One in five of us know the state pension age in the UK, according to a new study. I am not one of them. Gun to my head, right now, without checking Google, I would say… 68? Maybe? Is it different for men and women, though? Who knows?
Well, one in five people, evidently. That’s according to Standard Life, which surveyed 6,000 adults and found some fairly troubling results. The 18 per cent who were aware of the actual pension age – I just checked and it’s 66, in case you’re a fellow 82 percenter – was made up of people across all age groups. As you might imagine, the further a particular cohort was from retirement, the less likely they were to know the age. Just 13 per cent of Gen Z (those aged 18-28) surveyed submitted the correct answer.
Though my initial guesstimation was wrong, there’s every chance it won’t be by the time I qualify for a state pension. The age will climb to 67 between 2026 and 2028, and is likely to creep up to 68 by the year 2046. As I’ll still have another decade to work by then, minimum, who knows what it might have landed on by the time I actually hang up that fabled “gone fishing” sign for good.
This is part of the problem when it comes to widespread ignorance around pensions: a lot of Gen Z and millennials don’t believe, deep down, that they’ll ever have the luxury of retiring. And who can blame them? We’ve already seen the state pension age increase in our lifetime. For more than half a century, it remained fixed at 60 for women and 65 for men. Then, it was gradually raised to 65 for women between 2010 and 2018. Finally, the state pension age for both men and women increased from 65 to 66 between 2018 and 2020. “By the time we get there, I’m guessing the state pension age will be 90,” quips a friend casually when I mention the thrust of this article, a sentiment that is echoed by everyone I canvass, regardless of age.
Looking at the way the country (and world) is going – we’re living longer but having fewer babies, resulting in a demographic shift that’s weighted towards an older population – I fully expect to be clocking a 9-5 or equivalent until the day I shuffle off this mortal coil. I’m not alone – the survey found that only 51 per cent of respondents thought the state pension would even exist by the time they retired.
But this cynicism could be dangerous, breeding as it does widespread ignorance and disengagement around all things pension. After all, if you don’t really believe you’ll ever be able to stop working, why bother investing more for your retirement? Why plan properly for the post-toil chapter of life? As another friend in her forties puts it, “I can’t tell you how little I think about pensions.”
In the same report, entitled Retirement Voice 2025, Standard Life found that 17 per cent of over 55s admitted they’ve never checked their pension. This was a bigger problem for women, who were three per cent less likely than male counterparts to have checked. I can relate – once again, it was only the writing of this article that prompted me to check my current workplace pension pot. And, full disclosure, I only did so because it was incredibly accessible, coincidentally managed by the same bank that I use for my credit card and mortgage.
When I first look at the number, I think it’s not too shabby at all. Combined with some other dribs and drabs from previous jobs floating somewhere in the ether – and this, too, makes my head hurt, wondering whether I need to combine them into one single pot or leave them roaming free – the total amount is just under my annual salary. But this, according to the experts, is laughable – a paltry sum that will last me so little time into my dotage that I wonder whether I should take up smoking just to intentionally shorten my lifespan.
According to the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), here’s what you should be saving annually for retirement: £14,400 per year (minimum); £31,300 per year (medium); £43,100 per year (comfortable). “Minimum will cover the essentials with a few treats, moderate gives you more flexibility, where you can afford things like occasional holidays abroad, and comfortable affords more luxuries, including things like regular holidays and new cars every few years,” according to Money Plus, a company that provides professional debt advice.
The new flat-rate state pension for those who reached state pension age after April 2016 is anticipated to increase from £230.30 a week to £241.30 a week, taking it to £12,547 a year. For many, a workplace pension (where both you and your employer contribute) or personal pension (one you’ve set up yourself through a pension provider) to top up the state pension will be an important component in their retirement plan – especially given that we’re living longer.
I wonder whether I should take up smoking just to intentionally shorten my lifespan
A useful rule of thumb is, apparently, to save half of your age as a percentage of your salary (ie, a 20-year-old should be saving 10 per cent). Money Plus has outlined how much individuals should have saved in total by certain ages to ensure a “comfortable” retirement. Millennials in the 30-40 bracket like me should have, by their mid-thirties, one to two times their salary saved; those in their early forties should have three to four times their salary. Using the UK average salary of £37,500 as a benchmark, they suggest having a pension pot of £105,000-£140,000 by the age of 40. Without revealing my financial failings too explicitly for all to see on the internet, let me just say that I am very, very, very far away from this target. Like, so far that the only realistic path ahead is marrying rich, refusing a prenup, and offing my spouse when the time comes.
Am I the only one blindsided by all of this? Has everyone else been secretly squirrelling away while I’ve been singing all proverbial summer long with the other clueless grasshoppers? Again, a very non-scientific straw poll suggests not. Another common theme emerges too – that of magical thinking. “I’m relying on the fact that I’ll have become mysteriously rich by then, in some way that I can’t currently foresee but will definitely happen,” or some variation thereof, is a response I hear on repeat. It is heartbreakingly, adorably human: the same broken logic that causes people to say that the climate crisis will all work out because we’ll fix it using whizzy future tech that hasn’t been invented yet.
It is exceedingly tempting to keep one’s head buried firmly in the sand, given the swirling chaos in which we’re currently collectively residing. But, God willing, old age is coming, and singing all summer won’t stave off the bleak reality of a retirement defined by scraping by. After a lifetime of being a grasshopper, I’m considering finally stepping into my ant era.
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