tinyjo: (Default)
Emptied of expectation. Relax. ([personal profile] tinyjo) wrote2002-09-20 01:43 pm

(no subject)

I don't want to work til I'm 70!

Well, then don't...

[identity profile] truecatachresis.livejournal.com 2002-09-20 07:41 am (UTC)(link)
Just because the state-pensionable age is set at a given value, does not mean that you are forced to work to that age. Hell, by the time we get around to 70, I very much doubt the state pension system will resemble the current one very much at all. I would expect many changes, to be honest. The point is, do you really expect the system to cope with paying people from the age of 60 or 65 when it was set up like that to cope with people with significantly shorter life expectancy? It's not feasible to expect nothing to change before you reach pensionable age yourself.

If you don't want to work until you are 70, don't. If you set your own pension up, then you should be fine. You're being paid plenty enough at the moment to have a good start on a pension. Save now, and reap the benefits early. You should be able to comfortably retire early.

[identity profile] sparkymark.livejournal.com 2002-09-20 08:13 am (UTC)(link)
(haven't read the article)
I don't think its so much the life expectancy, its the low birthrate contributing fewer tax payers to fund pensions. This can be fixed by immigration.

[identity profile] tinyjo.livejournal.com 2002-09-20 08:28 am (UTC)(link)
Not in this country. That's the problem countries like Germany have because in their system contributions made now pay for pensions now. Whereas as I understand it, NI operates a lot like a commerical pension fund - the money paid in now is invested in order to pay for the pensions of the contributors. The article focused on longer life expectancy as the problem.

[identity profile] tinyjo.livejournal.com 2002-09-20 08:41 am (UTC)(link)
Correction. According to the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/business/info/basics/articles/tax265.shtml)

In the past NICs were treated as a independent pot of government money used specifically to fund social security benefits ... But now the money raised goes into the general Treasury coffers

[identity profile] truecatachresis.livejournal.com 2002-09-20 08:30 am (UTC)(link)
It's both. The article does mention life expectancy.

However, immigration doesn't solve the problem, it merely delays it. Even importing tax payers, and presumably increasing manufacturing base and jobs available to go with it as well, those immigants themselves will one day grow old and retire. Then there will be even more old, retired people than there would otherwise have been.