conservatives planning to raise retirement age to 75

Apodemus

mgdavid wrote: »

...and round we go in circles....
as was said in this or a similar thread a couple of days ago, average age is not going up, longevity has stabilised and in some parts of the union it has even turned back downwards a little.

I think you are misunderstanding the maths here. It is quite possible for average age to keep rising despite a falling life expectancy while the population bulge works its way up through the age profile.

People also misunderstand life expectancy - the quoted figures are normally life expectancy at birth - not at retiral age. Early deaths have a disproportionate statistical effect on the headline rate, so if we were really serious about increasing life expectancy we would be targeting males age 18-25 to stop them killing themselves and each other with knives, cars or drugs.

Anonymous101

pensionpawn wrote: »

Me and my wife will start to receive, in quite a few years time, our SP within 6 months of each other. That's £17,500 tax free pa at today's rate which is way too much for me to disregard from our pension planning. If any government even try to erode / take that away after paying into the system for 35 years the ensuing sh1tstorm will make Brexit look like a minor disagreement between friends!

That's my point entirely. Anyone within about 20 years of State pension age would have their vote swayed if the government tried to alter their access age. This will get more and more of an issue the closer you are to that age.


Its much easier for the government to convince us that the current pension age is not affordable and that we should raise this for our children on the argument that they have much longer to plan for it.

Paul_Herring

the quoted figures are normally life expectancy at birth - not at retiral age.

Normally, yes. But it needn't be so.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/bulletins/lifeexpectancyatbirthandatage65bylocalareasinenglandandwales/2015-11-04#national-life-expectancy-at-age-65

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/bulletins/nationallifetablesunitedkingdom/2014to2016#life-expectancy-at-older-ages

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/bulletins/nationallifetablesunitedkingdom/2015to2017#no-improvements-in-the-chances-of-surviving-to-older-ages

But I suppose it's either far too difficult, or far too inconvenient, to start referencing those, in preference to playing 'no true Scotsman.'