I have many times set out the easy cuts to excess spending here. Bank of England losses, Post Office losses, railway losses, steel nationalisation costs, illegal migrant hotels, migrant benefits and the pressure of numbers on public capital and services. The government has unsuccessfully tried disability benefits and pensioner winter fuel payments, which I did not support.
I read they are now thinking of reneging on the triple lock for pensions. I would suggest they do not do this. Both main parties pledged to keep the triple lock at the last election. Cutting pensioner poverty has been a success of recent years, with the triple lock helping in that cause.
I have in the past recommended raising the pension age, with suitable longer term notice so people can save for more private pension if they wish to retire earlier. The current age of 66 is scheduled to rise to 67 next year. There is a rise to 68 pencilled in. Why not bring this forward a bit, and why not add a target date for 69 thereafter? As the real value of the pension climbs so people should need to pay in NI contributions for longer to qualify. There could also be an option to pay more into the state to have an earlier access to the state pension. This could be a substantial saving in future spending and borrowing with no direct impact on anyone living’s standards any time soon, and with notice for people to strengthen their other pension arrangements.
July 12, 2025
Sir John,
We all know the government spends far too much money and even now, dispite being up to our necks in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy, government insists on throwing more and more money at everything and everyone except for the very people it’s responsible for, ie us!
I think it is inevitable that the state pension age will rise and rise again.
The problem, as I see it, is that whilst it is fine for a pen pusher to work for a few more years, it is not really practical for a hod carrier, a roofer or other manual workers to still be working into their Seventies.
Those at the lower end of the social-economic scale, tend to be far less healthy in later life with a much lower life expectancy than a member of the professional classes. The life expectancy of a top barrister I suspect, is considerably higher than a manual labourer.
It is all very well suggesting people can save for their retirements and save more to retire earlier but, again, those at the lower end of the socio-economic scale, just don’t have a surplus of cash to set aside because so many are living hand to mouth.
The cost of living has rocketed in recent years. Housing costs are through the roof for both rental and ownership. Council tax seems to increase year on year for nothing in return. Food inflation is, in my opinion, far higher than the government says it is. Water prices are flowing up hill. Energy is quickly becoming a luxury item for ordinary people.
Dispite all these factors, out of touch politicians of all parties wonder why the number of people on sickness benefits are rising rapidly. It is one thing to be skint on benefits but it is something else to work all hours God sends and still be skint at the end of the month.
When I started work, I knew if I worked hard, I would be able to pay my bills and have money left over for a bit of enjoyment however, people starting out today have no chance of a decent quality of life and a good work/life balance.
Reply I recommend phasing in to 69 not over 70, with an option to pay more in to retire earlier.That meets your point re manual labour.
July 12, 2025
Indeed.
But thanks to the lab manufactured Covid virus, the net harm lockdowns and net harm Covid Vaccines life expectancy has declined since 2020 so pension should come earlier not even later.
The largest increase in public debt was during the Sunak/Boris with net harm lockdowns and net harm Covid Vaccines! Net zero the other vastly damaging and hugely damaging waste of money.
Reply Pensions need paying for. Their cost is going up.
July 12, 2025
Uk pension is the lowest in Europe. Interfering with the triple lock while continuing to featherbed channel invaders will kill off the uniparty.
It would be s brave chancellor that upset the largest voting cohort in the country.
July 12, 2025
Yes – ‘courageous’ as Sir Humphrey would say.
July 12, 2025
To replay. Life expectancy is declining not increasing. To save on pensions get inflation A. ditch net zero and get energy cost down to circa 1/3 of current as in the US. B get housing costs down by relaxing planning and the OTT green crap building regs. C. Ditch all the rest of government waste.
July 12, 2025
Also cut low skilled net cost immigration levels rather than augmenting it as Starmer is clearly doing!
July 12, 2025
See Doctor John Campbell excess deaths 2025 video.
July 12, 2025
I just rewatched this, the figures are appalling and contrast hugely with areas with low vaccination levels. Yet in the UK they are not even investigating the excess deaths (when one would after a period of high deaths expect fewer than normal). Still pushing the MHRA vaccines to old people too.
Did the Astra-Zenica vaccine (indirectly) perhaps do some good – was perhaps not quite as bad as the MNRA ones in the longer term? And so people took fewer of the MHRA ones.
July 12, 2025
What about all those childhood jabs to eliminate those damaging illnesses, indeed early deaths? Were they all ill advised, forced and dangerous? (sarc).
July 12, 2025
We have a standard state pension arrangement for everyone with a NI number, however not all state pensions are equal, are they. Why do civil servants receive a far better state pension than the norm?
Pensions in the UK are a political issue, the amount is paid from current taxation. (when it was first set up it was not expected to cost much as the actuarial life expectancy of men was 65) Pension contributions/payments should not be political. Contributions should be real, paid into pension funds/investments and grow as a normal lifetime saving, as a private pension does.
