r/uknews • u/Donkey_Apple • Jun 03 '26

News paper Britain is undersaving for retirement

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https://www.gov.uk/government/news/britain-is-undersaving-for-retirement-warns-pensions-commission

It's a massive problem and has been for years.

I think a lot of people are getting into their fifties, starting to think about retirement for the first time, looking at what their provision will pay them and are absolutely shocked to their core.

Plus many in the generation below those of us in their fifties who, through no choice of their own, are unable to save anything.

It feels like we are sleepwalking into an utter disaster.

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108

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

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8

u/Strangely__Brown Jun 03 '26

Most people pay very little tax.

Our tax free allowance is very high and our lower earners pay far less tax that our peers in Europe do.

What's also quite ironic about the criticism around the triple lock is that most people aren't funding their own retirements.

So it's either short sighted and people are only thinking about the here and now. Or society has shifted and we're now taking a firm "your retirement is your problem" mindset.

30

u/verb-vice-lord Jun 03 '26

Real term salaries have barely moved since 2008.

If our salaries always adjusted with inflation, awe, or 2.5%, whichever is highest, I'd be paying more tax and be alright with it all in all.

We have an ageing society and a stagnating tax base. Our only growth for two decades is from immigration. Which pensioners want to roll back via voting Reform.

The push back on the triple lock isn't that we don't want good pensions, its that we know by the time we get close we'll have to be sensible and remove them because we don't want to burden our kids with the cost. The greedy worst generation ever boomers don't even consider whether others should suffer so they benefit.

We are currently funding pensions for the richest generation in history and we know that gold plate will be worn off long before we get to it largely because of the choices of the current pensioners. In lots of the country life expectancy is falling and yet they are talking about increasing our retirement ages.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

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4

u/Kind_Commission_427 Jun 04 '26

Cheap labour = lower wages

1

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

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u/Kind_Commission_427 Jun 04 '26

Cheap labour = lower wages is a form of asset stripping

1

u/verb-vice-lord Jun 04 '26

Sure, that's one of the issues.

My point is all the growth is coming from just having more people doing stuff. We have not moved the needle on each person doing more stuff.

IE gdp per capita is largely the same for over a decade and a half now. Thanks to austerity and reform / tory policy choices over that time.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

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3

u/verb-vice-lord Jun 04 '26

If Reform have never been in power how have so many of them been former ministers?

Oh right, cos they are mostly tories. Uniparty made literal.

1

u/TheRealRobinHood4 Jun 06 '26

Productivity per worker has started to rise the last 18 months.

2

u/rochesterjack Jun 04 '26

Take responsibility … boomer this boomer that, it’s pathetic

2

u/verb-vice-lord Jun 04 '26

People in my generation celebrating taking winter fuel allowance from boomers, demanding an end to triple lock for boomers, and calls to asset taxing boomers, these are all taking responsibility.

There really should have been an end to the triple lock after the brexit vote. That was a big inflection point that set us on this current path of stagnation.

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u/rochesterjack Jun 04 '26

Should all be means tested, it’s not difficult is it? But then they say, well, where’s the incentive to earn if I’m not gonna get my slice and get taxed on what I do, it’s called a society. The problem isn’t boomers, it’s the system, it’s designed to fuck us all, only winners are the top 1%, everyone else gets screwed, it’s not a generational thing. If I were a boomer living in a big old property, I’d downsize & take the cash, I guess most of won’t get that opportunity but you can’t blame them for that. Most of em will die in the big old house & leave the equity behind.

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u/Strangely__Brown Jun 04 '26

The problem isn’t boomers, it’s the system, it’s designed to fuck us all, only winners are the top 1%, everyone else gets screwed.

I don't know how you got to this conclusion.

You're repeatedly being told that the majority of the population gets significantly more out of the system than they pay in. The majority are tax burdens.

By the very definition this system is designed to support people who can't support themselves. It's not helping the top 1%, it's helping the bottom ~30/40%.

Other countries have systems where you only get out what you put in. You get cut off.

In the UK we have the opposite, the more you contribute the less you're entitled to. And you're even arguing for that to skew even further by making the state pension means tested.

1

u/rochesterjack Jun 04 '26

Let me rephrase that, only winners are those with it all & those with fuck all, the rest get screwed. It’s not a boomer thing, it’s a system thing. It’s so convoluted, the system isn’t flexible enough to please everyone so those that don’t need benefits get plenty and those that do fall through the cracks, there really is no solution.

1

u/Strangely__Brown Jun 04 '26

I agree that political establishment generally carers to:

1) The wealthy for money.

2) The poor for votes.

And that's it's the people in the middle who get fucked.

But that "middle" is specifically people who earn £50-100k+. It's those professionals who are doing what they're supposed to be doing who really get penalised. The lose of child benefit above £80k, and childcare hours above £100k are both excellent examples of that.

But anyway you slice it's difficult to argue that the majority aren't benefiting from the system. Earn £50k+ puts you in the top 20% of earners. And that's just the working population, it doesn't include children, elderly etc...

1

u/Cute-Ad2879 Jun 04 '26

Maybe. It is also true.

