One in five of us knows the state pension age in the UK, according to a new study, highlighting widespread confusion and disengagement around retirement planning.
Independent readers shared experiences of leaving university burdened with debt, low wages, and high living costs, leaving little opportunity to save, while older generations reflected on the advantages of defined benefit schemes that are now largely unavailable.
Our community emphasised the unpredictability of retirement, noting that constant changes to the state pension age – rising to 67 by 2028 and potentially 68 by 2046 – make planning difficult.
Several described continuing to work into their late 60s or 70s despite private savings, with some forced to rely on workplace pensions that have been “hacked back” over time.
Some readers also noted that many younger generations seem unlikely to retire, with shifting pension ages and financial pressures making the goal seem increasingly distant.
Here’s what you had to say:
Simply surviving
I think most younger people are far too engaged with simply surviving and wondering if they can get a job when they come out of university, or follow their chosen career path as AI is used by more and more employers to replace people.
Even people approaching retirement age are highly likely to need to carry on working, as very few of us will have final salary pension schemes or indeed any private pensions at all.
Research also shows that stopping working is one of the biggest causes of early death or senility, so sensible people see the point at which they can draw their state pension as a useful income boost, not a reason to put their feet up.
A poorer deal for the young
I'm currently 65, I get my state pension when I'm exactly 66 and 6 months old. I'm very fortunate – I was in two defined benefit schemes totalling 18 years’ service that pay me a total of £15K per annum, index-linked. Unfortunately, one of those schemes has gone for new joiners, and the other has been watered down. Due to additional savings, I was able to retire comfortably at 62. The young really have been given a much poorer deal.
I’ll need to work to at least 70
I am Gen X, recently turned 51, and I'm sceptical that the state pension will even exist when I hit my late 60s. As it is, in order to afford to stay in my East London ex-council flat, I'll need to work to at least 70 with the way my academic pension has been hacked back as well (at the behest of a sector senior management class, all well into the six-figure salaries, who even if they were subject to the cuts they expect the rest of us to take would still have more of a pension than I will ever earn while still working).
Currently, state plus employment pension would get me 50% of my take-home now. Sixty per cent of my take-home now goes out in bills before I eat. I've never been so relieved I didn't ever want to breed.
The goalposts keep moving
I wouldn't necessarily expect Gen Z to be thinking much about pensions yet. When you are that age, retirement seems so far distant as to be not on your radar, and that has always been the case.
The other factor is that pension age, which was fixed at 65 (60 for women) for a very long time, is now moveable. Mine is 66 as far as my occupational pension goes, but I'll have to wait an additional four months for my state pension as part of the phased move to retirement at 67. It's harder to keep track of retirement if the goalposts keep moving, and that's not just a Gen Z problem.
My pension plan
- Make pension contributions compulsory – no opt-outs. Too many people don’t act responsibly but still end up with a decent pension. Contributions should be automatic, whether you’re working or unemployed.
- End the triple lock for under-50s. Younger workers have time to save themselves. Keep it for existing pensioners, as they can’t earn extra to top up their pensions.
Or a variant: give the triple lock to those who have not been unemployed for more than two years over their working life.
- Crack down on age discrimination – treat it like any other discrimination. Employers who discriminate against older workers should face prosecution.
- Retirement ages by occupation – physically demanding jobs must allow earlier retirement. Some EU countries already do this, and it makes perfect sense.
People can’t plan
When the government has been changing the goalposts, people can't be certain of anything, so can't plan. The triple lock should have been binned to maintain the age 65 retirement age for all. The state pension should be a fixed percentage of GDP, paid out to over-65s to keep it affordable for the country whilst giving more confidence for younger generations that they will get anything at all.
A mountain of debt
The reality is that young people leave university with a mountain of debt. At the same time, wages are low and rents or mortgages are high. How are they going to be able to live and start saving for a pension? I am not sure that there are any final salary schemes open to new joiners, and for most, they are reliant on private pension schemes.
A much more challenging world now
Part of the general ensh*ttification of life that seems to be going on now in the UK. When I was young, I was lucky enough to get student grants, not loans. I was able to join a defined benefit pension scheme at work and buying property was possible in my 20s.
We’re now in a kind of reverse of the Monty Python ‘Four Yorkshiremen’ sketch: "we had it good”. It’s a much more challenging world now for young people.
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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