Ask the Pensions Minister about the future of pensions

Former_MSE_Guy

Pensions matter to all of us. Either we need to be saving for one or we are earning income from one.

And the pensions landscape is set for major change over the next few years.

• The official state pension age is rising.
• The state pension payout is set to rise in line with earnings but is still seen by many as far too low.
• From 2012, the roll-out begins whereby all employees with be automatically placed into a company pension scheme, where the employer also has to contribute.

These issues matter to all of us and have thrown up major talking points.

Now you can have your say by suggesting questions to the man in charge of government pensions policy, the pensions minister Steve Webb.

We are interviewing him soon and want to include many of your concerns

Click reply to post your question below and we'll pick a selection to ask.

The interview will be published on the MSE News site shortly after.

fredio

Hi Martin.
As the cost of fuel , diesel etc, along with general utilities, (gas over 9%) increases, will the old age state pension be increased by the same percentage as inflation ?.
If not we are taking a massive cut in our living standards.
Frederick Harper, Lincoln. LN10 6UX.

barginpleasure

Hi there.
Why if there is a shortage of jobs are we making the elderly work longer thus leaving the younger and unemployed on benefits. If we retired earlier and paid the pensioners pension to let them enjoy there old age, there would then be more jobs we wouldn't have to pay the unemployed benefits. It is coming to the stage that the younger wont want to work because by the time they get a job they will be so relying on getting benefits they wont be able to afford to work and they wont have the enthusiasm to. The elderly wont have time to enjoy their retirement as they will have to work themselves into a grave.

bgl37

My total pension payment is £190.00 pw yet I am taxed. Pensioners tax allowances are far too low.Most of us have worked since age 15 so have more than paid our dues yet successive governments have in the main done little to make surviving old age easier perhaps because people are living longer! Or am I being cynical.
Although I am basically not in favour of the EU pensioners elsewhere in Europe receive a much better deal than those in the UK.I would call for tax free pensions over 70 years of age,50% reduction in council tax etc and to think that students are protesting at having to pay Uni fees!! Could they live on £190.00 pw??? Thankfully I scrimped and scraped in anticipation of this to have some savings which erode each year. I always say if you're lucky you'll get old but it won't be easy if you do.

jansalsgal

I am not yet due to retire but have worked since leaving school. If 30 years contributions gives a full pension, why am I now expected to work untill I am nearly 70. I was born in 58 and have been hit by every increase, school leaving age etc. Why is it when you pay into a system that is meant to support retirement, your told the pots empty, but its full enough for those who never work. Those already retired more than payed thier way in keeping this a free country, it wasn't them that sold off our assets, reduced our home productivity, but they are expected to suffer for it. Those about to retire are doing so with dread not knowing how they will cope and those who thought they wouldretire within the next 15 years can forget it, they won't cope. It appears there will be no pension even though most will have paid into it for 50 years. Can't save extra because if you can afford to save you can pay more tax etc goverment seem to watch savings and raise everything to double the savings held in banks. What happened to solving poverty at home. We scream about it else where in the world. If we can look after other we can look after our own. There must be a sceme that looks after people when they retire. What is it?

Dominic9

1) Why should anyone have faith to put money into a product which they cannot access and for which the rules of the game can change after they have committed money:

• Age at which a pension can be accessed...50 when money was committed to pension, then increased to 55 when money cannot be taken out
• Money contributed to pension on the basis of RPI uprating, then uprating changed to CPI

2) Why should some people should get 23.8% extra tax relief (more valuable than income tax relief for basic rate taxpayers) simply because of the way their employer runs a payroll (some employers offer salary sacrifice pension contributions, some don't).

3) Much is made of the new 'triple-lock' on Basic State Pension, with general agreement that linking it to RPI in the early 1980s destroyed its value. What does that say about what will happen to the value of occupational pensions now linked to CPI?

4) Isn't there a danger that if Quantitative Easing and/or the weakness of the pound leads to high inflation (10%+) then pensioner incomes will be decimated with most annuities not having any inflation linking, and many occupational pensions only have inflation linking up to a low level (2.5% or 5%)?

Dee39

Sir,
I am a woman of 56 who has seen my pension age rise from 60 to 66 over the last few years. I have been employed as a care worker for over 11 years working with Autistic adults who are often violent and know that I will not be able to carry on doing this job for many more years and certainly not until I am 66. I want to know if the members of the government whilst sat in their cosy offices deciding on adding years on to my working life actually think about who will employ me when I am in my early 60s and I am unable to do this job any longer. Over the years I have been in the army, was a trained nurse and am now a care worker, none of these occupations paid enough for me to have a private pension so what do you suggest I live on when no one will employ me.

tigerpatch

Does the minister consider it right to cut mortgage contributions for those whose retirement was unexpectedly enforced due to disablement? My husband and I would gladly work until retirement, but unfortunately due to COPD he had to retire early. I have had to give up work to care for him and an elderly father. I get 50% of my carer's allowance and we get Pension Credits. The help with our mortgage which has another 10 years to run has been reduced by £10 which is a big chunk of our income. With a rise in VAT in January, we like lots of others in a similar position will suffer severe hardship. Heaven help us if we have an interest rate rise!

Not all claimants are work shy. We both worked for 40 and 30 years respectively without a break until now. Those who caused this mess ie the bankers seem not only to have got away without making any further contributions to the economy, but have legal and government backing!

Oh and my husband reaches 65 in March.

vixen1500

give everyone the option of taking retirement at 60 and free up jobs for the younger people. They should be given the chance of working to support their families, and not sit back whilst the older generation pay taxes to feed and house them and their children.

I would also like to challenge a group of 65 year old MPs to spend a month working in a factory, doing a manual job (not sitting in an office drinking coffee and pushing papers around) on 12hr rotary shifts and then see if they would be happy about the idea of having to do it for another 48 months before being allowed to retire.

It is totally out of order that after working and paying into the system for 45+ years you should not be given the opportunity to have some quality time before you kick the bucket.

I also believe that the final salary scheme for public sector workers should be totally self funding or scrapped. Why should private sector workers who have seen their own pensions disappear be expected to contribute? (I assume that earlier retirement for public sector workers will now also be scrapped).

arch50

hi just a wee note when it comes to retiring when i am asked to work on after 45 years in hard manal labour (heavy metal works) and someone that worked in a office there should be a diffrence would you not htink so
yours arch
(( ps' lost my job then my house so thanks for helping the poor bankers))

cd1951

I think the governments handling of the increase the age related Pensions Credit have been unfairly handled.

I will be 60 next month and was due to receive pension credits from the 4th. Jan 2011. I have now been told that I have to wait another year for them!!

This also made me think of people who are 64 this year and due to retire within the year, but will have to wait a further year for them.
iI do not know why the government could not have phased the introduction of these new 'ages' , by a month or so for those who are in the final months and gradiated it down that way, as people would have made plans for their retirement & etc. and now have to make alternative arrangements - no doubt costing them a lot of money in the process?