I have been infuriated this week about the amount of rubbish being spoken by Ministers and senior Business Managers on increased life expectancy, all should be responsible people and check their facts.
To give a few quotes;- we shall have 35 years of retirement equal to our working life (2009 life expectancy is 18 yearsor half this from population figures); the current population over 100 is 23,000 (2010 figure is 12,400) and will rise to 230,000; plus the normal we will all live much longer and need to work longer and save more.
This is all part of the increasing campaign against Public Sector pensions to create envy and justify policies, they should know better or do and are following a political agenda. They apparently do not even understand what the term life expectancy means.
What is worse and more worrying is that they do not appear to have thought through the consequences of their statements, they accept the projections that the retired population will double in 25 to 30 year which means that costs will also double.
National Insurance and all pension contributions will need to double, already at almost a quarter of wages this would need to rise to almost half, an impossible situation, requiring changes every few years, which is what is happening and infuriating Public Sector pension members.
Previous blogs have dealt with this but at the risk of being repetitive, life expectancy means you have an even chance of living that long and half will not survive; we all know and have mourned relatives and friends who have died within a few years of retiring, in fact 1 in 10 will not survive beyond 70.
There are many wild statements about longer life after 65 and major decisions are being made, yet no serious studies on this have been reported and the figures not disputed. The medical profession has not come out to explain why we should live five times longer, what miracle anti-ageing drugs have been developed and readily available. I am sure the drug and cosmetic Companies would have been screaming from the rooftops.
There are good reasons to question projections and believe that they have been exaggerated; the statistical calculations may be correct but the interpretation wrong, they are based on births and deaths, which are only a small part of the UK population and take many years to filter through to retirement; 65 years for births.
We should therefore not panic into rash decisions, but consider the problems more deliberately and come up with sensible and long term solutions, which will meet 21st century needs.
The current hysteria, misinformation and envy on the Public Sector pensions is not justified or sensible; dragging the better pension provision down to gutter level means we shall all live in poverty in retirement, dependent on a State pension of £102 per week or less and higher taxation to pay for this misery.
The energy spent in confrontation should be aimed in finding a long term solution with the aim of bringing all up to the same standard of excellence, the current system is flawed and doomed to failure.
We need a radical look at pensions, what we need, how to afford it, how to meet longer life and its demands and the quality of that life. In fact the present economic crisis suggest this should also extend to working life.
A possible way forward has been given in previous blogs and a full report has now been completed and sent to major parties, this needs consideration, comment or alternative suggestions.
Above all, it is your retirement future that is being decided, you need to take an active part and say in that future; demand that your pension contribution savings be treated and protected as such and give good value, whether they be from NI or work scheme contributions.
Two thirds of those in work make no contributions outside NI and need to secure their own pension future by personally saving more and demanding more from NI. The State and other pension schemes are doomed to failure unless change is made and people take charge of their own retirement destiny.
Savings Annuities Public Sector NHS Teachers Police Local Government State Work Benefit Social Education
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