State Pension - differing opinions

bigfreddiel

I've seen many posts saying not to rely on your sp as your sole source of income when you retire - bumt on the other hand you get all these women banging on how many thousands of pounds they'regoing to lose because they need to work one more year (I will ignore the move to 65 for women - thats been on the books to happen from many years ago so there has been plenty of time to prepare)

So what is it then, is the state pension a little hardly enough to get by on, or is it thousands of pounds women are missing out on - you can't have it both ways!

fj

oldtractor

my sole source of income in old age is the state pension only.

hugheskevi

because they need to work one more year

This is my pet hate

For women aged 60-64, the mean State Pension is £95.62 per week (source: DWP Tabtool)

For women aged 50-59, median full-time gross weekly earnings are £440.90 (source: ASHE)

So annual salary of £23,000 vs. State Pension of £5,000.

No need to work anything like an extra year for the average person, just a few months of continued work will put you back in the same financial position.

And they gained from an earnings-linked Basic State Pension (but lost from a CPI linked State Second Pension). On balance, that will likely to be an overall gain, further reducing the extra time you need to work to make good the overall loss. Although admittedly that could change again before they reach retirement.

Now if you have retired early it will be harder to adjust by working longer, but in that case you really should have made provision for shocks such as this before deciding to leave the labour force very early, as this would only impact on those who left the labour market more than 5 years prior to State Pension age.

Compared to the changes for many others, notably university students, having to work a few more months doesn't seem a huge imposition.

katecheshire

We were told that the government were not going to accelerate pension equalisation but now they are.
If you are eligible to receive your state pension you can still work if you wish. So delaying payment of state pension loses about £5000 of income per year.
Used to be 44 years to qualify for full pension, now only 30 years so the people who will be affected (men as well when pension age rises) have paid more for less.
Women born in 1953 -54 are most adversely affected by these changes.
Actuaries say that more notice is needed in order to prepare for pension changes than is being given.
Many women are in lower paid jobs and won't have very much of a pension - even the so called gold plated public sector pensions. How much pension does a school cleaner or kitchen worker get?
Who is going to be looking after elderly relatives or grandchildren when retirement is delayed?
etc etc
Sorry for 'banging on'!

Loughton_Monkey

bigfreddiel wrote: »

..... bumt on the other hand you get all these women banging on how many thousands of pounds they'regoing to lose because they need to work one more year (I will ignore the move to 65 for women - thats been on the books to happen from many years ago so there has been plenty of time to prepare)....

This is simple human nature. Despite the very 'long' notice period [from 60 to 65] it tends to become an 'issue' only (a) for those actually affected, and (b) only 'the day before' they get to state pension age!

Then the extra 'turn of the screw' was bound to exacerbate things even more. The 'real' issue is [what they see as] the 'loss' of money they would otherwise get. And many of them couple this with actual "retirement", forgetting that this really has little to do with it.

Of course what we didn't hear about, was all those 1950-ish born women, with (say) only 30 contributions, thinking they were going to get 30/39ths of the pension - then all of a sudden they got 100%!

Mrs LM [who didn't bleat about it] was, sadly, born 3 weeks too early! She could retire at 60, but needed the full 39 years. She only had 24. I bought her another 12, making 36, but that is still a 'shortfall'. Had she been born 3 weeks later, I would have bought only 6, and she could have retired age 60 and 1 month on full pension.

I find that women are less likely to 'bang on' about things if they are kept busy and occupied.

atush

I find that women are less likely to 'bang on' about things if they are kept busy and occupied.

Oh deary me LM, and here I was likeing you but now .............;-)

What will mrs LM say to that I wonder?

le_loup

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

I find that women are less likely to 'bang on' about things if they are kept busy and occupied.

Yes, a bit of washing up and cleaning works wonders for them, I find.
Fortunately la loup does not come here.

atush

le_loup wrote: »

Yes, a bit of washing up and cleaning works wonders for them, I find.
Fortunately la loup does not come here.

Well she should if she wants to know what you're up to

vax2002

It will be abolished...
If you do not live long enough to collect it, it is abolished...

zygurat789

Which woman doesn't want equality?

bigfreddiel

hugheskevi wrote: »

This is my pet hate

For women aged 60-64, the mean State Pension is £95.62 per week (source: DWP Tabtool)

For women aged 50-59, median full-time gross weekly earnings are £440.90 (source: ASHE)

So annual salary of £23,000 vs. State Pension of £5,000.

No need to work anything like an extra year for the average person, just a few months of continued work will put you back in the same financial position.

And they gained from an earnings-linked Basic State Pension (but lost from a CPI linked State Second Pension). On balance, that will likely to be an overall gain, further reducing the extra time you need to work to make good the overall loss. Although admittedly that could change again before they reach retirement.

Now if you have retired early it will be harder to adjust by working longer, but in that case you really should have made provision for shocks such as this before deciding to leave the labour force very early, as this would only impact on those who left the labour market more than 5 years prior to State Pension age.

Compared to the changes for many others, notably university students, having to work a few more months doesn't seem a huge imposition.

Couldn't have put it better myself

fj