raising pension age

It annoys me that I can’t retire until I’m 67 (first age to have to work till then).
My nhs pension scheme also takes nearly 10% of my salary off me as superannuation and I will get a pension based on what I put in.
Fair enough, but had I been a few years older I would have got a pension based on final salary, made less contributions and be able to retire earlier! I would also have received my state pension at 60 as well! I’m not over the moon about all of this but, unfortunately, there just isn’t enough money to go round, so just have to accept that we are having to support all those who did retire at 60!

However, how many of those females who think they should be able to retire 5 years younger than men, fought for gender equality? If you want equality you can’t pick and choose which parts we want to be equal in and it’s unfair to expect men to work longer to support us having a longer retirement!

mcem, true, I'm a pensioner and I'm proud to say that I've never voted Tory in my life.

Anyone living in a London borough can get a 60+ Oyster card (for £20), once 60 years old and have free travel. It should be extended to the entire country, I believe.

mcem ? not all but a large enough percentage for the Tories to feel complacent.

There is enough money to go round - it’s just the richest 10% own 90% of it.

The UK is a rich country, whichever way you measure it:

fullfact.org/economy/uk-worlds-5th-or-9th-largest-economy/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgKeA_ryM5AIVyYTVCh0DJw9BEAAYASAAEgKaD_D_BwE

Hetty pensioners here in the West Midlands also have free bus and rail travel including the tram.

crystaltipps, good point!

People do actually have to do that now...it wasn’t a suggestion. If you are married and need nursing home care....the amount will be taken from your estate when the other partner dies. If you are alone and go into a home....then your home is sold to pay for your care. Your kids will only get your home if you both drop dead and didn’t need care...or you have plenty of savings. My husband and I, a nurse and doctor, fully intend to buy an open top care, enjoy a final fling....and drive off a cliff edge in Italy....or health not permitting, Beachy Head!

Exactly what paddyann said up thread .

I’m 57 and have another 10 years and 4 months to go for a pension , by which time my DH ( who will be 78) will have probably worked himself to death . No private pensions here .

Yes saw this in the paper this morning. Your supposed to retire in your sixties like my husband and I did not in your seventies when your too knackered to be able to enjoy your retirement.
Rediculous nutty man.

My high-achieving professional career couldn't be called manual or physical, but due to stress it caused I got ill-health retirement at 56. I'm 70 now, and the thought of still doing that job is nearly enough to cause a relapse, let alone doing it to 75

I can’t see a Tory government making another raid on pensions, given the demographic of their voters. It’s a canny bit of scaremongering to distract from their Brexit disaster.

I struggled a lot with exhaustion, stress and various health conditions for my last couple of years at work. Not many people can do a full time demanding job much past mid 60s. Raising the pension age to 70 or 75 will just mean far more people on JSA or ESA or other working age benefits which are much lower than the pension. Even if you are fit enough to work, how many employers will give a job to over 60s?
We are no longer talking about women retiring earlier as we have caught up with men who also no longer retire at 65.

I have some sympathy with what Whitewave is saying. Just how many of us do the Tory government have to bring to destitution before conservative voters stop believing they are a safe pair of hands? The are basically in the hands of wreckers but some seem to be prepared to look the other way until it is their lives that are wrecked.

Some people aren't aware of a double whammy introduced by the Conservatives with changes to Universal Credit.

It used to be the case that anybody over 60 (male or female) could claim Working Tax Credit if they worked at least 16 hours a week. This mean that 60 year olds could have a part-time job and possibly claim a top-up.

However, changes introduced by the Conservatives now mean that 60+ year olds have to meet the same conditions as others of working age, ie work 30 hours a week.

Anybody who has ever done the maths with Universal Credit knows that somebody earning the "Living" wage for 30 hours a week will not be eligible for Universal Credit, because they earn too much. The self-employed are particularly badly affected.

The outcome is that anybody (male or female) reaching 60 and feeling that they want to wind down, maybe for health reasons, won't receive any state help, as they have done in the past. It was never a huge amount, but it eased the financial issues a little. Another little perk, free bus passes, has also been delayed to state pension age.

If the government is serious about providing any kind of transition, so that people can choose when to retire, it needs to consider the above.

GracesGran, My guess is that this is an appeal to younger voters, some of whom resent having to work longer to receive less, whilst propping up pensioners, many of whom were lucky enough to experience better pension rights and the opportunity to make loads of money from property. (Could be wrong - it could just be thoughtlessness by IDS - wouldn't be the first time.)