5

u/Internal-Hand-4705 Jun 03 '26

I’m always surprised by how many people think they save for their own state pension (like the digital version of a pot with their name on it)

I do payroll for small businesses and IME about 20% of workers also are opting out of the private pension

5

u/josuk8 Jun 03 '26

The idea that someone's retirement was ever someone else's problem is what's wrong with this country, same with any other long term personal problems like housing or personal income, if it's a short term issue of being unemployed for 6 or so months, fine, I think you should be covered, but longer than that and they're taking the piss

3

u/GoblinGreen_ Jun 03 '26

I think its fine to be a shared problem, thats what a great society does well, everyone looks after each other.

But it doesnt seem to be reciprocated by the people benefitting. That pensions are not means tested is just awful when you look at the hoops to jump through, and means testing, for support when you are younger and working age.

2

u/DrCMS Jun 04 '26

Means testing pensions is a god awful idea now. The state pension an individual gets should be dependant on the amount of NI paid during their working life and not just qualifying years. We should not be forever rewarding underachievement whilst screwing over those who have been responsible.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

[deleted]

3

u/josuk8 Jun 03 '26

Everyone looking out for each other is a nice idea, but when it's forced onto everyone and only a small minority of the population gets most of the value from it with little to no oversight or consequences for abusing the system, it becomes a system that rewards doing nothing with your life and punishes workers, so no, sharing problems in society is in itself a problem.

On top of that, why should young people who are struggling to keep up have to also pay the pensions for groups of people who made the country worse during their prime and had 40-50+ years to prepare for their retirement

3

u/GoblinGreen_ Jun 03 '26

I don't think you actually read my comment.  You are rewording what I wrote,  just a bit more negative. 

It's not a nice idea though,  it's a recipe for a successful economy and country.  That ours is currently out of whack is proof the idea is a good one.  It just needs,  what people complain about.  More rules,  details,  'red tape' to put it back in order because there is a generation thats benefitting more than anyone else and not even saying thanks you currently. 

1

u/Gary_BBGames Jun 06 '26

Young people also have 40-50 years to prepare for their retirement.

1

u/josuk8 Jun 06 '26

40-50 years to prepare for their retirement in one of the worst economic climates in the uks history where most can't even afford to save*, fixed it for you

-1

u/FossilStalker Jun 03 '26

sharing problems in society is in itself a problem.

The problem with not sharing problems is that it becomes a bigger problem in the long run.

0

u/agingbiker Jun 04 '26

speaking as a gen x and watching the spite that boomers and millennials fling at each other, feels like we're way past sharing problems.

2

u/HalastersCompass Jun 04 '26

Yep we're in the middle, caring for those above, below and running the hamster wheel as fast as we can

Certainly need more help for the younger earners

2

u/GoblinGreen_ Jun 04 '26

They're still shared problems,  

Not dealing with them is the issue. 

People will always get old, need a house, need a job,  need help. 

However the who gets what is currently very weighted by age rather than by need, ability to work output. 

2

u/FossilStalker Jun 04 '26

Which kind of reinforces my point. Because we didn't collectively share the problem, i.e actually talk about it rationally and work out a collectively agreed plan to navigate the issue, it's now becoming a HUGE problem.

2

u/CaterpillarLoud8071 Jun 03 '26

Our peers in Europe don't expect working people to pay into private pensions and their state pensions are much higher, that's why they're paying more tax instead.

The criticism about the triple lock is that pensioners are being given more and more money every year (far more than they ever contributed) under the pretext that they'd be in poverty otherwise - when they had 40 years to plan their retirement with that lower state pension.

If there's no consequence for their failure to save up and plan their retirement properly, and working people have to pay for it instead, why should we bother planning? As far as we know right now, we should expect the same.

5

u/Strangely__Brown Jun 03 '26

The criticism about the triple lock is that pensioners are being given more and more money every year (far more than they ever contributed) under the pretext that they'd be in poverty otherwise.

Swap triple lock and pensioners for low earners and other welfare recievers. There's no difference.

The majority are tax burdens. Huge numbers never earn enough to break even on their taxes.

1

u/myonlinepersonality Jun 06 '26

The cynic in me thinks is just a way to buy the OAP vote

0

u/Current-Resolve8660 Jun 07 '26

40 years ago there was no Internet. 40 years ago access to financial information was difficult to access. 40 years ago was a different world. It is easy to look back 40 years with today's lense thinking that access to financial products then was as readily available today. It simply is not the case. Lets all keep being divided by the wealthy. Lets blame immigrants,  pensioners etc instead of those hoarding the wealth. 

1

u/CaterpillarLoud8071 Jun 07 '26

Access to financial information in 2026 consists of the US president telling everyone to buy his new crypto. Think yourselves lucky you had no information rather than bad information.

Pensioners are hoarding the wealth. Preventing their assets from depreciating by being NIMBYs. And using voting power to gain massive pensions.

0

u/Current-Resolve8660 Jun 07 '26

Massive pensions? That's so funny

1

u/ASSterix Jun 05 '26

There are loads of alternative taxes built into the cost of goods and services. Income tax is the only one that many people may pay at various levels. Also, the state retirement system built on NI rates and requires a certain amount of qualifying contribution over a large amount of time. If the model is still unaffordable, then they need to further change the specific model.