State pension age increase and impact on private pensions.

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Talk in the papers today of moving state retirement age to 68 from 67 early. This will affect people between 49 and 55. So a heads up if this impacts your retirement plans.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/state-pension-age-increase-68-2037-labour-treasury-b3015125.html

The one thing that doesn't get talked about is the knock-on impact on taking private pension and the 25% tax free lump sum. They are usually tied to 10 years before state retirement.

I'd be more supportive of the state pension age rising if the private pension and and lump sums were able to be taken as they are today so those who save can stick to current plans. i.e. tie them to 55 rather than 10 years before state pension age.

I feel the same redhat. Plus, people who say this ignore that you might be made redundant in your 60s, or lose your job for other reasons, and then who is going to employ you?

It rises from 55 to 57 in 2028 anyway.

This isn’t new - if the changes happen I will be directly affected as I’m almost 55, plus I have a small DB pension that is tied to state pension age, so would lose a year of that too. But I knew this was a possibility about 10 years ago when it was first discussed, I guess I paid more attention because of the potential impact on my DB pension, but it’s been widely understood to be a clear intention for quite a number of years now, through a few previous governments.

I know - I was planning on being able to access my private pensions at 57

I think this was inevitable and I wouldn't be surprised if 69 came in 10 years later.

I'm grimly hanging on to my job because my 50 year old peers are finding ageism a problem in the jobs market.i can't imagine who would hire a 65+ year old. There are already not enough jobs.

And I could not agree more with the PP who said that admin and office jobs are not immune to the effects of ageing. Menopause has destroyed my brain.

I have 6 years 2 months until I can access my private pensions at 57. (Yes - I’m counting down the months already). I’ll be incredibly pissed off if I have to wait another year. I’m already pretty pissed off that the change to the ISA rules are going to prevent me moving money from my S&S ISA into a cash ISA. Honestly, you figure everything out, and then someone moves the goalposts. It’s so bloody annoying!!

My civil service pension doesn’t pay out (unless greatly reduced) until I reach state pension age.

So this would keep people in their late 60s in jobs longer, blocking them from young people. I would rather see pensions paid to people for a year longer and have their jobs released for the large numbers of young people without work to take on. The government should be interested in this too.

When I joined the civil service pension scheme, it was due to be paid out when I reached 60. Currently it is my state pension age of 67. Another year of working in my role, which requires me to be able to climb scaffolding and into attics and get around building sites, feels intolerable, so I might have to make myself poor in retirement to retire at a more reasonable time of my life.

Moving the goalposts for people like me, who are the upper end of the age range mentioned in the OP, makes getting older a real challenge - we don’t have enough time to replan things and save more to enable us to retire before our pensions mature. I will have worked full time for over 45 years, no maternity leave, no sabbaticals, and yet the time I can finally stop keeps getting further and further away.

Im not in the range as mine is already 68. But im oissed off too because it heralds that the next ones down maybe moved from 68!!!
Problem with their lies and slight movements is its intentional to stop us grouping together to protest it.
Also if they whacked up the private to 68 too then at least those people would also stand together…
Also its not 1 year because many may have DH same age and them being affected too is altogether another 25k.
So for women who were ages ago 60 its 8x 12k and men its also 3k 12
so just the odd 132k..
And its true many wont be able to work that long as will be made unemployed!
my pil are 70 and have arthritis, feet issues, prostate cancer, bowel issues etc etc.
How many are only having low time off for illness.
My office job the staff were say 50-60 1 had severe arthritis. The other had bowel issues and a brain tumor and died pre 60 with 30y service.
my relative had heart attack at 55 or so. And bil had a stroke at under 70 and died within a few years. Dp friend had a stroke at 55 too.

I think that Burnham, McFadden and Timms will start to put the mockers on this next year, but will probably not dare make it retrospective.

Or they'll do what they always do, which is have a year of 'transitional protection'. Eventually they'll lose a binding court case brought by a disability charity having pratted about with arguing what the statute means.

Then they'll have to significantly increase Attendance Allowance, and on we churn.

