Move the State Pension age back to 60 for both men & women

Silvertabby

Malthusian said:

Ibrahim5 said:

I had never really thought about delay in the start of work. If you left school at 18 and retired at 67 that would be 49 years. I delayed my start and retired early after 28 years full time work. My wife did 7 years full time work and then married me. She has full state pension because we had children over a number of years. Doesn't seem much work over a lifetime. A footballer may only have to do say 5 years and that would be it if they were careful 

Some people do seem to struggle with the fact that a working lifetime is now shorter than it used to be, at least for men.

The taxpayer will maintain you in education if you wish until around age 21. (Longer is possible but postgraduate study has barriers to entry.) State Pension Age is currently 68. Compulsory working life = 47 years.

A male baby boomer would typically start work no later than 16 unless they were academically gifted and collect their State Pension at 65. Working life = 49 years.

I left school at 15 and worked until I was 60.  That's 45 years.  Had I not been able to afford to retire at 60, then 15 to 66 would have been 51 years.  

[Deleted User]

Malthusian said:

Ibrahim5 said:

I had never really thought about delay in the start of work. If you left school at 18 and retired at 67 that would be 49 years. I delayed my start and retired early after 28 years full time work. My wife did 7 years full time work and then married me. She has full state pension because we had children over a number of years. Doesn't seem much work over a lifetime. A footballer may only have to do say 5 years and that would be it if they were careful 

Some people do seem to struggle with the fact that a working lifetime is now shorter than it used to be, at least for men.

The taxpayer will maintain you in education if you wish until around age 21. (Longer is possible but postgraduate study has barriers to entry.) State Pension Age is currently 68. Compulsory working life = 47 years.

A male baby boomer would typically start work no later than 16 unless they were academically gifted and collect their State Pension at 65. Working life = 49 years.

As an argument about fairness this doesn't seem very compelling to me. Many baby boomers were able to get good positions/careers without degrees. That isn't an option for most people growing up today - you go to university because you have to if you want a good career and you pay for the privilege (the average student leaving with debts of tens of thousands of pounds in student loans).

Education isn't a taxpayer funded luxury that allows young people to simply delay work - it's more like an expensive necessity that previous generations weren't obliged to go through. 

Pollycat

This thread has been moved to the Campaigns Corner board (where it actually belongs).

Calls to return the state pension age to 60 for men and women have been rejected by the government.

Ministers reject calls to lower state pension age to 60 - BBC News

roddydogs

Wasted thread for something that'll never happen, even without covid.

[Deleted User]

roddydogs said:

Wasted thread for something that'll never happen, even without covid.

I don't think this will ever happen, but I do think we should probably have more discussions about both fairness between different generations and the future of pensions. Most people don't seem to appreciate the demographic challenge the country is facing or the pressure it's going to put future taxpayers under. 

A blanket change in the pension age isn't the answer, but if we think things are unfair on younger generations now then we're in for a shock in the near future.

sonofmerton

no government, conservative, labour, green party will ever be reducing the state pension age. if anything it won't just continue to rise it will be abolished.

i certainly see a time when people will look back and laugh that people simply stopped working at a particular age. the only issue is getting employers to higher/keep employing the older generation.  

lisyloo

sonofmerton said:

no government, conservative, labour, green party will ever be reducing the state pension age. if anything it won't just continue to rise it will be abolished.

i certainly see a time when people will look back and laugh that people simply stopped working at a particular age. the only issue is getting employers to higher/keep employing the older generation.  

Why is stopping working an issue if you fund it yourself?

Chomeur

sonofmerton said:

no government, conservative, labour, green party will ever be reducing the state pension age. if anything it won't just continue to rise it will be abolished.

i certainly see a time when people will look back and laugh that people simply stopped working at a particular age. the only issue is getting employers to higher/keep employing the older generation.  

I agree. It's such an artificial concept to think that you will work until a set cut-off date and must save up in order to be able to earn nothing from that date. It leads to people working incredibly hard, craving retirement, and then not knowing what to do when they do retire. The reality is that you will probably continue to work beyond retirement age, in a lower key capacity. A desire to do nothing at all is not a good one, so what is it that you want to do? Do some small scale things and you should easily earn enough from them to live on if you've paid off your mortgage. Obviously once you've retired you don't have to save up for your retirement any more, do you? So don't bother thinking too much about retirement.