State pension

[blondeboobshell]

There’s concerns the state pension won’t be an option in years to come or will be means tested. Iyo what age group need to start not counting on getting the state pension, people in there 50’s? 40’s? 30’s? Or younger?

They simply wont be able to pull it.

Today's workers dont have access to the much better defined benefit schemes a significant chunk of today's pensioners had - and because of poor performance of stock markets in recent years peoples pension pots haven't grown enough.

The mandated 4% employers have to pay in simply is nowhere near enough for someone on a modest income to build up a big enough pot.

Most people in their 40's today might have some private pension as a result of the law changing and mandating them, but for loads of those people, especially women who worked part time around children, will be lucky to accrue enough of a pot to secure a pension of maybe 6-8k which is not enough to live on. Even a £200,000 pot buys you an annuity of at best £7-8k.

Furthermore, more marriages and relationships break down these days so more people will enter retirement single, with more costs to be paid from a single source of income.

Many will still be paying a mortgage right up to retirement due to high property prices so will have less opportunity to save through their 60's.

There's no way they will be able to get rid of the state pension. Most people will only achieve even a modestly comfortable retirement by combining a state pension with a small private pension of say £8k giving an individual on their own an income of maybe £20-21k while a couple may have 40k between them. In neither scenario will they be living a particularly lavish lifestyle.

The real winners will be the few people out there now still in defined benefit schemes, though most are nowhere near as generous as they once were so even these wont support an affluent retirement unless the person was on a high income throughout their career eg a doctor or senior leader teacher etc.

Like everything else, the people who have sat on their backsides all their lives and never worked will probably get it.

Of course it’s always the way

If you Google, you'll see all the mainstream media articles discussing this in 2026. It's much more than MN chit chat.

The government introduced the mandatory workplace pension in 2012-2018. I wouldn't be surprised if they say this was the beginning of everyone's opportunity to sort their pensions out without the government.

I've paid into my work pension since I was 22 years old and have always strongly recommended everyone starts as young as they can. I'm 46 and have been working out our retirement funds without the state pension as I suspect it'll be for the over 70s or gone by the time I get there.

IF (a big if) they were to go means tested, there should be a grandfathering/accrued rights for the years of NI already paid, and a date should be set.
Some people have mentioned the Australian system, but it's a different system altogether. Britain doesn't have Australia's compulsory-superannuation history, so it wouldn't work here without very bad consequences.

The fact remains there are many who are highly dependent on a state pension and have paid for that entitlement. If they want to reform it, it should not affect existing contributions/rights.

It’s more about when you drill into the consumption of Gvt resources across populations and different groups.

?

What does that mean? The elderly consume significant government spend on healthcare and pensions. When are you suggesting that will reverse and be balanced out by spending on younger people because I don’t think it will. Demographic changes and spending point to ever more money being directed at older people and paid for by a decreasing younger population which is unsustainable.

We pay into our kids pensions because I don’t think there will be a state pension by the time they are old.
You can start from birth which we didn’t realise, so ours only started late teens - but compound interest of even modest amounts over 65 years does the heavy lifting! The younger you start the better.

How do we fund the meaningful inflation linked increases? Other developed nations have pivoted to having pensions invested in equity funds or in the case of the Canadian Teachers Union, invested in the UK lottery. Pensions are paid from the wages of today’s taxpayers - and there are not enough of them to maintain the existing system. This has been known and understood by economists since the late 70s. Thatchers own economic advisors informed her of this (documented in archives). Successive governments from all parties have failed to address this issue because it’s unpopular.

I am in my 50s and my DC pension pot is looking ok. I worry for the younger generations that have been royally hung out to dry.

This. They would have to start with very young people getting their first jobs. Instead of paying NIC's they would have to have a system making it compulsory to pay say 10 percent of salary into pension scheme and make employers contribute 5 percent too.

That’s interesting. I’ve just turned 60 and I absolutely expect to get it. I’m hoping to reduce my hours next year and bridge the gap using savings and my private pension until I’m 67. I’ve factored getting it into my retirement plans.

By the time I get it I’ll have worked and contributed for over 50 years and I’ve never claimed any other benefit. It would be a brave government who tried to take it away from people like me.

I think the triple lock needs to be reviewed but we should be mindful that there are many pensioners surviving on less than minimum wage and review other benefits at the same time.

The only way to pay for it is to get the economy working again, and reduce working age state dependency.

It's a bit of a nonsense to say we can't afford pensions for the people who have been paying in high tax all their lives because we need to keep increasing handouts to people who contribute nothing.

They are hardly encouraging people to save for their own pensions when they cap the NI salary sacrifice at 2k.

I'm 48 and think I'll get it. Not sure about my kids thi.

Perhaps there will be a standard national income for everyone from adulthood.

They won't phase it out but will make it means tested. As £12k ish is is the current pension, any occupational pension you have over that will mean you don't get the state money. So if your occupational pension is 12k, you will not get a state pension, at the moment you get both taking you up to £24k. That's what will change.

People used to say this in the 1980s

Doubtful as it would disincentivise people from saving into an occupational pension.

Not everyone can afford to save into a private pension though.

The fact is that we are living far too long and having far too few children (aka future taxpayers)

Never mind. ‘Assisted’ dying will soon be along to see to it that those pesky pensioners who insist on living as long as possible are ‘assisted’ out of their selfish aspirations. 😒

It's not enough to live on anyway so no one should be relying on it. You need a private pension and/or savings to survive.

Including the children of those who hate those pesky boomers. But that’s fine right? They won’t mind their own children being killed off at 60/70 max. Oh wait no. It won’t include THEIR children. Because THEIR children haven’t done anything wrong (unlike those boomers who dared to simply accept what was offered to them in their youth) or will have somehow saved 5 million each for find their own retirement.

perhaps they can open up the work houses ? Assisted dying or workhouse as a choice ,,,,

It is means tested anyway - as a poster above calculated, for those who have private income of a little over £50k, they’ll be paying back the amount they receive in state pension in tax