George Moves The Goalposts Yet Again !

[tonyav]

Fancy working until your 70 ?.
http://money.uk.msn.com/autumn-statement-2013/autumn-statement-young-to-work-until-70-1

[jno]

they won't have to work at gunpoint; you can still quit when you like, as I did. (Conversely, many people want to work till they drop, goodness knows why.) It might make sense to make more contributions to your pension to allow yourself early retirement.

[LazyGun]

I can imagine that quite a few people would view this news with some irritation, but I cannot imagine wanting to stop working, even at 70.

And given the steep increase in average life expectancy and improved quality of life for most people post-60 odd nowadays, I have some sympathy for linking the pension more explicitly to life expectancy.

[jno]

I expect one of the downsides of everyone living to 100 will be greater demand for health services, and that will have to be paid for too.

But broadly speaking our grandparents would have expected to draw a pension for 10 years; we expect it for 25 years and rising.

[tonyav]

I understand what your saying LazyGun, however working in an office is totally different to physical work in a factory of some kind.

[Sqad]

I agree with Lazygun.....I worked until i was 70 years old and now, with life expectancy much prolonged, one could be retired for 20 years.
The first 2 years of retirement feels good, but from then on it is downhill all the way...........in my experience.

[wolf63]

I almost feel guilty for retiring at forty - almost!

[tonyav]

But what about if you couldn't physically do your job at 70 years old.

[tonyav]

But wolf, you don't get the state pension though do you.

[LazyGun]

@tony, Yes, I agree with you. Different jobs will have different physical and mental challenges, and of course we are all different too, so what people do will very much influence their feelings on this news.

I would tend to agree with jno though- I think as a society we are far far too lax in planning for our retirements in this country. Many more people need to make their own provisions for their own retirement, and in an ideal world the state pension should be seen as a kind of top-up to ensure comfort. Of course for many that is not the case, I do understand that, but simple population and health demographics dictate that states can no longer afford to offer pensions over such a long term nowadays.

[VHG]

Don't blame George, any government would do the same.

The country cannot afford to pay people a pension at 65 if people are expected to live till 80, 90 or 100.

After all if you work for say 45 years during your life and are paying IN to the system you could be drawing OUT of it for 25 or 30 years, and the sums just don't add up.

[jno]

presumably the same as if you couldn't do it at 60, at present.

Osborne's move does suggest as assumption that everyone will be living longer and healthier in decades to come - that is, that current demographic trends will continue. This isn't necessarily the case, of course.

[tonyav]

VHG
Mark as Best Answer
Don't blame George, any government would do the same.

Don't blame George, why not he's the chancellor right now isn't he.

[wolf63]

Tony

No, my Incapacity Benefit was stopped due to all the changes. I have an occupational pension from civil service. Luckily I am,for now, financially secure.

[tonyav]

Hope it stays that way for you, wolf.

[ummmm]

This isn't a shock.

[tonyav]

Not really a shock for me either.

[jno]

I worked for less than 40 years. In theory, I could get a pension for longer than that. From the point of view of the nation's finances, that's daft and I can't really blame any chancellor for trying to do something about it.

[ummmm]

I 100% agree, jno.

As soon as our mortgage is paid off the mortgage money will be going straight into the pension fund.

[tonyav]

I was paying into a pension fund when I used to have a mortgage.

[Famous5]

Doesn't the fact that people will have to work to 70 to get state pension contribute to the youth unemployment. You now only need 30 years contributions to get state pension (used to be 44), but you still have to contribute if you are working, so why not offer full state pension to all those with 30 years and require all employers who release staff this way to employ a young person