Is Ann Widdecombe right about females age of reirement?

Lemmony99
I live in Lancashire but have to wait until I'm 66 for my bus pass. My friend in Merseyside got hers at 60.

In Lancs you now have to wait for your correct pension age
( but it used to be 60 ) .In Merseyside you can still get it at 60 .Goodness Cared21 , what a good job you pointed that out so helpfully .

Just because the population now lives longer, how do we justify what is ‘living’. As someone who in the past has worked in residential homes and nursing homes, yes, there were people still living until their late 90’s, but none of them would have been capable of doing any kind of work.

Manual workers bodies are going to generally wear out before workers who had more sedentary jobs. My friends dad passed away recently, he had worked hard all his life, been in the forces, eventually retired at about 68, was dead within a couple of years! I, myself, worked hard all my life mainly looking after others, children when my own were young, then the elderly and adults with various learning disabilities. I reached the age of 59 without too many health problems, then my body decided enough was enough and I got signed off sick and haven’t worked since. I now have to ‘claim’ disability benefits until I am 66 rather than getting the pension I had paid into over all the years I worked. Latterly with 4 different jobs on the go. I stupidly thought by becoming a ‘relief’ worker I could pick and choose how many hours I worked and have a bit more time off with my hubby who had then semi retired. Big mistake if like me, the word no didn’t come easy. I ended up some days going from job a to b to d then c over a period of 24 hours or so. All were responsible jobs, caring for others in one way or another.

So, yes, pensions need to change, but bearing in mind that not all older people are going to enjoy the same level of physical or mental fitness. These things need to be taken into account.

I don’t know if it’s true, but someone told me, in Spain, where I now live, if you retire and draw your pension, you are no longer allowed to do any legitimate paid work. But if you want to carry on working, as some do, your pension pot just keeps growing, so rewarding those wanting to work longer, but letting those who are maybe not so fit, to retire earlier with a pension.

Lemmony99 I got my Lancashire bus pass at 60 yrs (12 years ago) even though I worked for another 6 years. Unfortunately the number of buses has decreased so much that I don't get to use it now I need it!! The few that do still run have such roundabout routes it can take half an hour or more to do the 8 minute journey into town and then you have to wait hours for a bus back!

We are living longer but are we just as productive. Our extended lifespan does not mean we are more able to work longer. A lit of people at 65 may be physically healthy but mentally drained which in turn lessens the physical ability. I also have concerns on just how tolerant the young generation will be working with older people who may well earn more but no longer is a proficient employee. Since the end of WWII the population has increased dramatically as have all the new treatment available to address issues with older people thus extending their life. Again the Governments have known for a long time approximately 60 years that there was a surge in population post war and should have monitored the increase to ensure they had adequate funds for an increase in pensions etc.

The trend now in both the U.K. and US is for a decline in life expectancy, so many will not even live long enough to get their pensions. This appears to be a trend correlated with austerity. So forget the idea that “we are all living longer”.
www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/07/life-expectancy-slumps-by-five-months?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Come on! The decline is in months and that can be explained by the rising obesity rate linked to metabolic disorders.

life expectancy uk

That link doesn’t seem to work but it is still 80+ on average,

Thank you, crystaltipps for the link.

^Falling longevity has accelerated. Last year’s analysis cut forecasted life expectancy by two months. This year it took off another six months.

Compared with 2015, projections for life expectancy are now down by 13 months for men and 14 months for women.^

That’s a significant change to previous forecasts.

Well assuming it keeps falling Maggiemaybe by the time I can eventually get my state pension at 67 and 4 months they might only have to pay out for a year or two .

I only found out that the retirement age for women had changed when I was 58, I was closing my business down as my eyesight is deteriorating, and the aches and pains I was suffering from made it likely I might make a mistake. I worked 42 years whilst bringing up 5 children, I was never paid the same as men, but at least I could look forward to retiring at 60 so I could play a bigger role in my grandchildren's lives, and look after elderly parent. Now I am 60 I am earning minimum wage, I have worked as a cleaner, but it was very physical, I currently do gardening, also exhausting, and drive special needs school children to school. Hopefully my eyesight, reactions and health will hold up for another 6 years. I worked all those years believing I could retire at 60, and I feel so cheated, I didn't get a letter, I had no idea about what was happening, too busy running my own company.

Statistically, the trend for life expectancy in the US and U.K. is down. Although the overall average is small it is still moving downwards, and when looked at different economic groups there is a big difference between those in lower and higher income groups. So - please stop saying everyone is living longer - it’s not true, not something that those in charge like to admit- it doesn’t suit current policies. I’m sure for everyone we know in their 90s, we know someone who has died at a much younger age.

Compared with life expectancy when the first pensions were introduced crystaltipps then people are still living longer.

The first "old age" pension was introduced by the Government in 1908, paying five shillings a week (worth around £14 today). At a time when the average life expectancy was 47 and it was only available to men aged over 70.

