Is the work place pension just ruining pensions for everyone else

woolythoughts

tempus_fugit wrote: »

I'm not sure what you are wanting. Before auto-enrollment a large number of people had no workplace pension at all and had to rely on the state pension for their income in old age. Those days are gone and the scheme ensures that people have at least something to add to the state pension. Sure, it also reduces the burden on the state, which is a good thing in my view.

My point is simple.

If I were in a position where I was going to spend my life at minimum wage or similar, I probably would not bother.

*I* am not going to benefit from the pension income since all it will do is reduce the amount I'd get from the state, so I'd rather spend it now.

I'm not in that position but a good friend of mine is... and I don't blame her one bit

Anonymous101

GunJack wrote: »

This is one that annoys me - for me (and a hellova lot of others, I suspect) it's cheaper to own and run a car or motorbike to get to work (and a lot quicker) than it would be to use PT. In my case at least half the time or less and many hundreds of ££s cheaper to use a car.

And for me too...I'd love to be able to use PT but living somewhat rurally its not frequent or cheap enough to be viable.


Its more the principle that people will rule it out immediately without running the calculations. Similarly everyone these days seems more than happy to be paying £200+ a month for a new ish car where as not too long ago people were prepared to run around in older cars... or take the bus.

GunJack

Anonymous101 wrote: »

And for me too...I'd love to be able to use PT but living somewhat rurally its not frequent or cheap enough to be viable.


Its more the principle that people will rule it out immediately without running the calculations. Similarly everyone these days seems more than happy to be paying £200+ a month for a new ish car where as not too long ago people were prepared to run around in older cars... or take the bus.

Fair 'nough as for £200 a month on a car...my current one was a tenner

Prism

Anonymous101 wrote: »

And for me too...I'd love to be able to use PT but living somewhat rurally its not frequent or cheap enough to be viable.


Its more the principle that people will rule it out immediately without running the calculations. Similarly everyone these days seems more than happy to be paying £200+ a month for a new ish car where as not too long ago people were prepared to run around in older cars... or take the bus.

Yup public transport is way to expensive - especially trains. I travel to London twice a month and that costs a lovely £550 in train fares and parking. Thats pretty much the same as I spend on my car lease for the whole month. Local trains are a bit more reasonable but it still adds up.

westv

Prism wrote: »

Yup public transport is way to expensive - especially trains. I travel to London twice a month and that costs a lovely £550 in train fares and parking. Thats pretty much the same as I spend on my car lease for the whole month. Local trains are a bit more reasonable but it still adds up.

If you know when you are travelling you can get fares a lot cheaper than that. I travel to London every week from Hull in peak and that costs me £100 return.

Prism

I am travelling from Leeds, peak time there and return with less than two weeks notice. Sometimes I can get a cheap ticket but otherwise it's full fare

westv

Prism wrote: »

I am travelling from Leeds, peak time there and return with less than two weeks notice. Sometimes I can get a cheap ticket but otherwise it's full fare

If you book via the LNER website you can earn Nectar points to use towards more tickets. Works out to around 1% discount. Not great but better than a poke in the eye.

snowqueen555

These pension reforms are going to be very beneficial for those who begin working at 18. Unfortunately a lot of people only really start a proper steady job well into their mid 20's.

bowlhead99

snowqueen555 wrote: »

These pension reforms are going to be very beneficial for those who begin working at 18. Unfortunately a lot of people only really start a proper steady job well into their mid 20's.

As all employers will be offering the auto enrolment, people can still pay in before they even get into their proper career. And even if they leave it until mid twenties to embark upon that career, they may have 40 years to go at it before state pension age, so they can get there in the end.

The advantage for youngsters is that the risk of simply not getting involved in pensions until your thirties or forties is considerably diminished because your employer will be trying to get you involved (and giving you free money) all the time since you enter the world of work, and hopefully when you chat to your colleagues about whether you should opt out this time around, even if there are some fools who say a pound in the hand is worth two in the pension, some proportion of them will say hey, why would you turn down the free money .