Can action be taken against the Government

jamesd

In 1981 half of women aged 65 could expect to live 22.4 more years. In 2010 that's expected to be 28.6 more years, an increase of 6.2 years. At 66 the expectation in 2010 is 23 more years, a little more than the 22.4 years when you started out 35 years ago.

You might also usefully look at how the amount paid by the state pensions and related benefits have increased over the years. As well as the retirement lastin glonger on average, the increased amounts paid have been increasing the average quality of life of pensioners in absolute terms.

Please let us know if you prefer to have your life shortened by six years and retire six years earlier so you can get back to your original expectation. Unless you can find a way to do that you'll need instead to find a way to persuade the people of the two generations following yours to pay significantly higher taxes to pay the bill from people living longer.

Personally, I agree that it would be useful to be able to take a reduced pension at a lower age. that's one of the ways that the system could be made a bit more fair for those with lower than average life expectancies, who face on average a significantly shorter retirement.

Figures are UK Principal projection cohort life expectancy using 2008-based data. Life expectancies for men are lower than for women, typically by two to three years. "your expectation" is not quite right because I'm using figures for 65 year olds today when I should be using those for 25 year olds. I'm not using them because they mask some of the life expectancy improvement, due to the early deaths reducing overall life expectancy.

sandsy

The big thing about state provision is that there are no guarantees. You pay into a big pot and, depending on your circumstancesat the time, you may or may not get a chance to take something out of the pot. But crucially, there is no no link between what you put in and what you take out, none of it's earmarked for anyone in particular and both what you put in and what you may be able to take out are subject to the whims of whichever government is in power. Hence, the development of private sector provision.