1925 - age 65
In 1925 a new kind of pension was introduced based on contributions paid at work by employer and employee. It was paid from age 65 without a means-test. A married couple's rate of pension was paid if both spouses were aged 65 or more. That meant many men had to wait for some time after they reached 65 to get the higher rate for their wives.

As life expectancy for men was about 60 most didn’t live long enough to collect.

I think perhaps we are heading back there Anja ! Raising the age of retirement to 70 and life expectancy gradually falling. I live in one of the poorest areas of the country therefore we have one of the lowest life expectancies. We will undoubtedly save the treasury millions !

In 1970, life expectancy at birth for males in the UK was 68.7 years and for females was 75.0 years. This a man could expect 3.7 years on a state pension and a woman 15 years. Hardly seems fair does it?

So we are living longer after we retire which means pensions have to reflect that.

gillybob the state pension was never designed to see us all living out decades in comfort.

Thought this was relevant.

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK, said: “It’s deeply depressing that the rise in life expectancy among the over-65s in the UK is faltering and that we’re falling behind most other developed countries in this crucial respect. It’s hard to attribute precise cause and effect, but the fact we are seeing this trend at the same time as our health and care services are under such acute strain is surely more than a coincidence.

“The Government has recently announced a 10 year bonus for the NHS but continues to look the other way as our care system effectively disintegrates, leaving well over a million older people with some unmet need for care,” she said.

Prof Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, called for further investigation of the trends to see if they were the “consequences of austerity”.

Justin Madders, shadow health minister, said: “This slowdown in improvements in life expectancy exposes the terrible effects of austerity policies imposed by the Government since 2010.

“It is simply astonishing that the UK is now falling so far behind other countries. It is an appalling sign of the Government’s failure to improve people’s life chances as years of underfunding in health and social care take their toll.”

First time I’ve seen this actually attributed to the government’s austerity policy and lack of social care but it makes sense.

Older people beware Your Government is Killing You

The rise in life expectancy is reported as slowing, but the number of people seriously obese is on a relentless increase.

There has got to be a connection there.

I know the Waspi women have been dealt a bad deal, but where would the money come from to reinstate the original retirement age ? Tax increases would prove to be very unpopular with younger people already struggling with mortgages and general living expenses.

Of course we can all come up with ideas as to where the money could come from. I would start by looking at the House of Lords, and then the over inflated foreign aid budget.

gillybob the state pension was never designed to see us all living out decades in comfort

Of course it wasn't Anja but not to worry, people of my age won't get to "live decades in comfort" . I will hopefully retire at 67 and 4 months and only live another few years after that as I live in an area with one of the lowest life expectancies anyway.

Classic, I'm so sorry to read of your circumstances. I have met women on the WASPI demos who are in dire straits. A woman with dementia knowing she won't live to get the pension she's fighting for. Another in very poor health after major operations and working three cleaning jobs, even though her busfares to work take a huge chunk of her pay. Women whose final divorce settlements were calculated on the basis of them retiring at 60, now struggling. Women relying on handouts from their own children. Some have had to sell their homes. So many have caring responsibilities of one sort or another and simply can't work, others find that decent jobs are few and far between when you're over 60, and funnily enough I know of nobody who has been offered one of the apprenticeships that the government kindly says we can take on.

Not every WASPI woman has had the opportunity during her working life to build up a savings pot to see her through 6 or more years she didn't bargain for. It is heartening to see that most GNers who were lucky enough to get their own state pensions and bus passes at 60 can still show empathy for those of us who've been dumped on from a very great height. Few of us are asking for a reversal to 60, and we're well aware that pension ages have to be equalised. We're asking for some sort of compensation for the way the process has been bungled, with the ridiculously steep rise to the pension age causing real and unforeseeable hardship to a small cohort of women, instead of being implemented gradually, as seems to be happening in every other country round the world.

As for where would the money come from? Isn't it more a matter of where did the money go? To quote dear George Osborne: "“I’ve found it one of the less controversial things we’ve done and it probably saved more money than anything else we’ve done." Well cheers for that.

I’m not getting at anybody gillybob just stating a fact.

There seems to be a feeling nowadays that the State Pension should be enough. There are those who can save for retirement, and those who can draw a works pension and those who end up in dire poverty.

That’s a fact too, not a judgement. But it has always been the case throughout history, sadly.

Why is our state pension one of the lowest in Europe when all we hear is how we are a wealthy country - what we don’t hear is wealth is concentrated in the hands of the very few and doesn’t trickle down to the vast majority. Inequality has increased.

a matter of where did the money go? Maggiemaybe
Well ,,,500 thousand million went to the banks. And in the last 4 years tax cuts to the super-rich lost us half a million.

crystaltipps is correct - wealth is concentrated in the hands of the very few
And ... they're making sure they get to keep more and we get less. I mean why wouldn't they? It's how the system is until we change it!