Recommended changes to the state pension age.
Discussion
It may pass unnoticed, but theree are two reports on the state pension age today, one by John Cridland and the other by the Government Actuary's Dept (GAD). Cridland is suggesting no early access to the state pension for workers in more demanding occupations (steelworkers, armed forces personnel etc may have seen that due to increased likelihood of earlier death in retirement), the state pension age may creep up by a year for those even in their early fifties, it'll almost certainly jump to seventy for those in their forties and access to personal pension is now programmed to lag the state pension by ten years.
Also baked in to the legislation of many public sector pensions, is that deferred members have their access age linked to state access too, so that might be another wait. Government is not obliged to follow the report, but it's an indicator of what's going to happen. GAD suggests that people currently aged 30 or under should prepare themselves for the prospect of working longer. Also, the government has got its excuse now, to scrap the triple lock, because that's mentioned too. Cridland recommends the state pension age should not change before April 2028, when it is due to reach 67 anyway. Folk of my age then, will be waiting an extra year.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/mar/23/stat...
Also baked in to the legislation of many public sector pensions, is that deferred members have their access age linked to state access too, so that might be another wait. Government is not obliged to follow the report, but it's an indicator of what's going to happen. GAD suggests that people currently aged 30 or under should prepare themselves for the prospect of working longer. Also, the government has got its excuse now, to scrap the triple lock, because that's mentioned too. Cridland recommends the state pension age should not change before April 2028, when it is due to reach 67 anyway. Folk of my age then, will be waiting an extra year.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/mar/23/stat...
What strikes me about the report, is firstly, it's a good one. It's pragmatic.. let's be honest, we all know the state pension is not affordable. But that we have one at all, as good as it is (and it is, in many ways) is because we realised in the 90s (finally) that it was becoming unaffordable. And it still is - if reports came with sound, you'd hear the excruciating sound of well buffed Whitehall shoe leather being dragged over gravel as government is being compelled to dish out the bad news.
It's using Cridland as its foil of course - all government use quangos etc to insulate themselves from the accountability, responsibility and the ramifications of having to say to an electorate.. 'Well, we alone decided to do it". What strikes me, secondly, is how incongruous the gap is between Osborne's mantra about "pension freedoms" (it always was nonsensical, of course) the other year, and the increasing sense of helplessness we feel at how ever more distant the state version is.
It's using Cridland as its foil of course - all government use quangos etc to insulate themselves from the accountability, responsibility and the ramifications of having to say to an electorate.. 'Well, we alone decided to do it". What strikes me, secondly, is how incongruous the gap is between Osborne's mantra about "pension freedoms" (it always was nonsensical, of course) the other year, and the increasing sense of helplessness we feel at how ever more distant the state version is.
TooMany2cvs said:
The state pension started off at age 70, in 1908.
It was reduced to 65 in 1925.
The women's age was reduced to 60 in 1940.
In 1995, the women's age returning to parity with men was announced.
In 2007, the increases to 68 were announced.
In 1910, the average life expectancy was 53.
In 1925, the average life expectancy was 55.
In 1960, the average life expectancy was 71.
In 2000, the average life expectancy was 78.
In 2014, the average life expectancy was 81.
Further increase in the pension age, to 70, really shouldn't be a surprise to anybody - even before you consider the shape of the population by age.
Indeed. Our early pensions were nothing more than bribes to get knackered 50 year olds to leave the fields and emerging factories, to make way for a booming, youthful population. They would pay out, typically, for a few years until the pensioner died naturally. Then, post WW2, retirement became not a time to quietly live out your final few years in meagre misery, but a god given right to wander along the surf or play golf for thirty five years or more. In effect, the marketers got hold of pensions, and creamed off obscene amounts at our expense.It was reduced to 65 in 1925.
The women's age was reduced to 60 in 1940.
In 1995, the women's age returning to parity with men was announced.
In 2007, the increases to 68 were announced.
In 1910, the average life expectancy was 53.
In 1925, the average life expectancy was 55.
In 1960, the average life expectancy was 71.
In 2000, the average life expectancy was 78.
In 2014, the average life expectancy was 81.
Further increase in the pension age, to 70, really shouldn't be a surprise to anybody - even before you consider the shape of the population by age.
Now, we enter the third phase - the one that says you aren't going to be induced to finish work early, you aren't going to have a languid few decades on the golf course; no.. for you, unless you do something about it and start saving properly (early), and unless you start soon, the prospect of retirement is going to be one of living off a few quid dished out to you and dying not in squalor, but in bland, unremarkable and unenjoyable obscurity.
The average value of an average state pension, is, what.. £250,000? Given that most workers and employers will only contribute something like a tenth of that in the course of a working lifetime's NIC, where's the money going to come from? We live in a low growth, low interest world, have done for a number of years, and will continue to do so, and with more and more workers paying less and less in PAYE.
And I see bond yields have tumbled again..
And I see bond yields have tumbled again..
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