compared to myself who was of the "tony Blair,-everyone should go to university" era of 2005.

Yes, there are millions of economically inactive people. But many unemployed people want to work but emoyers won't invest in them.

These are the ones we should be bringing into the labour market rather than pulling the lever for ever more immigration, which is an argument often trotted out when we talk about an aging population.

In about 20 years, we might @facethemusical . I have one, who's not keen on relationships, let alone kids, having been burned at 22 yo. I'm not enthusiastic to be grandma either. But for the health of the national finance, people like us, who have started and run successful small businesses, need to pass on the flame. It is seriously great fun. and a high wire act, to create something new. I am not sure that the government takes the role of new SMEs seriously. If they did, there might be a few more taking the skid.

I agree, and tbh I'm wholly tbh not expecting to even be alive by the time I even reach state pension age 😬

When the state pension was created life expectancy was significantly lowers than it is now and as you say was only ever really expected to support someone for a minimum of a few years. Now realistically some people will live long beyond that (my grandma retired at 50ish and lived to 96! 😱)

That's fine, if you're retiring early and living on private pensions, there's no problem.

I'm 38 and have a decent-ish private pension but I know so many people my age who have hardly any pension at all as they're lower earners and/or have had to prioritise expensive childcare (before free hours) and house deposits and now high cost of living. I really worry about how we're going to cover all those people who just won't have enough...

Not to mention a lot of care home fees are covered by housing equity and the number of people who don't own their own home or will never own it outright...

I didn't say anything about a higher birth rate...

Why won't you get a state pension?
Why haven't you paid into a private pension?

I don't entirely disagree, but I am 70. I was entirely self employed from the age of 35, and back then, I earned a lot. So I sledged money into my pension. And now, surprise surprise, after 30 years accruing interest, I get back enough to make my state pension a useful foundation for a comfortable lifestyle.

It is a worry. But an aging population need not be a disaster. Japan provides a good model for managing this while maintaining good health and a fairly equal and stable society.

@Hellohelga i think being London based and middle class certainly will skew your opinion. I’m sure your social circle overall is probably in good health, and in the least offensive way possible your unlikely to be in a front line physically demanding role (apologies if i’m wrong).

I work in healthcare and also live in a reasonably deprived area of the country and our average life expectancy is 78 male and 81 female.

I attended a conference in Birmingham where we looked at a specific surgery performed across the country the consultants in London were talking about operating on 80 yo’s and were staggered that our average age for this surgery is 57, youngest recently being 43. Elsewhere in the country it was about 64.

Generally speaking across the country health is poor and the vast majority will be struggling with their health post 60, especially in frontline roles or physically demanding such as teachers, nurses, health care workers, trades people, retail workers, cleaners. Being retired at 65/70 and being active and travelling is completely different to holding down a full time job where you can’t just rest if your feeling tired that day.

That seems quite a radical retirement plan.

Do you at least own your home that you can sell to give you a few years to enjoy while you explore options for checking out?

Honestly, I think most of MN is determined to be poor when ageing. I have rarely read such stupidity.