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?

Of course I don't. Why do you think I thought that?

We need immigration because our own people aren't willing to do the low paid jobs they judge as beneath them. Like care work.

Unless we start to add societal value to roles like care workers, then we'll need immigration to cover those roles. Or we won't have enough care workers.

Care work advertised locally requires these young people that aren’t prepared to do any of this work apparently, to have a driving license, a roadworthy car and business insurance
But pays £13 an hour
So I can only assume that these imported immigrants do not have a driving license. Do not have a roadworthy car and do not have business insurance but that is overlooked on the basis that they are cheaper labour.
Or nothing to lose if they get caught out with any of those three components missing
Unlike our young people

The care work you refer to is probably to care for people in their homes, therefore you need a car to get to and from clients’ houses.

Lots of immigrants work in residential care homes in one location, you don’t need to drive as part of your job to work in those.

True.
however, surely it’s at least a 50-50 split between those in the community and those in care Homes if we’re suggesting that immigrants are essential to this industry at least some of them must be in the community too
How are they navigating that I wonder on £13 an hour? If they are playing by the rules.

Breakdown of Long-Term Care Settings
Based on official government statistics for England (January 2025) regarding individuals receiving local authority-funded support:

• Community/In-Home Care: 488,000 people(approx. 72.5% of those receiving support).
• Residential Care Homes: 137,000 people(approx. 20.4%).
• Nursing Homes: 55,000 people (approx. 8.1

Because you said tax payers fund us. I’m an ex public service worker, now retired. I hate how we are demonised. I worked for education and my parter for social work. You have no idea the things we saw and dealt with, some of which still haunt us. We’re not all sitting on our arses doing nothing. We both have made a difference to peoples lives.

@FlushitdownI understand what you’re saying and thus is what Boris did, allowed loads of unskilled, low paid immigrants in to do these jobs. It’s a false economy and needs to stop. If there are jobs that people won’t do then they don’t get benefits, some jobs would just have to go unfilled. There needs to be a shift in thinking, peopke need to take more personal responsibility.

Did you retire early?

Came on to say this.

We both retired at 60. My husband a year before me. However, he was retiring on his birthday in August and I asked him to wait until the following April as it was 8 months more salary plus a bit more in his pension.

Then my colleague, who had retired just before lockdown, died. He lived by himself but had good family and friends and was really looking forward to it. He got a year. In lockdown. On his own. Still breaks my heart.

So I said to my husband “ just go on your birthday”.

He has 4 years until his state pension and I have 5.

So yes, we retired early. But bear in mind that I retired at the same age as older colleagues did and they got their state pension the day they retired. Mine was 7 years down the line though when I signed up to get it at 60.

Where do you live??? Where I live (Kensington and Chelsea) it’s in the late 80s!

I stand corrected…..it’s 86 for women….almost late 80s

It is very privileged to retire at 60. I have nothing against public sector workers - that would be hypocritical as I’m currently employed in the public sector myself - but I can admit the pension difference is unfair. The main thing keeping me from moving jobs at the moment is the knowledge of how crap pensions are in the private sector compared to the public sector offering.

The fact older women got it at 60 is irrelevant. The cut off was going to be somewhere. You didn’t ’sign up’ to get it at 60, you just worked (which the majority of people had to do) and paid NI (which employees can’t opt out of). What was the alternative, if they had told you 40 years ago you wouldn’t get your pension at 60, would you have not worked in protest? Women younger than you will be working until 68+.

Only on MN is there some scale on how much a failure someone is based on their age and earnings.
PP has a job that pays her bills. Who are you to come on here and say she needs to upskill and take responsibility for her life? It is rude, and snobbish as hell.
The lower paid jobs (and I wont say £30k is particularly low pay depending on where you live) still need doing. Some people are happier in lower paid jobs. Not everyone wants a career, and not all jobs lead to a career. They just want to earn money so they can do the things they enjoy outside of work.

And lots of non drivers are either paired with a driver or given "walking routes" in densely populated areas.

But I don't know why you'd think they wouldn't necessarily have a driving license @ElizabethReed lots of immigrants have driving licences. And cars. And appropriate insurance!

Yes jobs go unfilled. And people die because of it.

I know! But, at 18, when I started work, I expected to get my state pension when I was 60. The rest is hypothetical. I think I’m allowed to be a bit miffed that the goal posts have changed. I’m not out on the streets protesting about it. I’m silently seething and moaning to my pals, while realising that I am very lucky to have retired at 60 with no housing costs, a reasonable income and savings. And, no, I wouldn’t have stopped work. I liked my work and some of the main people in my life now are people I met through work. I’m just moaning.

It’s not their Immigration status I’m concerned about so much as It’s the £13 an hour. The math is not mathing there.

I am not sure what is worse - the comment implying I was too thick to upskill or the implication that I was one of those who didn’t want a career. I live to work. I adore my job,

I have a career, thank you very much. In fact I have just qualified at a very high level.

Not every career pays £100k plus.

I simply meant that everyone knows that they need to retire at some point and that it's never prudent to rely solely on the state pension.

Actually, not everyone does know that. In my younger world, the old people I knew all relied solely on state pensions. Whenever I heard pensions mentioned, I assumed they were talking about state pensions. My parents didn’t have private pensions, and nobody ever mentioned them to me. I didn’t know they existed.

I was in my early 30s before I was in a job that offered a private pension. Until then I was more concerned with raising my children to even think about retirement. I’ve got a healthy pension pot now, and encouraged my DCs to start making contributions as soon as they started working.

But please don’t assume that everyone grew up in middle-class homes or workplaces where pensions were ever discussed.

Wow, just wow.

Sorry, was annoyed at the person I quoted, not you.
My DP is highly qualified in his role and on £30k. He can't go any higher.

There is also nothing wrong with not wanting a career.

If you love your job, in my eyes you are a winner in life.

Sorry if you misread what I said. I am rubbish at explaining things.

No worries. But I do a job that not many people have the skillset to do. (Most people don’t understand the job description not sure I do tbf) It’s not that well paid because of the sector it is in. My previous job is likely to disappear in the next few years so I played the long game to get the job I wanted - not bad for a 55 yo 😬

I have absolutely upskilled and future proofed.

Your comment was incredibly rude though. It’s possibly to be highly skilled but not highly paid

I retired at 56 and get a reasonable pension but, despite having 39 years of NI contributions I will not get a full state pension at 68. Friends in Australia tell me that the state pension is means tested and you only get it if your works pension is low.