Pension forcast horror

[Iceni]

I backup what TU said. I was the only one in my department to pay the full stamp when I married, the rest had to sign a form stating that they wanted to pay reduced stamps. To say that they are suddenly horrified is remembering just what they want to remember when they get to retirement. They made the decision, they don't get the pension.

Up until recently it was those women who paid the reduced stamp who got a better deal - they got a pension on their husbands stamp and women who paid the full and those that did not both counted towards the same married persons pension if they were married. Now women that have paid the full stamp can keep their own pension so John and I will get more than the combined married persons pension when he retires and we have certainly paid for it.

[Iceni]

<Quote>

'My wife is nine years older than me and has only ever paid Married Woman's NI contributions as have many others of her generation - no information was given as to the implications of this by the authorities at all. Now we find that she cannot draw a State Pension until I am 65 and is entitled to 52p per week in her own right.'

It is a small consolation that a 52p per week pension is sufficient to get both your wife and you, as a dependant, into the French medical service. </quote>

Nice to know that those of us that did not 'opt out' (and to say that she got no information is not true, I would have had to sign a form to opt out, I did not as I realised the implications and she could have opted back in at any time) now have to pay again for the foresight of paying a full 'stamp'. So she kept the money and now you are getting free medical health cover. Just shows that there is no justice.

I am not being nasty just realising that my statement that saving for a pension is not something I would recomend anyone to do was as true then as now.

[BJSLIV]

saving for a pension is not something I would recommend anyone to do was as true then as now.

Are you really recommending that people should plan to manage solely on whatever the government happens to be handing out when they eventually retire?

[Hoddy]

I’m inclined to agree with Di. I am one of the people who didn’t opt out. My state pension will go up in April to £95.84 per week which I don’t regard as a great reward for forty years of contributions.

My other half paid into a private fund with which he was obliged to purchase an annuity and the amount he actually receives has gone down. He wrote to Scottish Widows suggesting that they give him back the original amount invested so that he could put it under the floorboards and take it out at the same rate that they are presently paying him. Doing this, unless he lives to 105, his children would inherit a little something. Scottish Widows declined.

I wish I knew the answer to this difficult problem as I can only see that the problem getting worse with each succesive generation.

Hoddy

[Iceni]

Are you really recommending that people should plan to manage solely on whatever the government happens to be handing out when they eventually retire?

Of course not, but I am also not suggesting that you give your money to companies that cannot keep their promises or just do an 'Equitable'.

Lets be serious, property or the stock market will give you a better return.

I got one of my pension forecasts today - won't even pay the annual electricity bill - as another poster said, if I had that money myself I could actually use it.

[Mjc]

In a recent BBC programme on this topic, it was stated that if you have lived (legally) in New Zealand for ten years when you reach retirement, you will receive a pension equal to 40% of the average wage - whether or not you have made any contributions during that time and irrespective of the value of any savings you may have.

Any one want to join me on the next boat?

I wonder how many people who are worried about the size of their pensions, have a large amount of equity locked up in the homes, which could (carefully) be released. Do you hope to leave that sum to your children, even if you have to lead a threadbare old age? We have calculated that, should we need to boost our retirement income, we should be able to do so through an equity release scheme (if we could find one in France), and feel that at the end of our lives, our needs are greater than that of our adult children. Am I missing someting?

[BJSLIV]

Iceni.....Of course not

I see , you mean make your savings in other ways.

I thought for one horrible moment that  you were joining the "why should we be worse off than those who have spent it as they went along? , so let the state look after us when we have nothing left when we retire!" gang.

[Piprob]

Iceni and me - and the rest of us - will be absolutely delighted and reassured to have heard yesterday that we are perfectly safe with the nice Mr Brown.

Absolutely anyone who promises me a one-off payment of £200 and free travel on the buses next year is certainly bound to win my undying gratitude - not to say lifelong allegiance.

In my case this is no doubt because I really am the shallow, self centred idiot that politicians of all stripes seem to take me for.

[Iceni]

[quote]Iceni and me - and the rest of us - will be absolutely delighted and reassured to have heard yesterday that we are perfectly safe with the nice Mr Brown. Absolutely anyone who promises me a one-off p...[/quote]

OHHHH, yes, I was so excited I almost woke up

Bribery, plain and simple and the free travel does not come in until next April and only out of peak hours and is already available in most areas already paid for by the local councils - I gather this will cost next to nothing.

[Hoddy]

Here in rural Leicestershire where there are no buses, we crumblies get taxi tokens. Mr Brown can keep his free bus pass !

Hoddy

[0BRIAN WOODHEADI,m here in franceddMMyyyy0Falseen-USI,m here in franceTrue]

Here in rural france you would be lucky to see a bus

 

[Hoddy]

We don't see buses here - that's why we get taxi tokens !

