Albert47

Is it a good thing?

or

It is another money grabbing opportunity for the goverment?

So we now have to save 4% for the rest of our lives + 3% for our employers and 1% from the goverment. Then when we are 68, we get X amount a week.

Our average living age is about 75, so we save thousand and thousands of pounds over the years. Only reach to 68, get 7 years of "our pension" then croak it at 75.

What happens to all that money we have just saved over the last 60 working years?????????????????

Straight in Blairs special fund!!!

Thats the way i seen it, They dont change things unless the goverment benefits!!!!!!

SPEN555

Seems low compared to current pension schemes. Scheme where I am is 6% by the employee and 10% by the employer.

Suresh

Where I work is 0% by the employee and 30% by the employer!
Unfortunately for late-comers to the party, the scheme closed to new employees in 2004 though.

Dracoro

The average life expectancy of a 30 year old now is higher than 75 (80 for women). A 30yr old now will probably die in their late 80s as we become healthier, better medical care etc.

At the end of the day, something HAS to happen as it WILL be a crisis and not something that can be solved 'at the time', it needs to be solved now.

To eleviate the problem you need a combination of the following:
1) Higher pension age
2) Higher taxation/pension contributions
3) More immigration/have more kids.

There seem to be plenty of people saying no to higher pension age, no to more tax and no to immigration. The only answer to this is - you reap what you sow.

The best thing to do is a bit of all three rather than a lot of one of them. Either way, something must happen.

hades

and I thought I was doing well with 1.5% employee and 16.5% employer - index linked, final salary etc.

If this new scheme is effectively forcing people to make some provision other than just the state pension, there is some logic in it to solve the problem spelt out by Dracoro. Admittedly, I'd rather see the money saved by less inefficieny in government and not paying the salary of certain MP's who have just been booted out of their main job!

SD

You missed out compulsary euthanasia for the over 70's...

OllyK

It strikes me there is a lot of confusion about the pensions situation. People are complaining they will have to work till they are 68, but that's ONLY if you will be relying on the state pension. If you have a personal or occupational one, you can retire well before that.

scoob_babe

Lucky git springs to mind!

fitzscoob

Assuming its worth anything, I'm in favour of hitting 68 and if I'm still working - put a gun to my head.

OllyK

I have no intention of working till I'm 68 and I have little intention of retiring in this country either. I plan to retire to France and live the life of a french peasant, sitting in a cafe and drinking wine all day long

fitzscoob

Take me with you, ill be your baldrick

To be fair, I dont honestly grasp my pension situation completely - I pay money in, our company contributes, and I am entitled to a state pension. How much this will be in 42 years or so I have no idea - which is the problem.

I would like to think that what I would get to live on would keep me in the same comfortable position of poverty that I am in now

OllyK

Whoever is organising your pension should be sending you an annual statement telling you how much you have in the pot, they also usually send you a sheet showing how much it will be worth at various points in the future based on different expected growth rates. They sometimes then tell you what kind of annuity that lump sum will buy you and thus how much per year you can expect in retirement. I need to up my payments, ATM my annuity should pay out about what I'm currently earning, but that's going to be worth jack by retirement age once you take in to account inflation.

fitzscoob

I get these and file them away because they are so grim I dont want to face it.

At the moment having just recently purchased our first property I dont have much in the way of spare cash to pay into my pension scheme. In a couple of years time when this settles down I will up my payments.

Leslie

It is all smoke and mirrors yet again, and Flash has had a clause included to say that it will only start "if it is affordable!"

Do you really believe him any more than Billy Liar?

Les

OllyK

TBH though Les if you are relying on your state pension (old or new) to provide for you in your retirement you're nackered anyway.

Leslie

Yes you are right there Olly, but there are many who are in that position. These are people who were paying NI but whose income was not big enough to buy a private pension and food as well! The worse bit is that if you do nothing at all then the State gives you money which comes from those who are being responsible about their future. Fair enough if you have paid ypur NI during your working years though.

This latest great announcement will wind up as a very small increase in the basic pension with those being forced to pay the State Secondary Pension extra contributions getting no extra basic pension if their income is better than £15K! It also gives Flash the opportunity to increase income tax but no commitment to actually switch to income linked pensions if he thinks the country can't afford it!

It is just anothr NL con trick in an effort to court popularity again. Nothing is being done for present pensioners either.

Les