Rise in Pension Age

Jackiest

My Dad died just before he reached 65 and therfor never had any retirement. If he had been female he would have had 5 years of retirement. My Mum is 100 and fortunatly had my Dad's pension to retire on.

My Dad died when he was 56 - far too young. My Mum got a reduced pension from his employment but sadly she had already been diagnosed with what was then known as pre senile dementia (later confirmed to be Alzheimers) so although she was fairly comfortably off, she did not get the chance to really enjoy retirement.

Back in 1980 men lived to about 70 and women to 76. so Men had 5 years of retirement and women 16. so they may have had 40.3% more pension but there retirement was 68.75% less. Do you want to money or the years, you can not have both.
Is this one of those’would you rather have one leg or one arm?’ questions? Of course you can have both, just as you can have neither. As with so much of life, how long you live is largely about luck. How well you live, and the opportunities to make the most of life is often about money. The pension differential wasn’t an actuarial calculation, as far as I know. It was about allowing more couples to retire together, and so that the traditional roles of the woman looking after the man (cooking meals and so on) were preserved in retirement. It wasn’t based on financial equality as there wasn’t any.

Of course longevity is partly about luck, but how do you explain the correlation between lower life expectancy and deprivation?

Katie59

Three reason why life expectancy is falling,
Covid increased death rate,
Diabetes due to Obesity
long NHS waiting lists, you die before getting treated.

In the future I would expect drug and alchohol abuse to play a part in longevity, in the way that smoking in the past reduced it.

Degrading may not be the mot juste but pregnancy was uncomfortable and restricting, childbirth was painful. The whole process was exhausting. Men do ‘escape all that’ which was biglouis’s point.

Smoking was pervasive.Most people smoked and non-smokers were forced into passive smoking.

Now, while many people have tried drugs, few actually become addicted to drugs, so the proportion in statistical danger of dying from drug addiction is a fraction of of proportion of the much larger proportion of regular smokers who died from a smoking related disease.

COVID was a one off and will have played out in less than 10 years. Obesity is another problem. Playing into that is the significant proportion of food we eat is classified as an UPF (Ultra-processed-food) and government measures to defeat obesity so far have only played into the manufacturer's hands.

The sugar tax led to soft drink manufacturers replacing sugar, with chemical sweeteners, leaping out of the frying pan into the fire.

biglouis

Men may have done harder work than women in the employment sense but they did not have to undergo the pain and degradation of childbirth. Before the advent of relaible contraception women became pregnant year on year and often died in the most harrowing circumstances. Men escaped all that.

I understand. I'd choose a far different word than degradation. Apart from that, I think you're correct, men escape pregnancy

Childbirth is very painful as is the recuperation. Or maybe that is only my 8 pregnancies. Women also deal with menstruation and menopause. Men? Never have much to worry about, in my opinion.

But with no health and safety legislation many men were seriously injured or killed in industrial accidents. Male life expectancy has always been lower than that of women

When industrial legislation did come in, its purpose was to protect women and children, not men.

In fairness in the past many men smoked too much and generally are careless with their own health, although industrial safety is much better, men taking risks with other activities hasn’t changed.

Remember life expectancy is not just old age related, a lot more younger men than women die early

I cannot let your statement pass without saying there are multiple reasons why the NHS is failing. It is far too combersome and quite a few failings are due to cost and the clever way Tony Blair’s govt used PFI to tie new hospitals and schools to be attached for all future works to be tied in to the original contractor and now the Trusts pay top dollar for everything. Not every calamity is due to the Tories. WWM2 attributes every failing in every walk of life to the Conservatives. Your posts are like a party political broadcast There is no doubt that the party has been in power for too long but from what I gather many voters are not sure Labour would be much better! We wait and see. Why don’t you dig deeper WWM2 and have a reasonable discussion about the ills of the NHS?

Covid hasn’t helped with life expectancy, either. I’d be very surprised if a change in government would make a great deal of difference. It just doesn’t. Nice to be optimistic, though.

