Comments on: USS is the tip of the iceberg. Our pensions system is a hot mess

By: cara pace

cara pace — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 23:13:00 +0000

Agreed.

By: Soleus

Soleus — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 17:11:00 +0000

This is such a brilliant article and I will be spreading it far and wide. Congratulations and thanks.

By: ForensPsych

ForensPsych — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 15:01:00 +0000

£150 a week works out at £7,800 a year, which is more than the present state pension. Mine has just risen to £7,000, and I get a (little) bit extra as a legacy from the old graduated pension scheme. But I think your basic point is about right. A private scheme into which I paid for years will mature later this year. Apparently, it will buy me an annuity of about £1,000 a year, so unless I live to be about 110 I will never get back what I paid in. Now thinking I may take the money out, pay the tax, and at least have a lump sum. I have other income, and should be fine, but I worry about those who won’t (including my children).

By: Rob Brookes

Rob Brookes — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 22:40:00 +0000

It has always seemed to me that there should be a basic pension paid by the state with the monies raised by taxation that is high enough to allow pensioners live a normal and healthy life and enjoy the activities of their society ie buy nutritious food, keep their home warm and maintained, go to occasional football matches, concerts, buy presents etc, At the moment the basic pension is just over £150 a week, I think which though a little too low is not intolerable imo. It is double what an unemployed person gets which is too low. Should not the emphasis be on raising the basic pension and leaving private pensions to be classed as savings; ie the individual can, of course save for their retirement and those savings can be supplemented by companies whether private or state run but that should be an extra bonus and not necessary to live a decent life once retired.

By: WillowBhax

WillowBhax — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 20:24:00 +0000

Thank-you for clearly and concisely pointing out the elephant in the room: all the fiddling successive governments have done to fix the pensions system has resulted in a worse system that will condemn future retirees – especially females – to spending their last years in poverty. Increasing the exposure of individual workers to the vagaries of the capital markets, whilst doing almost nothing to educate them how to mitigate their risk or, to ensure that finacial advisors have the duty to act in the best interests of their clients, and suffer punishing fines when they fail to do so is criminally negligent. I hope that your article helps in starting a grass roots campaign to force government to fully address the implications of the current framework.