45% of working age people not saving toward a pension at all

[FernFaery]

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/may/19/britons-not-saving-enough-retire-pensions-commission

Another looming crisis!

Well that’s not nice either, is it?

Why does everybody have to be so nasty to each other and not have a rational discussion about ways to make things better?

@DrRylandGrace I have had friends over for lunch this afternoon, so I have been battering the pots and pans instead of following the thread as attentively as it deserves. And this thread is really deserving of close attention. MN is my only social media addiction, and I am only really interested in public policy and fashion. I read your post quickly this evening, and would like to give it more time and thought before replying.

Thank you. I’m grateful if you take the time to read it, very grateful. I really try to put forward solutions but most people don’t want to hear them.

As I said earlier in the thread I am not affiliated with any political ideology or party, I’m a facts and evidence person and desperately want the UK to implement some evidence-based policy based on what we know works because it’s already tried and tested in other countries. It’s insane for us to refuse to do this and continue down our path with models of services and taxation that we know will make us all poorer.

I am so sorry for the tragedies in your family. Mine are suffering similar things so I do empathise. There are ways that we can be fair (in a reasonable sense of the word, which doesn’t mean redistributing everyone’s money to others) and also create a functional society so nobody has to live in poverty and there is some sense of social cohesion again, but this requires big structural changes that I fear nobody will implement until it’s too late.

I must go and be with my children now. I hope you have a nice evening and thank you for the courteous responses: I’m happy to debate any topic with anybody and exchange views and reconsider my position if they have more data or another idea to put forward, but there’s been not much of that on this thread at all, just insults flying around against anybody certain posters don’t agree with yet them adding nothing to the discussion and proposing no solutions themselves.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts when you do have time to consider my post about what I would do if I was the Government, which I was pressed to provide, as I am always looking for new perspectives or flaws in ideas in order to make them better.

I’m retired on a private pension. I pay income tax on it. Same with my husband.

I don’t know 🤷‍♀️

Like me?

Mine were born in the 40s.

Meant to add. My Dad died with dementia. It’s awful 😞 x

This! FFS, it should be obvious.

Well, they did do that between 1939-1945... They had special Drs in special camps. Generally, they are not praised for their efforts though. I wonder why? 🤔

You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself for saying that. For so many reasons.

I’m amazed it hasn’t been reported. Far more innocuous posts on this thread have been.

In general, I agree entirely.

Regarding infrastructure and our lamentable record on building anything to replace the crumbling Victorian legacy, it is noticeable that all our politicians and civil servants are incapable of managing contracts.

Why this should be I don't know, but it's a national disgrace. Norway finished a nine-mile undersea tunnel (Ryfylke) in 2019 that cost under one billion pounds. HS2 has already wasted £100 billion. Spain's Renfe has built a national high speed rail network, at much lower cost per kilometre. Every city in France with a population of over 150,000 has a tram system or a metro. Because the rails are fixed, developers can plan with some degree of certainty what and where new infrastructure and housing should go. Don't mention the scandalous cost of PFI schools and hospitals.

I'm not blaming any one party, but it suggests that somewhere sometime in the last 30 years we lost any will to take the public realm seriously.

Not every child is born disabled. Any child is an accident or illness away from a disability.

My son was born healthy (and 1 week late!), he became disabled literally overnight when he was 8 due to complications from an illness. I can't even begin to imagine the costs it required to not only save his life but everything else that followed and now the care and support he will need for the rest of his life e.g he needs 2:1 TA support at school. I'd argue that the cost regarding all of his care including past and now is probably even greater than a premature baby's care.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/state-pensions/triple-lock-cannot-last-forever-scrapping-it-now-disaster/

Apologies that this comes from the Torygraph (although there's something very similar in The Times today -- for all of the ancients who still read broadsheet news). Both are behind paywalls though.

I’ve never understood why MN condemns and blames boomers for the economic climate they lived through. Are they saying that being presented with the same opportunities they would have done things differently ? And levelling accusations of boomers being self centred and bringing up their children to be the same, is a bit rich when you look at the levels of bad behaviour and entitlement from today’s children. We do the best we can with what we have at the time and everything is relevant to it’s time. Boomers were responsible for fighting for and securing a lot of the things subsequent generations have benefited from. Conveniently forgotten in the rush to condemn.

It has now, don't know why I didn't do it straight away.

Exactly!

And some desperately poor ones.

Are these the same ‘bratty’ children who fought for things like equal pay, maternity leave and pay, workplace pension provision for women, better childcare and more - from which future generations continue to benefit ?

The same ones who raised their families at a time of double digit inflation, basic rate income tax at 35%, with NI on top and interest rates ranging from 7% to 17%.

How much do people need to live on when they retire?

https://www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk/

There are some figures here.

The posters who are so venomous in their hatred of boomers obviously forget that many of us who they despise have adult children in their 20s and 30s and have a very good understanding of the particular challenges facing that generation. I can see that the housing market for renting or buying is the biggest challenge - and I wholeheartedly support far more and faster building of affordable homes and rent controls. The job market is also difficult, though less so if you’re prepared to do whatever job comes up. And many young people are sold a dud when it comes to university…. It was a ridiculous idea to aim for half of young people to go. There are way too many people in uni who just haven’t got the academic ability and would have been far better off learning a trade.

But when I look at my adult offspring, there are also a lot of advantages they have over my experience of living through my 20s and 30s. They’ve travelled much more widely and their social life at uni was unrecognisable from mine. When I went to university only 8% of people got in, there was no messing around with gap years, if you got in, you went, and lived a pretty frugal existence for 3 years.

My eldest dd has recently bought her first flat and even with the more recent hikes in interest rates, her fixed term mortgage is a far lower rate than we experienced. And interestingly when she came to furnish it, pretty much every piece of furniture/ white goods was the same price as 30 years ago - so in relative terms, way cheaper. In our early days of home ownership, Dh and I had to take on second jobs in the evening/ weekends as well as working full time - that was the reality of home ownership. And then of course the crash and negative equity which made us wish we’d never bought in the first place.

And perhaps one of the most important things: should my dd have a baby, she’ll have the right to a year mat leave (compared to the 12 weeks I had) and on her return to work will get free childcare hours (compared to the zero I got)

This is why spouting venom at any particular generation is utterly pointless. There are advantages and disadvantages to being born into any generation and it shows a real lack of intelligent thinking to just cherry pick the good bits and ignore the bad.

We have £3000 per month. No mortgage though. Direct debits are about £450, food, petrol etc about £550.

We pay council tax, car insurance and tax, football and golf season tickets and fees and tv licence from the interest on our savings yearly.

When we both get our SP we will have £5000 per month. First one in 3 years time.