Ask the Pensions Minister about the future of pensions

Gillian_Henley

Sir,

I only stopped working earlier this year at the age of 71. I was actually working for the Conservative Party and had been running their constituency office for 21 years. However, I had no pension from them and so am attempting to live on the state pension which in my case is £506 per month and sadly, impossible to live on. I have rented out a room in my house to a student but that still only raises my income to £831.

Fortunately I have some savings but I'm having to dip into them more and more often for things such as car repairs, new TV and new Fridge/freezer. The savings are running down and it frightens me to death.

Basically, I have to die before they run out and I'm not joking.

Rob_192

dennislp wrote: »

The last 33 years of my working life I paid into an additional pension scheme out of my monthly salery, this was to give my wife & I a better standard of living once I retired., Money we could have spent on other things, money I paid tax on. I now receive that additional pension which helps, but what realy makes me so angry is I pay tax on it, WHY?

Surely, you would have received tax releif on any pension contributions ?

Kathjo

When I was a child in the early 1950s my grandparents could not afford to heat their home sufficiently in winter. It is now 2010 and this situation has not changed. Despite all the wealth and prosperity created for our country by todays pensioners the basic pension remains insufficient. It should not be necessary in the UK in 2010 for government top ups just to survive.
Is it not about time we had a government who treats the needs of our pensioners as a priority over others when dishing out money.
Even when governments have been awash with money the pension has been kept unacceptably low.
Successive governments keep telling us we are a rich nation and a big player on the world stage, yet our pensioners have to rely on hand outs.
You should be thoroughly ashamed.

richgirl123

The recent rises in pension age have hit women in their 50's particularly hard.
We've gone from retiring at 60 , then 65 and just recently to retiring at 67 [ or even later]
How on earth can we plan for this finacially or otherwise , especially as so many work part time hours in order to support and care for family /grandchildren etc.?

Many women [ and men ] can't even find full time pensionable employment - and still the majority of small charities and voluntary sector organisations only offer pensions to full time , permanent staff.

Whilst I believe that retirement age should be the same for men and women , men of the same age have had a much slower pace of change as they now have to wait 2 more years for thier pension as opposed to 7 years plus for women.

It feels almost like betrayal , you work , pay your pesion and then , the rules just change - just like that !

dunstonh

The recent rises in pension age have hit women in their 50's particularly hard.
We've gone from retiring at 60 , then 65 and just recently to retiring at 67 [ or even later]

What do you define as recent? The increase from 60 to 65 was put in place over 15 years ago. That is hardly recent. The only recent changes are the increase to 66, 67 and 68.

How on earth can we plan for this finacially or otherwise , especially as so many work part time hours in order to support and care for family /grandchildren etc.?

You have had nearly 20 years on the increase from 60 to 65 (15 years since it came in any a number of years under consultation where it was discussed and had media coverage). So, that but has had plenty of time for you to manage your finances.

Whilst I believe that retirement age should be the same for men and women , men of the same age have had a much slower pace of change as they now have to wait 2 more years for thier pension as opposed to 7 years plus for women.

How slow do you want it to be? 15-20 years is surely long enough. The earlier increase to 66 is a bit more harsh but the increase to 67 and 68 is no hassle.

It feels almost like betrayal , you work , pay your pesion and then , the rules just change - just like that !

as you say, you pay your pension. That means you retire when you can afford to. If that ends up being 67 then that choice is yours to make. As things currently stand, the average retirement age is around 62 (I believe it has recently increased to 63). So on average, people do retire earlier than state age. That will almost certainly creep up but then people are living longer today and that needs to be accepted.

The life expectancy after retirement is far higher than at any previous point in its history. So, the choice is either reduce the amount of pension paid or increase the start age. Best thing to do is to make your own provision and not rely on the state. What would your alternatives be? Its easy to complain but when asked to propose an alternative, most cannot.

True_Scot

Auto-enrolment will cost people on low incomes money but is likely to mean that that are worse/no better off as they will lose out/have reduced means tested benefits.

The idea of everyone have a state pension of say £140 is unfair as people who have not contributed via National Insurances Contributions will get the same as someone who has paid 50 years of NICs. It will benefit people who have lived abroad, not worked etc. The reason women had gaps in their NIC contribute will not apply in the future as now most mothers work, they get NIC credits when they receive Child Benefit, and reduced NICs for married women stopped years ago.

I am worried about the probable increase in the state pension age as I shall be first in April 2011. As a female when I started work it was 60, then increased to 65 and then 66. I am worried it will increase to 66 and 67 which I think is unfair as women currently get the state pension just over 60.

What are the comments of the minister to the above points?

Rainmaker_uk

Why is NEST not being made mandatory? There should be no ability to opt out if you have no other pension provision.

peeseuuh

I have lived and worked in the UK all my life and continue to maintain a residence here and pay my taxes to central and local government. I never had a student's 'year out', yet now I at last have the opportunity to travel, if I am outside the UK for six months or more in any year I understand I lose my entitlement to NHS treatment. Do you think this is the way pensioners should be treated and if not what will you do about it?

jeanniebeanie_2

Best thing to do is to make your own provision and not rely on the state. What would your alternatives be? Its easy to complain but when asked to propose an alternative, most cannot.

Yes, something has to be done. Many of us thought something WAS being done by contributing to SERPS, S2P and graduated pension.

We were told these contributions were needed to assure us of an affordable, reliable future for our pensions because In 1959 (graduated pension) 'something had to be done' and in 1975 (SERPS) 'something had to be done' too. It appears not enough WAS done despite these measures. How now is it our fault that the benefit of these contributions -ALREADY MADE - could be
under threat? I understand we don't yet know what will happen to our
contributions, but concern fills the gap left by by any assurances.

trudger

taxation applied to all pensioners is a total con. but assumed income for pension credit recipients is just beyond a joke. £1 deducted per week for every £500 over the £10,000 capital allowance. what does that work out at around 10% intrest were can you get that ? nowhere I know . SEE theyworkforyou.com .