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The pensions crisis
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
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Back on Thursday, the Financial Times reported that the Pensions Commission is likely to recommend raising the basic state pension and also increase the age which it can be claimed. In other words, the retirement age goes up from 65 to 67. This is not entirely new - as I understand it, documents dating as far back as the 1950s suggested raising the age to 68, according to ITV News - but I'm surprised no one's mentioned it. After all, we're all going to be affected by this eventually. So, do you fancy working another two years? Is the retirement age a feasible option in the long term? Is there too high a dependence on the state at pension age?
Answering my own questions.... I can safely say unless I absolutely love what I'm doing, I wouldn't like to work two extra years. I reckon the retirement age will be scrapped completely in the end because the costs are simply going to get too high. It's of no help that public sector workers are still being allowed to retire at 60. Personally, I have not started saving towards a pension. And I suspect most people here haven't. I've got a university education to pay for starting next year, the cost of living in most of the country is rocketing, (part of the reason I decided not to move to London) and there is something of a buy-now-pay-later culture in this country.
Of the recommendation, I think it will be a bitter pill to swallow, but I reckon it will have to be done. But how? If the Government tries to say public sector workers can retire at 60 and receive inflation-proof pensions, when private sector workers do not receive any such privileges, how on earth are they gonna get it through? It's all such a mess.
Back on Thursday, the Financial Times reported that the Pensions Commission is likely to recommend raising the basic state pension and also increase the age which it can be claimed. In other words, the retirement age goes up from 65 to 67. This is not entirely new - as I understand it, documents dating as far back as the 1950s suggested raising the age to 68, according to ITV News - but I'm surprised no one's mentioned it. After all, we're all going to be affected by this eventually. So, do you fancy working another two years? Is the retirement age a feasible option in the long term? Is there too high a dependence on the state at pension age?
Answering my own questions.... I can safely say unless I absolutely love what I'm doing, I wouldn't like to work two extra years. I reckon the retirement age will be scrapped completely in the end because the costs are simply going to get too high. It's of no help that public sector workers are still being allowed to retire at 60. Personally, I have not started saving towards a pension. And I suspect most people here haven't. I've got a university education to pay for starting next year, the cost of living in most of the country is rocketing, (part of the reason I decided not to move to London) and there is something of a buy-now-pay-later culture in this country.
Of the recommendation, I think it will be a bitter pill to swallow, but I reckon it will have to be done. But how? If the Government tries to say public sector workers can retire at 60 and receive inflation-proof pensions, when private sector workers do not receive any such privileges, how on earth are they gonna get it through? It's all such a mess.
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Comments
me ...i'm in my fifties and have recently read that one in four guys now aged 50 won't see seventy meaning ...an awful lot of men are going to work to the grave ...disgusting.
when i was a kid ...harold wilson was prime minister and used to talk about the white hot heatg of techno;ogy ...changing our lives for the better.
it was inevitable that less people would have to work ...full time or at all.
the age of leisure was coming.
how wrong could he have been!
we now have a 24hr society ...seven days a week.
old people will have to work till they drop ...thanks to our technology of 24hr banking shoping drinking traveling etc.
the dreams that were fed to me as a kid ...are turning into the nightmares of my science fiction books in every way possible.
They take about half of your wages every year from you through taxes, NI and optional pension funds. That means that you work almost half of the year for FREE.
MPs take so much money from you, that when they buy a holiday home or some deal goes wrong, YOU have to foot the bill.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4383038.stm
At least you can withdraw from a pension fund - why bother waiting until you're 60, 70, or whatever age your MASTERS decide they want you to work until. You're better off withdrawing from it.
No future for pensions anyway.
You cant work for 30 years then retire for the same period, it doesnt work.
Maybe this bird flu will give us a nice cull of the old and weak and we wont have to retire later.
It is a necessity to raise the retirement age but it does seem rather unfair on those in manual occupations who will find it more difficult. Preferably there would be provision for these people to retire earlier but I am not sure how you could work that.......
is this true particularly the half bit? i thought it was something like 26% ????
But i can see why this is a massibe problem. When you look at it, it is a ration of 1/3, where the working people are paying for the children and elderly, how long did the government really think that they could keep this up. It annoys me that they have had years to plan, and appear to have not done a lot. From my understanding, the government actually penalises people who have more that 3000 savings, and it means that are not allowed certain benefits during life. I can see why people don't save as it appears to be a disincentive. It is rediculous!