Pension age 'could rise further'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8191011.stm

Just having a read... one thing made me feel a little miffed...

He said the ability of the current working generation to pay for the retirement of its predecessor would be "a real issue for the next 30 years", not least because of a lack of knowledge among the public about how to save.

It's not that people have a lack of knowledge of how to save, more that if they do save money they fall into other problems. For example, the dole, after six months it becomes "means tested" - where if the claimant has more than £15k in savings they can not claim anything.

A family member of mine has just come up to six months unemployed, and of course is now stuffed as savings which would (in theory) have gone towards pension would now have to be spent away at an earlier stage in life in order to get through this spell of unemployment.

Most pension funds are being wrecked, hence why more people are turning to savings to avoid the risk of losing a heck of a lot of money which was effectively stored away for the future, but saving causes its own problems.

Firstly - hopefully that is understandable, and secondly - what is everyone's thoughts on the pension age being raised and other matters from the BBC link above?

Reply 1

Lefty Leo

10

Hmm to be honest with massive increases in longevity it's a bit unfair to ask for the government to pay for more pension years for person without raising taxes enormously, or raising the working age.

Reply 2

wilko1991

13

Who was it that said Governments should be judged on how it treats it most vulnerable? :rolleyes:

Reply 3

Fusion

20

wilko1991

Who was it that said Governments should be judged on how it treats it most vulnerable? :rolleyes:

Pensioners have never had it so good. Pity the youth of today with big debts to repay, faced with astronomical house prices (disproportionately in favour of the old), and the ending of final salary pension schemes. Maybe even the end of retirement altogether.

Reply 4

wilko1991

13

Fusion

Pensioners have never had it so good. Pity the youth of today with big debts to repay, faced with astronomical house prices (disproportionately in favour of the old), and the ending of final salary pension schemes. Maybe even the end of retirement altogether.

I don't understand what your point is?

The UK(proportionally of course) has one of the lowest pensions the EU. We shouldn't be making it worse.

Reply 5

FrustratedHistorian

I'm moving abroad so i don't have to undergo that. Pensioners are already suffering...it's just awful

Reply 6

WhatTheFunk

17

its only for the state pension, people should save up and well you have private pension, but it cost a hell of a lot for a state pension system, and the older population is growing, i think there was one crazy stat that there will be more people on a pension then the working population

Reply 7

username33685

11

FrustratedHistorian

I'm moving abroad so i don't have to undergo that. Pensioners are already suffering...it's just awful

good luck, if anything the UK is in the least bad position out of the entire western world, apart from america.

the problem is that pensions were set up in a way where the current generation of working people paid for the current generation of elderly, but advances in medicine and lowering birth rates have meant that the latter is growing at a far higher rate than the former. There can be short term fixes, such as reducing the number of people eligible to receive a pension (this method), increasing the number of people working (such as encouraging immigration, or birth rates, but this will merely create a worse situation in the future)

A better fix is a reform of the whole system so you get people paying national insurance contributions that will fund their own pension, eliminating the problem. this is unlikely to happen though, as it involves an entire generation effectively paying twice, for their own pension, and that of the elderly at the time as they have been promised a state pension.

anyway like i said, other countries are more ******, in italy the pension age was 55 until only recently, and in Germany you get something like 2/3 your final salary.

Pension age 'could rise further'

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