Will pension age change to 75? & potentially 65 earliest access to any pension...if tories stay in!

Thrugelmir

zagfles wrote: »

They also love winning elections, so it's not going to happen. Labour would love to means test it, but again, they're not going to commit political suicide either.

Is means testing cost effective? Civil servants need to be paid for.

Zero_Sum

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Is means testing cost effective? Civil servants need to be paid for.

Exactly. Its the reason the winter fuel allowance isnt.
And tbf, as its taxable they claw some of it back from wealthier pensioners anway.

nigelbb

Zero_Sum wrote: »

Exactly. Its the reason the winter fuel allowance isnt.
And tbf, as its taxable they claw some of it back from wealthier pensioners anway.

Winter Fuel payments are tax free. I drew my pension last year but missed out on my Winter Fuel payment by just a few days.

Zero_Sum

nigelbb wrote: »

Winter Fuel payments are tax free. I drew my pension last year but missed out on my Winter Fuel payment by just a few days.

I was referring to state pension. Reading it back it does look ambiguous as to which i was on about.

JoeCrystal

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Is means testing cost effective? Civil servants need to be paid for.

Interestingly enough, if we had a look at the Australian system in which the UK government took their inspiration for Auto-enrollment. They do an asset test on the people before reducing their Age Pension, which works out as the following depending on your status.

Single Homeowner ($263,250/£145,486) Non-homeowner ($473,750/£261,821)
A couple, combined Homeowner ($394,500/£218,023) Non-homeowner ($605,000/£334,357)

Your principal home is not included, but all other real estate assets are included along with all other investments and savings. When you claim the Age Pension, you would need to supply all the supporting documents (including all pension schemes & income streams) with all your assets and so on.

So basically, they work out what is your likely incomes from these assets and reduce or cancel the Age Pension outright. :eek: As it stands, the Australian government spent 2% of its GDP on the Age Pension last year compares to 4% of the UK's GDP by the British government.

So it seems in the long term future, I can see the UK government doing the asset tests and incomes tests on the pensioners so they can reduce or cancel the State Pension.

As for the rise in the SPA and the access to the pension schemes, I have to hope that I will have enough notices to save outside the Pension schemes. My goal is to retire at 60 so in only 27 years!

Thrugelmir

JoeCrystal wrote: »

As it stands, the Australian government spent 2% of its GDP on the Age Pension last year compares to 4% of the UK's GDP by the British government.

Age of population needs to be factored in when making comparisons. Australia will younger than the UK.

GDP is no indication of affordability. Australia still runs a budget deficit.

There's a considerable amount of research in the public domain on the declining level of births in the developed world. In essence fewer workers to support an increasing level of retirees.

msallen

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Is means testing cost effective? Civil servants need to be paid for.

I doubt Labour would care either as they'd be doing it for ideological reasons.