State Pension Changes

All I can say is that I am so pleased I am getting mine now, also my American one. T'other half has a small American one but still has 1 1/2 years to go to get his British one then that is us on pensions as he has been getting a private early-retirement one since 2000.

I feel sometimes sad and other times angry for those who lose out because of the year they were born even though they have worked for umpteen years in the system, never claiming anything ... and those who have not earned a diddly-skwat can get all and sundry ... grrrrrrrrrrr ..

 

From what I gathered, i've now got to pay an extra 4 years of NI I was nearly there.

Are they using Joseph Heller's Catch 22 as their manefesto?

 

I'm afraid that with ever increasing retirement ages, I expect they'll probably bury me with a laptop and wont give me my pittance per week until 10 years after I push up my first daisy.

 

Oh, how sad Clue ...

 

I'm kind of hoping to not need a pension. I feel sorry for those a bit older than me, that were totally misled into believing they were saving for a comfortable retirement, only to be told later that they'll be living on a pittance and wont get back what they saved, all while pension trustees are lording about in big posh motors.

I was always sceptical about pensions, but then I could be because I never even thought about them until after the last recession, when the news was reporting every day about the collapse of one fund or another. The first one I heard of was the British Rail one. I remember being absolutely gobsmacked that all those people had lost their pension savings. It was an outrage. Now it seems to be the norm. I had a pension scheme at a previous company. It was paid for by the company with a tiny contribution from me. If I'd had to pay for it myself, I wouldn't have bothered. Around £400 per month went into it, over nearly 11 years = about £50k. Last pension statement I received, just after the latest financial crash, told me my pot was worth about £3k. If I'd have paid that almost £400 per month out of my own pocket and then been told that my £50k was actually £3k and falling, I'd have been pretty gutted. I have a new plan. I've bought my little piece of land, I'm in the process of buying my house, when my finances recover a bit I'll look at buying another house or piece of land or something that can't simply vanish like most of my theoretical £50k did. With a bit of planning and a lot of good luck, I might just be able to pull it off that I have assets to rent or sell to fund my later years.

 

The whole thing is a big Con Starting with the WAR babies 1945-48 many of us born then
They told us to pay in for OUR pension,and to top up for an even bigger pension
(Then as mentioned by Armandii, They told us just before WE were entitled that it was not actually OUR pension pot, the money had been used to pay the pensions of the FEW who survived the war and there was nowt left in the
pot)

Now it is 2007 nearly time to collect Wallop bang big crash shares desimated, even less in the pot, and for those that had saved privately it was now time to buy your Annuity
The annuity you are stuck with for the remainder of your life, zilch next to nothing shares worthless, ONLY you HAVE to take an annuity no option, so less paid out

Then comes the news, those who have NOT saved anything or paid in the pot, get paid exactly the same as those that did, it is called pension credits, so those that drank it all away get the same as those who saved for a rainy day

Now 2013 shares are amazingly ROSY AGAIN (no annuities to pay up now :-) for ALL those War babies
Now what can we fiddle next, we want the shares high so the country looks good in times of austerity,
That is it pay everyone the same pension saved or not, but make them all work longer before they get it, With any luck they will be dead before claiming it

Cynical ME !

Jack McH

 

My main concerns are they have scrapped the so called second pension, I believe that was once graduated pension and then became SERPS, so where has that gone?
I at least thought that bit had my name on it rather than just helping everyone else out.

The other thing is you only need 35yrs national insurance stamp to gain the full pension, I've paid nearly 43 yrs already and am expected to pay another 8yrs before I'm 66, that makes nearly 51 yrs.
Dont seem fair to me.

 

"I'm in the process of buying my house, when my finances recover a bit I'll look at buying another house or piece of land or something that can't simply vanish like most of my theoretical £50k did. With a bit of planning and a lot of good luck, I might just be able to pull it off that I have assets to rent or sell to fund my later years."

2020 Anyone owning more than a bed sitter VE VILL remove all other properties to the state, this will be sold to non savers, and their benefits increased

Jack McH

 

Clue, what you are planning on doing is what we planned on nearly 25 years ago. We have sold the properties in the UK (two, one in Bucks and one on the IoW) and now have five here ... all but two paid for by the one in Bucks (a detached two up two down in the country), which we sold at a profit of £60,000 in 2002 at £169,000 (prices had plummeted at the time), but we bought it for £32,500 in 1984. We kept 'borrowing' on it to purchase other properties, the one on the IoW and the others here. We have no mortgages.

Plan, plan, plan ... and keep that dream alive ...