Norah

biglouis

Men may have done harder work than women in the employment sense but they did not have to undergo the pain and degradation of childbirth. Before the advent of relaible contraception women became pregnant year on year and often died in the most harrowing circumstances. Men escaped all that.

I understand. I'd choose a far different word than degradation. Apart from that, I think you're correct, men escape pregnancy

Childbirth is very painful as is the recuperation. Or maybe that is only my 8 pregnancies. Women also deal with menstruation and menopause. Men? Never have much to worry about, in my opinion.

Hear,hear.. but wow 8 pregnancies.. respect!!

I must be weird but I loved being pregnant and growing little babies. Can’t say I enjoyed the actual birth experience but at least you get a lovely reward at the end.

pascal30 Hear,hear.. but wow 8 pregnancies.. respect!!

4 living daughters, 4 late miscarriages

Oh, Norah, so sorry to hear that. 💐

Katie59 diabetes is not always the product of obesity mine was bought on by the drugs I take to keep me alive and ķicking, a by product of crappy genes inherited from both sets of parents.

Norah

pascal30 Hear,hear.. but wow 8 pregnancies.. respect!!

4 living daughters, 4 late miscarriages

Ahh.. even more respect..

nanna8

I must be weird but I loved being pregnant and growing little babies. Can’t say I enjoyed the actual birth experience but at least you get a lovely reward at the end.

Me too 👍

Not sure why we would blame any political party for killing us off! Almost one in two people in the uk are overweight with all the problems and illnesses that incurs. The majority of people do not exercise, drink more than they should and eat too much processed food. Why can’t we take responsibility for ourselves instead of blaming any political party?

Cambia

Not sure why we would blame any political party for killing us off! Almost one in two people in the uk are overweight with all the problems and illnesses that incurs. The majority of people do not exercise, drink more than they should and eat too much processed food. Why can’t we take responsibility for ourselves instead of blaming any political party?

It's actually more than 1 in 2. The government's own stats reckon about 75% of people are either overweight or obese. The issue increases with age until people are in their late 70s.

Ironically, I've never been overweight, but was diagnosed with T2 diabetes in my mid 30s and diabetes was probably a contributory factor to my heart attack.

I was sent along to a consultant, who told me that stress could have contributed because there's a correlation between stress and diabetes. My eating habits could have had something to do with it. I wasn't overweight, but tried to spend as little as possible on food, so ate too many carbs. It's been much easier to manage my blood sugar since I cut out the Ps (pasta, porridge, potatoes). Fat used to be the bad diet guy, but I think we were given bad advice.

There must be stats somewhere which show why and how life expectancy is falling. Historically, vaccines have resulted in a sharp decrease in childhood deaths and cancer treatments have improved, as have treatments for heart attacks. So what is actually causing the fall?

Cambia I don't drink any alcohol, don't smoke, exercise most days, eat healthily and am still diabetic, have had a heart attack and cancer.

My heart attack treatment was exemplary, but the diabetic care has deteriorated over the years. I can't criticise anything about the medical care I received once my cancer had been diagnosed. The difficulty was in getting the GP to refer me in the first place because I couldn't get an appointment and I was dismissed as "worried well" in my 8 minute appointment slot. That's because the GP is under incredible pressure and is underfunded. A GP who knew me well would know I don't make a fuss for no reason and would have taken me seriously. The turnover at the practice is atrocious and will get worse as the government pushes e-consultations.

PS. I have no sympathy with people who don't take some responsibility for their own health, but I do expect the NHS to readily available when needed - and it isn't.

My son is a practising, experienced GP. He says that 90% of the illness he sees in adults is “lifestyle related”. Make of that what you will.

biglouis don't know where you get that we women suffer the 'degradation' of childbirth. I found it a wonderful experience with my three children and not degrading at all.

Fernhillnana

My son is a practising, experienced GP. He says that 90% of the illness he sees in adults is “lifestyle related”. Make of that what you will.

Well, I must be one of the 10%.

Germanshepherdsmum

Childbirth is not degrading biglouis. I do wish you would stop describing it as such.

BL didn't say it was 'degrading' but caused 'degradation' - not at all the same.