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I was lucky enough to retire at 60. I am now 75 and, whilst I do keep busy, I don’t think I could cope with working full-time now.

The problem is, as has already been stated, that the earth is now overpopulated. Obviously, the more people there are, the more expensive it becomes to provide health care, education, pensions etc.

Don’t ask me for an answer. The only ones I can think of hark back to Hitler! It would take a better brain than mine to come up with an answer that does not impinge on personal freedom.

The King's Fund produced a research paper in 2018 on life expectancy and good health. The whole thing can be read here:

www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/whats-happening-life-expectancy-uk

In case you don't don't want to click on the link or plough through the whole lot, here are some highlights:

By 2016 life expectancy at birth had increased to 79.5 years for males and 83.1 years for females.

Healthy life expectancy has also increased, but not at the same rate as life expectancy, so more years are spent in poor health. Although an English male could expect to live 79.5 years in 2014–16, his average healthy life expectancy was only 63.3 years – ie, he would have spent 16.2 of those years (20 per cent) in ‘not good’ health.

An English female could expect to live 83.1 years, of which 19.2 years (23 per cent) would have been spent in ‘not good’ health. And although females live an average of 3.6 years longer than males, much of that time is spent in poor health – they experience only 0.6 more years of good health than men.

People living in more affluent areas live significantly longer than people living in deprived areas. In 2014–16, males living in the least deprived 10 per cent of areas in England and Wales could expect to live almost a decade (9.3 years) longer than males living in the 10 per cent most deprived areas, and for females the gap was 7.4 years. The gap in healthy life expectancy at birth is even greater – about 19 years for both males and females, and those living in the most deprived areas spend nearly a third of their lives in poor health, compared with only about a sixth for those in the least deprived areas.

Me too Grannygravy, I should have received my pension at 60, four and a half years ago, by the time I'm 66 I will have lost out on nearly £52,000. What happens to all the pensions from people who don't live long enough to receive it? The whole thing is a shambles. It will be 80 soon enough!

I worked until well past 60 and didn't claim my pension until 68 (actually, I forgot about it until they reminded me)

I suppose it depends on the kind of work you're engaged in as to whether retirement at 67-70 is a step too far.

If work makes you stressed then you're in the wrong job. No job should make you ill unless you allow it to get to you or colleagues to annoy you so I guess it's more about your own personality rather than the job.

I've never been stressed or anxious in my life as I don't allow outside influences to affect my state of mind and believe me, I have been in circumstances where many people would subsequently need counselling or medication for anxiety.
I was born without a worry gene. ?

Tweedle, I agree that the earth is overpopulated, but the bigger problem is that a high percentage of younger, productive workers are needed to support older people. That isn't the case is most developed countries.

In developing countries, there tend to be more younger people, but they are very often unemployed/unproductive. People often have larger families in the hope that more of their children will survive and be able to support them as they get older.

Part of the problem is global inequality. Even in the UK, there is growing inequality between generations, social classes, education levels, etc.

Chucky I think you'll find that most if not all of us have no problem with working until the same age as men ..its the accelerated way they introduced it thats the problem.Many ,including myself were never informed about the changes ,in fact I had a letter in my mid fifties telling me I was on track for a full pension at 60!!!
If it hadn't been for the internet I wouldn't have known it had been delayed to 63 ....then the 65 and 10 months it is now .I have worked and paid NI since I was 15 .I have never had a break from paying,no maternity leave for example so the government have had 50 years and 10 months from me .
I'm livid that the last 5 years and 10 months of it are going to pay off THEIR debts..not debts I or any waspi woman accrued .

Just because you enjoyed work, Gabriella, doesn't mean everybody is in the same situation or enjoys the good health to carry on. You admitted yourself that you have never been stressed or anxious in your life. You are obviously very resilient. Unfortunately, many people are and have been stressed, anxious and/or physically ill.

The King's Fund report states that 63.3 is the average age when females stop experiencing good health. In my case, I was a little younger, but won't receive state pension until I'm 66. Many people are even younger when they experience ill health and find they cannot work or are forced out by employers.

If your work has always been manual then it's likely to have already taken it's toll, physically by the time you are in your 60s, maybe?

Sorry, paddyann, I've known since the mid 1990s that I wouldn't receive my state pension until I was 65 (now 66). I honestly don't know how people didn't read/listen to the news at the time. I don't have much sympathy for people who don't take notice of the world around them.