Look at the Norway model, a truly massive national wealth fund, largely funded by petroleum production taxes. We’d be better off and so would the state.
July 12, 2025
Civil Servants don’t receive more state pension; in many cases, they receive less. Any worker who was contracted out of the state scheme loses their contribution for those years. In my job, I was contracted out but paid 43 years of National Insurance contributions and still don’t qualify for a full state pension. The problem is that we plan for our retirement over our lifetime, but successive governments keep moving the goalposts. Yes, some public sector workers receive excessive work pensions, but the average is only £9,874 a year.
July 12, 2025
Correct. I paid full nHI for 42 years but lost £20 a week on my state pension when I retired – my private pension is meagre – it’s less than the state pension.
July 12, 2025
Christine:
Correct. My Son used to work for the DWP. He will get his state pension at age 67, and it will not be more than the normal State Pension. He can make extra lump sum payments to boost his State Pension to the ‘normal’ rate. His CS pension. is frozen from the date he left, and cannot be paid into.
There are some misconceptions about jobs in the CS. The salaries tend to be lower than some in the Private Sector. The pension can be higher if you pay into it for the maximum time. For those at the lower echelons, its not the easy ride that many people say it is.
July 12, 2025
Points well made. There is a general assumption that CS retirees can live off the fat of the land. The great majority are on very average salaries and DO contribute to their pension.
I would accept that as you move up the salary scales the Final Salary scheme rewards handsomely. And far too many can retire at 60, not needing to work on and wait for the state pension which would pay £10 to £12k currently.
July 12, 2025
Christine
I am guessing Civil Servants get exactly the same arrangements as everyone else for a STATE pension, but IN ADDITION they get a very, very generous WORK pension, as do the NHS, Teachers, Local Government, Police, Firefighters, MP’s and many other State or Local Authority Jobs, Their salaries are all paid out of taxation, even their very generous (in some cases 25% of Salary) employer pension contributions are paid for out of taxation, meanwhile those who are self employed pay 1000% of their own pension contributions out their own earnings, the only state benefit is the Tax allowable element of your contributions which all pension scheme holders get. But who’s schemes are under attack, the Self employed who fully fund their own schemes.
The State pension is now two tier with fully paid up contributions older schemes paying out less than the 2015 new pension arrangements.
July 12, 2025
Christine
oops 100% not 1000 % of their own pension contributions.
July 12, 2025
That is £20K per year when state pension is added.
Anyone contracted out for 43 years should have quite a nice fund to play with. I was contracted out for just 10 years and have the best part of 6 figures sitting in an account.
I understand you are trying to be even handed but public sector workers have the blue riband of retirements now that defined benefit is unavailable to private sector workers.
Reply £100,000 only buys about £6500 of annual pension with CPI protection.
July 12, 2025
Public sector employer contributions are obscene. 20-25% is not unusual.
Union driven extortion.
July 12, 2025
To rely about £6,500 per annum.
That will be my return for 10 years contracted out. Over 40 years I would be getting £25K not the £11K I can look forward to from the state pension.
July 12, 2025
So Water companies are ‘to impose surge pricing’ in summer just when you want to water the flowers and have more showers.
But water is so easy to store, but the water companies can’t be bothered with this it seems. So will I have to buy a few large water tanks to store winter water for summer then. Costs is only about £100 to store 500 litres of fresh winter water. Or for garden water just a small lake? Far cheaper than electricity where storing say £10 of say summer electricity will cost you about £1300 – plus the battery cycle will waste 30% and the battery decay to be worthless in 6-10 years.
July 12, 2025
If you want to store energy use an oil or propane tank, and a wood store.
July 12, 2025
Exactly or coal (old wood) then burn and convert to electricity and/or heat only as needed.
July 12, 2025
Similar with a car battery cost £10,000+ plastic fuel tank £70 the former lasts say 8-10 years the latter 50 years+. Vast amounts of fossil fuel energy to mine and manufacture and recycle the battery too.
July 12, 2025
A 90% state sector pension tax over X PA perhaps, so that the private sector no longer have to carry the bloated feather bedded (or of sick, working from home…) state sector perhaps?
July 12, 2025
Not all state sector workers are feather bedded or lazy or misdirected of course but on average in relative terms!
July 12, 2025
@Cliff.+1. Well said.
The official inflation rate bears no resemblance to the living cost rises I experience. That’s despite ever thriftier food shopping and turning the thermostat to 10c for the winter (not for fun).
I’ve done manual labour for about 70% of my working life and am doing it again now (gardening, landscaping and building). I will be 66 next year and look forward to easing off a bit, though I’ll have to continue some work because of the rising living costs you highlight.
