Grumpyoldpauper’s Blog

According to a ‘think-tank’ called Reform, the government should wind down entitlement to the basic state pension for the ‘middle-classes’.  They would also like to see an end to the winter fuel allowance, free TV licences and concessionary bus passes.  The debt crisis that we have been landed in by this government is going to have far-reaching consequences for a very long time to come.  It might not affect you and me in the short-term, but I worry for our children and grandchildren.

It would seem that plans to raise the retirement age to 68 by 2046 are woefully inadequate because of the ever increasing rise in life expectancy.  Even grumpy old men are expected to live to at least 82, which is about 10% more than it was at the turn of the century.  If that rate of improvement continued (and one would expect the improvement to to speed-up even further) then average life expectancy would be 109 by 2040!  That’s 44 years of pension at today’s retirement age – more than most peoples working lives.  They’ll have to do something.