Review of the state pension age.

Well it made me laugh, reminded me a bit of comedy programmes such as “Harry Enfield/Fast show etc”, suppose folks on here will lambast all that stuff as well.... let’s not be light hearted anymore eh??

 

Perhaps just ask Redrum if s/he'll be voting Reform? I'm assuming that wouldn't be a problem for him/her but I might be wrong. And, if he is a Reform voter he won't be in a small minority I wouldn't think.

 

I’m note sure how many times I and others have asked, must be 3 figures now.

 

Well if that's the case he/she should perhaps own it as you suggested. Unless Redrum is undecided or likes privacy in these matters. I do think though that the best way to engage with people of different political views is not to slag them off, imply racism etc etc. Just engage politely on forums like this. I'm sure you feel you've done that but hey ho...
Point out Reform policies are flawed/lies perhaps, explain why they wont help the working-class, explain why they'll make the country worse etc...
Anyway, wtf do I know?

 

I’ve prioritised or overpaid pension contributions for most of my working life on the presumption that the state pension probably won’t exist. Perhaps fewer flash cars or holidays than some, and our kitchen could do with updating; but I can genuinely consider retiring at 55, which as I get older appeals quite a lot.

 

I completely agree with that last point. I was fortunate that my old man stressed the need to have a decent pension but I’ve got mates now who have no idea. Some are self employed & have never had one, others have changed jobs & addresses & have never kept track of them.

I dread to think how many lost pensions there are.

 

Wouldn't mind no one cared when I criticised the last government. I haven't voted reform I've repeatedly said that. All I've said is I can see why they have got more popular the torys were never going to get in again after Boris's spell, then truss, starmer was up against a bloke who was so out of touch with working people he though hard times was not having sky t.v. But like I said they've had awful 12 months unemployment up, inflation up, broken promises, u turns, more taxes on businesses.

 

it makes me wonder if there are reasons why the system doesn’t educate kids more about these things? (pensions / debts/ financesetc)

knowledge is power and all that- if everyone had good knowledge would it rip the ar5e5 out of multi billion £ industries ?

 

An awful lot of the people whining about this are the ones who have chosen to spend their salary rather than saving or investing for retirement. I used to work in the pensions industry and the number of people who opted out was astonishing to me, throwing away their employers contributions too.
We chose to pay as much as we could afford into our pensions, and save too. We just did without the fancy car and foreign holidays if we couldn't afford it.
Retired in our late 50s.
Absolutely no sympathy from me. Boo hoo, serves em right.

 

It's about choices in the majority of cases, not all I accept.
Some folk choose to spend £400 a month on a car and £6k a year on a holiday. Choose to stick that in a pension and you can be job free by your mid 50s.

 

I’m no fan of the current ‘Labour’ government (inverted commas as they bear no resemblance to any Labour party I’ve ever known). But let’s be realistic and pragmatic. What would you do differently? Seriously - you criticise - what would you do?

Given what was inherited, the state of the economy, everything that was already mandated to happen before they got in (water bill price rises etc) - how would you have approached things if not increasing taxes without trying to take more from individuals who are already stretched to the limit? Inflation is up due to CPI increases, largely due to water and utility increases beyond the control of the government (and those increases have led to increased grocery costs as a secondary effect too - also affecting CPI).

You yourself have eluded to them trying other things that have gone down like a fart in a lift - they have u-turned having been forced to - something has to give. It just does.

You have a better grasp than some in this thread about why some have no pension. Even if they get auto enrolled they opt out. Realistically that isn’t a ‘choice’ - it’s a necessity, as they can’t live on the reduced net pay if they did put aside.

People working full time, not being able to live a basic living on that money and so needing tax credit top ups and still not being able to afford to put aside for retirement is a real thing and it is widespread.

These issues need addressing by the government. They haven’t been for a long time. The current government hasn’t done much to cause the issue though the 97-10 Labour governments did little to address it. Though did have a structured and realistic migration policy - something which is the easiest and only realistic answer to this issue as birth rates aren’t going up overnight and even if they did it takes two decades to come into effect.

I don’t think I’ll ever retire to be honest. I can’t imagine my health being great past sixty - I’m overweight (in the main due to mobility issues but also through my own poor dietary choices); I have (controlled) high blood pressure which is improving as I lose weight (which is bloody hard work when you can’t exercise) - I am not currently diabetic but that could happen in the future, I have fatty liver tissue - I’m stressed to high hell in my working life and as such I reckon I’m a heart attack waiting to happen. I reckon I’ll still be employed when I drop off the perch. But I might not be - I don’t want to be, and I’m doing my best to be as healthy as I can be - but in doing that, I really can’t fund a meaningful pension contribution as, as I mentioned in my earlier post, I am a contractor employed via umbrella.

Employers NI is deducted from my day rate, I have to pay it - and so would any employers pension contribution. So if I hadn’t opted out of the pension they suggested (which is absolute babber anyway,NEST) - I’d lose another 10% of my bring home minimum as I’d have to pay my 5%, the employers 3%, some admin costs and I’d get little to no tax allowance for it due to being employed but not employed - all this having just absorbed employer NI increases. My day rate for the same / very similar role is less than it was ten years ago and a lot less than it was three years ago.

You might ask why I stay in contracting - the answer being there aren’t many (any) like for like ‘permanent’ roles of what I do and those that are there are unreliable and in the main paid abysmally. I took a ‘perm’ job last year, for a huge pay cut - was barely on more than NMW in a lower managerial role for a finance company - I did it for longer term security that you don’t get in contracting. I was made redundant after less than eight months - so much for perm work - and the first job I was offered afterwards was a contracting role. Why not? At least I know that the rug is going to be pulled from under me in this job - and roughly when. But it’s not ideal.

And in all that I know I’m still better off than many in these parts in terms of income. Me and my wife own our house (well, half of it anyway) and the mortgage will be paid off in three years - but at that point I’ll need to purchase the other half of the house so will likely need to take out another 20 year mortgage. I’ll be paying a mortgage well into my sixties therefore - the prospect of affording to put aside for retirement isn’t a strong one.

My Mrs is an employee of Paddy Power. Their pension has just changed (no choice sadly, the old one was better); but it’s still pretty good. She is paying in, they are paying in - she will end up with at least something as a private pension. She’s five years younger than me though. If she retired even at 70, I’d be 75 and reliant on her up to a point.

It’s a sad state of affairs - there are going to be a huge amount of pensioners in poverty in the coming years: many many more than there are now, and I bet every penny I have there won’t be a triple lock protection on any pension I get, nor will there be a winter fuel allowance or anything like it. I might even need help from kids to afford luxuries like enough food not to starve and a jumper for winter…!