Hoddy

[Tresco]

Now your'e talking outcast, it was 10 months before I saw one within 2 miles of where I live. "Look, a bus"! I shouted, like a 2 year old. I nearly crashed the car I was so shocked. How patronising for the very elderly anyway. Free taxi would be more like it, or decent community bus (door to door, almost).

As far as the UK pension horror is concerned, I have mixed feelings. I have a lot of sympathy for people who have invested in dodgy schemes, which seemed ok at the time, mainly because I know a lot of them, and know how sure they were they were doing the right thing, which turned out to be wrong.

What really, really gets to me is very elderly people who were told that they would be cared for. They worked and contributed to something, the country they lived in, and its 'insurance' system, when life expectancy, as well as expectations generally, were lower/different.

Those who did, or have thought about it (old age) and been 'done' feel ripped off, and many rightly so, but the very elderly, who were promised a comfortable old age, have limited resources health, youth, earning power etc.

This 'horror' thing, analysts have known for many years what was going to happen. Young people generally just don't think about it, and I include myself as a young woman in that. At my first job, I was advised to pay the half stamp NIS, (I was 16), because, it was proposed, my husband would pay the full stamp and I would get my pension from him. This was 1978, and yes, I was dumb, but I cannot have been the only school leaver given this advice in the late 70's.

tresco

 

[Dave&Olive]

british law will never work it out . the best thing you can do is divorce your wife before she is 60 let her claim her pension and live tally

             dave

[letrangere]

In the Dordogne recently I saw a well dressed middle aged woman waiting by the side of the road on the edge of a small village.  When I passed by again, quarter of an hour later, she was still there.  Something about her made me go up and enquire whether she was OK for she had this concerned, anxious look about her.  She reassured me she was fine but that she was waiting for the bus.  When I exclaimed incredulously, "the bus?" she looked even more bothered and sought my urgent reassurance that it was Tuesday and wasn't it nearly 13.00 hrs?  Sure enough it was, and a few minutes later, much to her relief and my astonishment, the bus arrived. Only twice a week, twice a day but dead on time.

M

[Teamedup]

LOL like where my friends used to live.......... one a week there at around 7am returning on the evening. Another reason we live where we live is that there are about six buses per day.

[Cardinal]

Teamed Up gets it right again.

Remember what your granny told you - "You don't get something for nothing".

Pensions are no different to anything else. If you don't pay in, you don't get out! All those folk who think the UK owes them something because they LEFT 20 years ago, or CHOSE to pay threepence a week, or plain REFUSED to join the scheme should get real. The ones that really get my goat are those that live in houses bought for a pittance 40 years ago now worth a million. They want to be able to GIVE it to their children, not pay any tax, and then get the state (that's me and you) to look after them in their old age. Sell the mansion and downsize? Whatever next! An Englishman's home is his castle and woe-betide anyone who suggests selling it and using the money. If you scrimped and saved from the age of 18, and worked, and paid full whack until 65 you will get, and deserve, a pension worth having. If you didn't - you won't.

I feel sorry for those who were suckered into share schemes believing they would get big increases and didn't believe the warning that they could decrease. When share schemes were paying 15% a year and more my measly 5% growth looked awful but it was safe.

Oh! and don't listen to Outcast's anti-EU UKIP style rants.

C

[Hoddy]

You make some interesting points Cardinal.

You haven't addressed the question though of those who did pay full amounts and who did join schemes, who were obliged by law to purchase an annuity, and who feel that they've been diddled !

[0BRIAN WOODHEADI,m here in franceddMMyyyy0Falseen-USI,m here in franceTrue]

Cardinal,one so bitter, had your bum bit have you.Every UK citizen will have to be looked after in the UK never mind what they paid in the state coffers,those that choose to go down the private or for that matter a work related pension schemes where told the risks and do not have any cause for complaint after all if the pensions were worth more than was thought would anybody give back the access.

Re- so called anti EU rant,the truth will out,what about EU embassies overseas representing the for now, none existent foreign corp,re the telegragh today etc etc.

 

[Cardinal]

Outcast - no I have definitely NOT had my bum bit. I paid into a scheme (up to 15% at one time) when I struggled to have a social life, bring up family etc etc. It was hard then, but now I reap the rewards. Young people these days seem unwilling to make sacrifices. I will admit to belonging to a very good company final-salary scheme, but don't let anyone tell you I got something for nothing. When I was paying £400 a month into the scheme my friends thought I was mad - today they rue the day they didn't!

And if you read the Daily Torygraph its no wonder you have such a jaundiced view of the EU.

A good point was raised about Annuities. I agree that they appear to have been a con - but there were alternatives. My view then, as it is now, was "Don't touch the stock market with a barge-pole unless you are willing to take the risk". BTW - willing to take a risk means willing to lose!

 

C

[Hoddy]

"A good point was raised about Annuities. I agree that they appear to have been a con - but there were alternatives."

Not if your company scheme was an annuity scheme !

Hoddy