Despite being extremely fit, my body has had many knocks and scrapes during my working life. Continuing work is dicey: every day there’s the potential to aggravate an old injury and need off-time to recover. Being self-employed there’s no sick pay, and clients expect you to get the job done.
I worry that Sir J’s reasonable idea of phasing in of pensions would be botched by government, leading to real hardship for many people who have worked hard all their lives but not earned enough to put much aside. Meanwhile the bone idle poor, and the wealthy, would be untroubled.
July 12, 2025
+1
July 12, 2025
Fair comments on individual affordability Cliff but the reality is that the current state pension structure is unaffordable over the medium to long term. Pension age should rise automatically with life expectance and contributions (NI notionally) should be invested, as for a private scheme. Government cannot be trusted to fully fund future spending.
As an aside, in 1946 when the State Pension started the male pension age was 65 and male life expectancy (at birth) was 66. in 2024 the male retirement age was still just 66 but male life expectancy has risen to 79. This shows how much more expensive the state pension cost is now – and the trend will continue.
July 12, 2025
Life expectancy has declined recently due to Sunak’s unequivocally safe Covid Vaccines!
July 12, 2025
And due to population obesity… That said, the point remains that state pensions nowadays will be paid for 20+ years not 5 years as in the late 1940’s..
July 12, 2025
Not quite right as life expectancy at birth has largely gone up due to preventiong of deaths in children, babies, child birth and of the young. Life expectancy for a Man of 65 or Woman of 65 has not actually risen that much and since 2020 has actually declined mainly due to hugely misguided medical interventions under Boris Sunak and their medical “experts” it seems!
I suspect the figure were more like 12/13 years in the 40s from age 65 and now from Age 67 perhaps 18 years but having decreased since 2020. So only about 50% up and do not forget more are able to work even in their 80s with modern technology and from home!
I found this on line – In 1940, the life expectancy for a 65-year-old in the UK was approximately 11.9 years for males and 13.4 years for females according to the Social Security Administration (.gov).
July 12, 2025
So not the longevity that is the real problem, it is the bloated size, misdirection, fraud, vested interest and general incompetence of so much of the state sector.
July 12, 2025
Try this:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/articles/lifeexpectancycalculator/2019-06-07
Male 65 life expectancy now 20 yrs.
Fully agree the bloated state is a massive problem though. The State cannot afford the current (& projected) spend on non-workers.
July 12, 2025
The government seems to be trying to reduce it via assisted dying, poor NHS outcomes in many trusts, pushing up energy costs, increased street crime etc.
July 12, 2025
Seems so, plus net harm Covid Vaccines, freezing grannies and even the “murder” of unborn babies up to 9 months!
July 12, 2025
The workplace pension scheme which will replace the state pension is fully funded by individual pension pots
July 12, 2025
PeteB
Fully accept your point, but think you will find expected age from Birth is now starting to drop, medical science is fighting hard to keep it where it is by keeping people alive, whereas in the past they would have passed have been helped (unofficially ) to pass away
July 12, 2025
Cliff
You are absolutely correct, those who have done manual work all their lives have bodies that are broken at 60 years of age, not easy for them to transfer to a non manual job, but efforts should be made to help them re-train.
The triple lock with pensions now being taxed, does not keep up with inflation, as you actually get 20% less than the calculation made, so pensions are reducing in value against the cost of living.
To survive in later life you either need large savings, or a work and or private pension to help.
The Government think people need a living wage to survive, but the State pension is only Half of that amount !
July 12, 2025
Labour are just following the new economic paradigm introduced by the Tories ….tax everything so high it becomes the norm; then tax them some more; then hide the taxes in duty, levy, vat …then play with thresholds
July 12, 2025
The state pension is going to be phased out when current 35 year olds work place pension schemes pay out the same value as the pension.
The state pension needs to be funded for new entrants for 32 years. This can easily be paid for by ensuring no one who has not paid taxes in this country for less than five years is eligible for any benefit at all. Not housing, not dole, not any universal credit.
If you can’t afford to live in this country then you shouldn’t be here unless your ancestry means you have nowhere else to be.
July 12, 2025
Manual workers usually start work at a younger age. Logical way to handle this would be to link years work to pension i.e. work from 16 to 65 and you become eligible for State Pension, but if you enjoy tertiary education and a taxpayer funded loan you need to work until you pay the loan off or 70, whichever later. Kills 2 birds with 1 stone.
July 12, 2025
Even worse, what it spends fails to produce wealth for the nation or increase GDP per capita. It is spending our money to zero effect, apart from increasing our indebtidness. UK socialism results in the death of the nation.
July 12, 2025
+1
July 12, 2025
Good morning
Legalised theft. That is what I call it. Taking money from people who have invested it for THEIR future so that a poor, lazy government can use it to spend is a crime in my view.