It’s about the push in general… for women it was 60 when my grandmother retired. Now it’s 67 for my mother. What about for me at 30? Do I have to wait until 75?

It’s effectively a move towards means tested state pension.

They'll continue to push the qualifying age out further and further in the knowledge that many people won’t be fit for work as they near the required age so will require sickness/disability benefits which of course will be means tested.

The end result is they can claim the state pension isn’t means tested but in reality several years for each person where they would previously have received state pension will now be replaced with other means tested benefits.

I think I've known for a while that my pension age would be 67 (born in 1978), and DP 's would be 68. I'm generally pessimistic, so I'd assumed it might get close to 70 by the time I get towards it. My private pension I think still says I can take it at 55, though I think I'll leave the pot as long as possible. I'll keep an eye on the pension provider's paperwork though.

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-age
This tells you your retirement date. Mine is 67yrs 9mths, I'm 48.

You could ask my builder who is still going strong at 78 because he says he'd be bored at home.......

I couldn't have continued in my workplace in my 50s. Not because it was a physical role, very much not. But it became a young persons workout, innovation and speed was valued. My health wasn't great and my ability to push new concepts just deteriorated too much. I know it doesn't for everyone but I just lacked the energy to keep up.

Except that regular benefits are significantly less than state pension.

Which will increase the pressure on the Government to increase Attendance Allowance. It's of no use if it can't even touch the sides of a meagre care package.

There are always going to be outliers and exceptions. It’s like the 100 year olds getting their card from the King and attributing their longevity to 40 a day and a nip of whisky. Presenting this as the norm annoys me as for most people the process of ageing is not a nice one but no one wants Mrs Jones on the telly with her dicky hip and dodgy ticker despite her life long commitment to veganism
and exercise.

I was wondering about NI contributions- if there is any intention of phasing out the state pension, surely the government would have to stop inviting people to pay for missed years? Why would anyone do that if it doesn’t buy a state pension? And if you have done that, wouldn’t you be ‘owed’ as you paid the missing years on the basis that you’d get a pension?

@RoyalIris Good point. I did not think about that. If you have been paying NI contributions towards a state pension and then it is changed to a means tested benefit, how would that work?

Exactly why they just cannot remove the SP, we have been paying for decades on the premise we will receive a SP at whatever age, and built it into our retirement planning.

And to those saying benefits are less than a full SP, that is only true for a single person, no kids, no rent and no disabilities (for the claimants or their DC) but those folk are rare (probably because the amount they receive isn't much at all thus they manage to find employment). A new SP is pretty much £1k pm, I don't think anything lower would be possible to live on. I am not an advocate of it rising (beyond inflation) either, but it should be a very basic standard of living for those who are beyond the age it is reasonable to expect work. Beyond basic standard of living should be self funded.

Another reason why a decision to make pension means tested would be problematic; levelling or bridge the gap. Pension companies offer this to early retirees and it basically means they pay part of the predicted state pension from day one of retirement so the income you receive is ‘level’ and doesn’t increase when the state pension becomes available. This wouldn’t work anymore. People would be left with very small pensions as the state part would never kick in! Essentially implementing any pension changes is like turning a cargo ship…

I've already retired (a bit earlier than anticipated but I won't bore you with the story). I'm using savings to live on till I start using my private pension at 57 (although I planned to start drawing it down at 55 to use tax allowances). If I can't draw it till a year later then my savings have to stretch a year more so yes it does affect me. Luckily I can just about manage. It is difficult to manage though with the planning with things keep moving.

I moved money out of stocks and shares Isa's into cash isa as I need that money to live on for the next 3 years and wouldn't be able to cope with the AI bubble bursting and affecting loss of value in those savings. Annoying though as I have missed out on some good gains. Just to remind you all that from next year we can only put12K in cash isa's each year.

Laugh all you like, but when I started work, retirement age was 55, then it was 60, then 65, then 67 and now they’re saying possibly 68. I believe it will rise again to at least 70.

Wait until you have been working 40+ years and then you will see it’s never only one year and then no change the rest of your life. Just in my half century, it has gone up by 15yrs.