The state pension won’t suddenly stop, will it?

[TeapotCollection]

I’m 51. We were talking about pensions at work and someone who’s about to retire said there’d probably be no state pension when I retire

This can’t happen can it? I can imagine the government saying in a few years that anyone born after <date> won’t get it but surely it can’t suddenly stop?

To say all 50s women knew about the age change is just not true, I did know as I had a private pension and the policy showed my state pension age as 65 (although it went up another year after that.)

I have a friend we are the same age, our birthdays are the same month mine at the beginning hers at the end so we meet up in the middle of the month, when it came to our 60th birthday month we met up as usual, my friend told me she was worried as she didn't know how to apply for her state pension, I had to tell her 'sorry it's 66 for both of us now', she was devastated she had handed in her resignation at work and was training her replacement so it was too late to change her mind, she did get a new job but with a less senior position and a lower salary, of course she should have sorted things out before she resigned but she honestly thought our pension age was 60 and was expecting her pension.

Now people can check their pension age and their pension forecast online, now any changes to pensions or pension age is covered in so many ways, Facebook, Twitter (or whatever it's called now), online news, Mumsnet etc within 1/2 hour of changes being made public, we couldn't access the same information by a click of a mouse or an alert on our phones when we were younger.

I'm not in the UK but am struggling to understand all this about people not knowing what the pension age was. I'm sure everyone here knows at what age they are entitled to national superannuation, if it was to change it would be on the news for months/years beforehand and everyone would be talking about it. I really cannot understand anyone who totally shuts themselves off from any form of news - don't people watch TV, listen to the radio, read the newspapers? It's also not difficult to differentiate between what might happen and what actually is happening. Surely people don't just take what "someone says" as being correct?

I totally agree. Having a desk job means you need to keep on top of ever changing technology, and there comes a time your brain has had enough. I am retired at 64, but won't receive national superannuation for another 10 months (not in the UK), but I just couldn't stand the idea of carrying on any longer.

@Oldsu

we couldn't access the same information by a click of a mouse or an alert on our phones when we were younger.

Didn't you ever watch TV, or read newspapers, magazines, etc?

Most people kept themselves informed of current affairs etc before the internet you know!

I have a friend we are the same age, our birthdays are the same month mine at the beginning hers at the end so we meet up in the middle of the month, when it came to our 60th birthday month we met up as usual, my friend told me she was worried as she didn't know how to apply for her state pension, I had to tell her 'sorry it's 66 for both of us now', she was devastated she had handed in her resignation at work and was training her replacement so it was too late to change her mind, she did get a new job but with a less senior position and a lower salary, of course she should have sorted things out before she resigned but she honestly thought our pension age was 60 and was expecting her pension.

I can understand her maybe not knowing at first - if she isn't the sort to watch/listen to/read the news and keep up with current affairs; but I cannot for the life of me comprehend why you wouldn't even check something as major as this before burning your bridges.

Even if you're not online, it would just be one call to the DWP to ask what you need to do to claim your pension, as you're approaching 60. They would then ask your date of birth and tell you that, unfortunately, you don't now qualify until you're 66. Yes, you'd be very disappointed, but you'd have to accept it and not pack in your job.

She makes me think of people who go abroad on holiday without any insurance and just 'assume' that the NHS applies worldwide; then they have a devastating accident/health episode and are astonished to be landed with a massive bill.

Yeah, if you've got as far as resigning at work before googling how and when you can claim your pension, and then checking with HMRC/the DWP or whoever, frankly you have no-one to blame but yourself. With all the information available at the touch of a button these days, none of this stuff is hard to find out.

You wouldn't resign at work before getting a confirmed offer for your next job, would you? (Unless planning a career break) This is the same.

Sadly, even with all the information available at the touch of a screen, lots of people simply make no attempt and checking things through. It's amazing how so many people have no attention to detail at all, and instead of checking things out, just believe the crap they read on social media or what their friends tell them in the pub or coffee shop.

We should be the most "informed" generations given the sheer wealth and breadth of knowledge and information literally in our hands, but instead, we seem to be heading to be the dumbest generation!

My sister is a case in point. She is mid 50s and proudly proclaimed she's going to retire at 60! I asked whether she had a good private pension and she said she hadn't one. When I told her state pension wasn't 60 anymore, she wouldn't believe me. Then she got really angry when she checked it online. But, apparently it's OK because she's going to claim the dole, get her mortgage paid for by the state, etc. So I had to tell he she can't claim unemployment benefits if she voluntarily gives up her job and, no, the state doesn't pay her mortgage!

But this is the woman who endured a couple of decades of a bad marriage (not violent/abusive but they just lived separate lives), who finally divorced him when his parents were at death's door (they owned two properties and hefty savings). She was livid when they died soon after the divorce and she realised her ex husband was suddenly "rich" and she couldn't get any of it. If she'd stuck it out a bit longer, she'd have been entitled to a fair whack of what he inherited! But, of course, it was everyone's fault but her own that the rules around divorce/inheritance were so unfair and trotted out the "no one told me" card (like the WASPI women!).

