retirement age increase

prus

i am totally against the increase in the retirement age to 66yrs, i work in the construction industry by the time you get to 65 you need to retire due to wear and tare on the body, ken clarks comment about look at me i'm 70 and still working is an insult.
this is ok if you work behind a desk all your life
i want to start an on line patition against the increase , can any one help

noh

You can retire at any age you like.
It is the state pension age that is being raised.

bendix

The retirement age hasn't been increased. The age you receive your state pension has been put back a year. That's all.

Stop whinging and take control of your own destiny by making plans to retire anytime you like.

dunstonh

i am totally against the increase in the retirement age to 66yrs, i work in the construction industry by the time you get to 65 you need to retire due to wear and tare on the body, ken clarks comment about look at me i'm 70 and still working is an insult.

Labour introduced the increase on STATE pension to age 68. So, why didn't you raise it as an issue when they were in power?

If you are concerned that you don't think you can work until the state pension age then why have you not planned to retire earlier and make sufficient planning for that? The average retirement age in the UK is around 62. So, plenty of people are not waiting until they get the state pension.

i want to start an on line patition against the increase , can any one help

Find Doctor Who, ask to borrow his TARDIS and go back to when Tony Blair was prime minister and make your case to them. You are far too late now.

Realistically though, it would make no difference. The state pension age logically had to increase as people are living longer. If you want the luxury of earlier retirement then you pay for it. Not the taxpayer.

kidmugsy

When the state pension was introduced the qualifying age was 70. I blame that Lloyd George.

Loughton_Monkey

You have every right to be 'against' this change.

But the issue has been hammered to death for years since it was first promulgated. You are rather late in raising this particular issue. Hence I don't think you will get any petition going and nor would it do any good anyway.

As for 'retirement age', this is a very different animal. Yes, it has been 'tradition' for a lot of people to think that age 65 for men (60 for women) was a 'retirement' age. This was an impression bolstered by a 'tradition' within many companies to force their staff to leave their jobs at this age.

But this has been abolished, and people have a right to work up to whatever age they choose, subject to 'performing' sufficiently to keep the job. You cannot be 'forced' to retire at any specific age. Some people would have welcomed this in the past, but were not given the opportunity.

But in actual fact, there has not been, and is not now, any official 'retirement age'. Most people have chosen when to retire. I chose age 56. But the government pays me some benefits. In my particular case, I got the bus pass and a heating allowance at age 60. I will get a state pension at age 65.

You can retire whenever you want to. It doesn't change the fact that you will start receiving state pension at age 66. You can start taking any of your additional private pension arrangements at any time from age 55. You do have some don't you?

diable

I entered in to a contract when I started work back in 1980 that I would work X amount of years and pay X amount into the system so to be able to retire at 65, it has now changed to 66 so I need to work 50 years instead of 49 years ok its not that much but when some of us started there was no talk or advice about private pension funds (which seem to have bombed and are worthless) I don't think that that there was any small print stating things could change..........

noh

diable wrote: »

I entered in to a contract when I started work back in 1980 that I would work X amount of years and pay X amount into the system so to be able to retire at 65, it has now changed to 66 so I need to work 50 years instead of 49 years ok its not that much but when some of us started there was no talk or advice about private pension funds (which seem to have bombed and are worthless) I don't think that that there was any small print stating things could change..........

I would check that again if I was you.
No contract was ever entered into.

When you started work in 1980 you needed to pay into the system for 44 years to get the full state pension. Now you only have to pay in for 30 years.

dunstonh

was no talk or advice about private pension funds (which seem to have bombed and are worthless)

Evidence please of pension funds that have bombed and are worthless? You won't have any as there hasnt been any.

when I started work back in 1980 <snip> there was no talk or advice about private pension funds

Section 226 Retirement Annuity contracts were available to you if you didnt have a works scheme available. You also had a range of savings/investment plans available.

You seem to have gone through your working life with incorrect assumptions and misinformation.

seven-day-weekend

Quite right, people don't have to work until they are 66, they just can't get the State Pension until 66.

If you are unable to work through unemployment or sickeness, you can claim State Benefits.

Or you can do as we did,take early retirement in your 50s and live off personal or Occupational Pensions and then get your State Pension at the official age.

iris

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Or you can do as we did,take early retirement in your 50s and live off personal or Occupational Pensions and then get your State Pension at the official age.

Doesn't your husband also get Incapacity Benefit to 'supplement' your income? (see your previous posts)

Not everyone can get this 'benefit' and the future doesn't look rosy for claimants.

My Father was in the construction industry all his working life and found the last few years before retirement very hard.

Working in an office type environment is so much easier physically and generally speaking you do get a lot more perks i.e. pensions, paid holidays etc. I know because I used to work in the pensions industry.