Proposed Retirement Age.

[Neville Roberts]

over here in US you can take early retirement at 62 with a reduced pension ,so I took that and kept working , got my British pension at 65 kept working until 69 1/2 now retired for the last 4 1/2 . after 54 years of solid work , also my wife did the same so we get a total of 5 pensions a month too look forward too .

[Ivan Cloherty]

Neville, thank god for that, we feel so much better now, because we were all worried about you. Seriously though Neville, well planned enjoy your retirements

[John Cassels]

Well , I think you should be a little more appreciative of the many positive benefits of growing older in the UK.

As you well know , your 40 years of tax and contribitions did not pay for your benefits . You simply do not have
any sort of entitlement to them - be very grateful that you do have.

Over here , there are very few benefits for the over '65. A lower tax threashold, no National Insurance premiums
towards a state pension , are the only two worth mentioning. The other NI premuims still apply though - unlike
the UK. My 88 year old step mother still has 20% NI contributions deducted from her pension.

There is no such thing as free travel. The best one can do is 40% reduction on the train and even then this
only applies if one buys an special yearly concession card.

All in all , you lot in the UK have it good and you just don't realise it.

[Ivan Cloherty]

John, whilst I appreciate you do live in Holland, a country of which I am fond, I was not aware that it been moved onto another Planet.

So pray tell us what 50 years of NHI and GPF (Graduated Pension Fund) contributions were for, together with all the Income tax I paid whilst working up to the age of 74 and tax which I also still now pay on my meagre pension. Do you think I paid all these dues to support non working illegal and legal immigrants, unmarried mothers and their various offsprings (by different non working fathers), who incidentally get a flat at 16 years old when they become pregnant and don't have to contribute a penny towards its upkeep. Silly me, there was I thinking it was to help me in my old age because I had done my duty to society by not drawing any unemployment benefit in over 60 years of working, the last 25 for my own company putting in on a regular basis 18 hours a day to support my family so that they would not be a drain on society. I even paid all NHI contributions to the UK during the 8 years I lived and worked abroad

In the words of Starship Enterprise "Beam him down Scotty" so that he his back on planet Earth and don't let him eat any more EDAM cheese as it seems to have effected his thought process.

[Gulliver]

All in all , you lot in the UK have it good and you just don't realise it.

Oh Yes I do.I was born in the UK, have lived here all my life,paid full tax and N.I.contributions and deserve at least some recognition and assistance in my old age,should I need it.
I will say I deserve it more,and should take precedence over, those who have never worked for 40 years in this country,or are recent immigrants,or those who have only partly contributed to their state pension and who now choose to live abroad yet still claim their U.K.pension,despite perhaps not having contributed to our economy for many years....

I can assure you I am "very appreciative of the many positive benefits of growing older in the U.K.".That is why I choose to live here, love everything about Great Britain-good(and there is still much good) -and bad.

[happy daze john in oz]

When I left the Uk in 1980 the requirement to recieve a full retirement pension was to have paid in for 20 years. At that time I had about 19 years paid up so thought I would get about 95% of the pension. How wrong can you be. By the time I came to draw it the rules had changed, now need 40 years paid up, so we only get about 52% of the pension at the time of first drawing, it stays at thta rate for ever. Now I hear the rules ave been changed yet again and less time is now needed, is this true?
But combines with local state pension and super we can get by.
Would do a bit better if we got rid of this current government, if you can call it that!

[Gulliver]

They are here,John:

How many qualifying years do you need?


The number of qualifying years you need for a full basic State Pension depends on your age and whether you're a man or a woman.
Men born before 6 April 1945 usually need 44 qualifying years.
Women born before 6 April 1950 usually need 39 qualifying years.
Men born on or after 6 April 1945 need 30 qualifying years.
Women born on or after 6 April 1950 need 30 qualifying years.

From the direct.gov uk site

[John Cassels]

David and Ivan , your arguments are on principle true . My point is that the benefits you now enjoy are courtesy of
those that are now working - aliens included. The contributions you paid at the time were for the pensioners of that
time. You are dependant on the people now working.

And , yes , I fall under the group that have not worked 40 years in the UK. I did only 20 years and now recieve a 66% full pension
as 30 years is now the full entitlement. Also get another UK benefit but think you wouldn't like to hear it so will keep it to
myself.
And why should there be a distinction between your 40 and my 20 years ?. What has "contributing to the economy" got
to do with it ?.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Your above all sounds very idealalistic, but if I had thought all those years ago that my contributions were going towards keeping a future bunch of professional scroungers then I would have become one myself.

Why keep anything to yourself John you are fast enough to tell us what we are entitled to and how grateful we should be, so pray do tell, as some of us may be able to jump on the bandwagon and then we will be eternally grateful to you and our Government. You certainly live on a different planet.

[Gulliver]

John,
1/. There is no distinction in years contributed,but consideration should be given to amount of years contributed in awarding eventual pension.In fact this is done,see previous post.

2/. Contributing to the economy? Yes,like living here,paying income tax, VAT and local taxes, and supporting the economy by paying consumer prices,good or bad.That is what "contributing to the economy" has to do with it.