@user1497207191 Thank you for the rude response, yes people like me actually did read papers and watch the news but you cannot compare the speed of which people can access information now with the speed they could access the same information prior to 1995 look how fast the government acted to deny Sunak was thinking about stopping the winter fuel allowance, it was almost immediate why? because it was widely reported and discussed online what do you think would have happened in 1995, how do you think the government would have realised there was so much opposition in order to deny it almost as soon as it was announced if it was only in the hard copy papers and on the news?
I knew many others did but it does not negate the fact that others did not

BTW don't bother to reply to me if you are just going to be rude again.

And the date they passed the act is not the date you would have known about it either. It would have been widely reported in the media and proposed for years beforehand.

Im pushing 50 and remember plans to equalize state pension age being discussed at school. There’s really no reason anyone in their 50s or 60s should have expected to retire at 60.

I mean the Ombudsman has already determined that failure to inform WASPI women of changes to their pension entitlement was maladministration so that part of the argument is over. Funnily enough the Ombudsman didn't say "you should have watched the news". Probably because it's a weak irrelevant argument.

In 1995, news was definitely communicated rapidly via radio and TV news. In those days (I do remember them!) there were fewer choices of media available, so everyone tended to listen to and watch the same things. Pretty much everyone I knew watched or listened to the news most days whether on a radio or TV. Newspaper readership was also much higher than it is these days - on the bus in the morning, people would be reading a newspaper rather than their phone.

I actually think that sources of news were probably more reliable back then, because it would come from an outlet with some accountability rather than just a YouTube or Facebook post!

Also, because the Internet wasn't widely used, most people would go in person to places like post offices to do a lot of the things they needed to do in daily life (apply for a driving licence, collect family allowance, pay utility bills, pay council tax etc). Post offices and public buildings used to be full of leaflets and posters about things you needed to know (such as how and when to claim pensions!) - that's where people got practical information from.

It was different to 2023, sure, but it wasn't an information vacuum.

I agree re: the WASPI women btw - the goalposts were moved for many of them after they'd made irrevocable decisions about their career/finances etc. 1995 was not enough notice at all.

I'm mainly talking about the people who claim to be getting towards pension age and totally unaware of when they can claim a state pension.

@TarantinoIsAMisogynist re methods of broadcasting news/post offices etc one of that matters. What matters is that when a person's financial entitlement/financial liability changes, that person must be personally informed. (I've edited this post to show which post I was replying to.)

This must have been 2020 or after as that’s when it changed to 66.

i am flabbergasted that anyone would resign from their job based on a misconception that they were entitled to a state pension. She seems to have avoided tv, internet, newspapers for 40 years- is she Amish? Even if you had a misconception based on life 40 years ago, there’s no excuse not to check before quitting her job.

benefits change all the time, it’s not possible to tell everyone who may be entitled to them one day, personally, about the changes. There are plenty of general publicity and that should be sufficient.

Well obviously you know better than the parliamentary ombudsman @Heelenahandbasket . Maybe you should get a job as a senior government advisor.

The information sent out to individuals wasn’t good administration. But that doesn’t mean people can live in a bubble then feel entitled to something they got 40 years ago. Imagine if young people tried that on with student grants?

the court case determined conclusively that it was widely publicized (and one of the claimants actually had to admit she was informed personally but “forgot”) and they had no obligation to inform them anyway.

I think you misunderstood what the ombudsman said. It doesn’t contradict what I say at all.

I'm the same age as you OP and remember in my early twenties being told it would be unlikely there would be a state pension when I retire. I've always assumed that would be the case and still think for me, that's very likely.

@Ertriscia

What matters is that when a person's financial entitlement/financial liability changes, that person must be personally informed.

That simply never happens and there's no legal requirement for it to happen. Tax and benefits change all the time, every budget. You don't get a personalised letter every budget do you? What happens in reality is widespread publicity, through the media, leaflets in libraries/healthcare settings, etc., plus maybe the occasional leaflet in the post along with a PAYE code notice or tax demand or benefit change letter.

Where's the self responsibility in all this? People will be wanting their bums wiped next. It's not much of a big ask for people to actually take some responsibility for themselves and do a bit of minimal/simple research occasionally, or even just to watch and pay attention when "big" things happen, like the annual Budget speech, or major political announcements.

I'm sure some people expect the Chancellor to come knocking on their door to personally give them a personalised report of how changes will affect them!

Imagine if young people tried that on with student grants?

Very good point. I was one of the last years to scrape getting free university tuition fees.

I remember one woman in my lecture group who had a slightly younger brother who should have been in the last 'free' year.

He decided to take a 'gap year' - nothing constructive, just a year off dossing - and wait a year before going to uni; only to discover, too late to change it, that he was going to have to pay massive fees that he could have avoided.

You don't get a personalised letter every budget do you

You do if you're on benefits. Of course they write to you.

Your poor sister by the way. I hope she doesn't know how contemptuous you are of her.

Yes, if you're already on benefits, you're in the system so will get an update on annual rises etc.

Most people aren't! Govt departments don't routinely have a "full file" about every person, so won't know every individual's future working plans, etc. They don't know when you plan to retire, what private pension plans you have in place, whether you're going to take early retirement, move abroad, or whatever.

When the personal tax allowance changes, I don't get a personal letter. It just changes what I see in my payslip each month. The idea that all changes that affect me should be/will be individually communicated is simply not true.

Same for changes in the tax rate, or various other tax thresholds.