This morning's headlines have been dominated by the pensions story as mentioned in yesterday's blog. It looks as though people are finally taking the issue seriously.
The difficulty is surely going to be that my generation in particular - a quarter of a century away from retirement under the current rules - has spent most of its adult life under low interest rates. This has led to two things. First a reluctance to save - it's not going to pay you much, so the perception has been that it's not worth it. And pension schemes are a form of saving, which is why we're underprovided at the moment. The second is the ease with which we've had access to credit, and boy have we taken advantage of it. So, tell us to start putting away a couple of hundred quid a month towards a pension and we'll come out with the entirely reasonable point that the same money could be coming off an unwanted debt, which would leave us debt free if not well provided for in old age.
The only workable answer seems to be the one that's being proposed - work for longer, get more money and achieve both things by retirement. The only thing is that people will continue to live longer, so I can't honestly see this stopping at 67 for people who are as yet under 50 - they're surely going to have to move the retirement age again later on?
