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

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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?

How did she manage that?

@andweallsingalong but company pensions are far less generous now even with auto enrolment

Just kicking the can down the road. More children now, even more children later to pay for those children.

And we all pay, or public investment as you call it OP, regardless of having children or not towards those children now. We pay education, child benefit, NHS, nursery subs. I always find this argument of paying more for people to have children a bit short sighted, esp when complaining about older people having pensions. Its not sustainable. There's too many people on the planet and we are robbing it blind just to feed us all.

I don't know, I always thought you got a LOT less than the full time workers who have never stopped.

The question I would ask would be why does the government get to flout the rules when private pension providers have to follow them.

It use to be clear. You paid National Insurance exclusively for your state pension and the NHS. Then tax was for everything else. Then the government blended them.

If the government had kept it like this and behaved like any other pension provider investing your pension contributions for your pension then there wouldn't be an issue as everyone one would have provided their own pensions, but instead the government spent it and decided current employees should fund current pensioners. If private pension providers did that they'd likely be in prison.

Let's hope we get assisted dying in after all but then that's another discussion.

Perhaps maybe this is unsustainable.

At 26/27 we have accepted there will be no state pension. Probably going to sell the house/downsize and retire on that plus private pension. Our children will probably not inherit much as it will be split three ways.

Have I? I'm in the same position at 60. My DM is currently 88 and not looking like dying soon. My Grandmothers both lived into their early 90s.

I'm fucked with a chronic illness. Statistics mean little. I may well live to a ripe old age. I won't be healthier than they were or enjoy the quality of life they have and I have worked full time in a stressful job all my days, which they didn't.

Remember much of the west is facing ageing populations. So there will be incentives to attract workers to other countries, it already happens now. Obviously it exacerbates the issue though if we lose lots of skilled young people.

I will retire later this year at the age of 67, having worked solidly full time since I was 22. I have never expected the state pension to be enough to support me in my old age. No-one else in my age group should have assumed that either. Young people now should certainly not assume that. It's below the minimum you need for a reasonable life in old age and that situation will get worse. After Covid, there is no buffer to support the damage to the world economy from Trump's war so we will all be tightening our belts even more than we already have done.

Home responsibility protection - if you get child benefit then you get the national insurance credit paid for your pension.

Well they keep putting up the retirement age and underfunding the NHS so maybe the plan is we all die before retirement.

If the government had kept it like this and behaved like any other pension provider investing your pension contributions for your pension then there wouldn't be an issue as everyone one would have provided their own pensions, but instead the government spent it and decided current employees should fund current pensioners. If private pension providers did that they'd likely be in prison

@andweallsingalong its a pyramid scheme, the majority won’t have pad enough into the fund to provide for themselves so if they were acting like a private fund they would be upping the contributions considerably.

UC for a single unemployed person is £400 a month. State pension is £996 a month. It’s a massive difference.

I bloody hope not! My grandma died at 102 😳

When State Pension was launched most didn’t have equity or other assets. I think the age will rise and there will be tapered entitlement in due course. Means testing. For pensioners who have significant assets they may not need SRP. Likes of those with highest public sector pensions for example. Immigration how they plan to solve birth problem, and 4IR going to lead to under and unemployment for many. Reality is social contract broken, our generation and those that follow royally screwed in many cases. Economy has not recovered since 2008 so promises of growth are a lie. Hence GDP morphing to wellbeing economy, BBC futures call it Sustainability on a Shoe String, which = Make Do & Mend really for the masses looming, pensioner or not. Western Countries essentially bankrupt so now is as ‘good’ as it gets.

And we all pay, or public investment as you call it OP, regardless of having children or not towards those children now. We pay education, child benefit, NHS, nursery subs. I always find this argument of paying more for people to have children a bit short sighted, esp when complaining about older people having pensions. It’s not sustainable. There's too many people on the planet and we are robbing it blind just to feed us all.

This doesn’t make sense to me, a reduced global population? yes. A reduced but largely older population? nope. Ideally we would have a softer landing which is why successive governments have chosen immigration.

Yes, the same for those claiming benefits. It’s possible to get full NI credits without having worked a day in your life.

Economy has not recovered since 2008 so promises of growth are a lie.

Yes & an ageing population compounds the productivity issue.

The issue isn't that individual people don't have children. That's a choice.

The issue is that the pension system is built on wrong assumptions and wasn't adjusted ages ago.
So some generations enjoyed long nicely sized pensions, and some generations are just paying for that.

I am hoping I stay reasonably fit and healthy, if not…I hope they bring in euthanasia 😬. I seriously don’t want to get to the point where I need carers or a care home.

I have no savings, a very small pension and I don’t own property. Both my DC’s have disabilities and will likely pass before I do or they won’t be capable of caring for me (I wouldn’t expect them too).

3 of my grandparents have lived into their mid 90’s and were reasonably fit until their final months, none of them ended up in a care home, one needed a carer near the end. I just pray that I stay fit and healthy or that I die quickly not needing care.

Immigrants? Only joking.
My parents, aunts and uncles are not blessed with longevity, all deceased so I half expect to be here past 70. I can manage for 5 years before I kick the bucket now that the government has set a mandatory pension in Ireland.

Ah that makes sense. I was surprised at the amount, so I suppose a lot of people don't need to worry.

it definitely not 62! 82 possibly