We elect a government to govern on our behalf , to make sure that the country’s properly run and that the public post is protected , not that people are used as me a cash cows.
It is time for the people to take control. It is time we considered moving to Dirrect Democracy.
July 12, 2025
Direct democracy is the only real democracy. A vote every five years under first past the post for someone who very often is a liar is not democracy. Then we have the judiciary and the blob so even if they do try to do as instructed by voters not that many even try.
July 12, 2025
@Mark B. I’d welcome a Swiss-style solution. Referendums. Keeping out of foreign wars. Keeping illegal immigrants out. Where the “national interest” is aligned with the people’s interest.
July 12, 2025
The ‘national interest’ always suits the Establishment, the ‘people’s interest’ ignored or opposite done.
July 12, 2025
+ ditching net zero, Chagos, the French Fishing Deal…
July 12, 2025
+ditch all migrant support, foreign aid, EU & UN payments ….I pay taxes for the benefit of the UK people and not the world
July 12, 2025
Mark B
It is actually retrospective legalised theft (proposed 2027 pension changes)
After 42 years of pension planning, contributions and investment, I find that the rules will change dramatically and I and my family will be significantly worse off than if I had used another method to prepare for our final years.
The new proposed legislation will mean there are far better and more flexible ways to prepare for retirement than having a Self Invested Pension Plan with all of the legal constraints that such a plan will hold.
July 12, 2025
Stop immigration. The savings will be in the billions almost immediately.
July 12, 2025
Plus save £trillions improving the economy, living stamdards, greening the planet and helping the environment too ditch net zero too!
July 12, 2025
I totally agree with Sir John. The SPA should be raised. We are all living longer and that should transmit to a longer working life accordingly. I think increasing it and having a target date of 69 is sensible. Society just has to accept in the future the SPA will be rising in accordance with increases in average lifetime expectancy. I believe the pro rata SPA increase should be systematic (ie a statutory requirement so that it does not get manipulated by future governments and so that people can plan accordingly).
This does not detract from cutting the welfare bill as far too many are claiming unemployment and housing benefit who are not entitled. Welfare should be going to this who genuinely need it on a temporary basis only until they get back on their feet again (with some exceptions). We need a low tax economy offering private sector opportunities for all.
July 12, 2025
Whilst many would agree that Reeves must cut expenditure before the IMF turn up and force Labour to do so anyway, it’s the ever growing cost of servicing the national debt that is the real problem
The 30 year interest rate demanded by lenders to the Treasury has recently risen to 4.61%. Despite this, the Bank of England voted 6-3 to keep the bank rate steady at 4.25% at it’s June meeting. Now we hear that a 0.1% contraction in GDP last month may cause a rate cut, maybe by 25 basis points. Clearly, there is a widening gap between what the economy needs and what lenders require to finance our twin deficits
Soaking the disabled and the poor pensioners to pay for the boat people to live in nice hotels on benefits was a blunder. I suspect that forcing those preparing to retire to work for longer will be equally unpopular. They have paid NI contributions into the system all their lives, why should economic migrants jump the queue for the welfare state?
The time is fast approaching where we will have to decide whether those who were not born in this country should qualify for the benefits of the welfare state at all. There are too many of them milking the system
Reply The 30 year rate is 5.4%, well above the peak Truss rate of 4.88%, driven there by Rachel’s overspending
July 12, 2025
Well said Mr Gold. The best contribution from you I am aware of!
I can praise as well as rebuke.
July 12, 2025
To reply: And driven up by her expensive, childish tears, let us hope she can control herself a bit better from now on!
July 12, 2025
And the governement talking down the economy and imposing anti-growth policies net zero, tax increases, workers rights, vat of school fees, attach on nondoms, Chagos, road blocking, rigging markets energy, schools, transport, heating systems, planning, universities…
July 12, 2025
SG :
The the reason for our current (and TBH past) government policies is because socialism depends upon making and keeping people poor. You can add Net Zero to your list, a policy designed to not only cause impoverishment but also population control via electrification and smart meters.
July 12, 2025
It’s the gold-plated Public Sector pensions which need reform first. No public sector employee should have better pension provision than the vast majority of people working in the private sector, which is currently being taxed into oblivion.
July 12, 2025
‘GOLD plated’ term only really kicks in and becomes obscene once the higher graded staff Final Salary of 50% is reached.
July 12, 2025
A windfall tax on state sector pensions rather than the IHT tax grab on farms and small businesses please.
July 12, 2025
Correct! These off-balance sheet liabilities will crush us.
July 12, 2025
Unfortunately the bigger the national pension funds are, the greater the temptation for lazy politicians to raid them for their own useless purposes. Such as ludicrous “green” investments as hinted by the current inept Labour government. The current government business model is unfit for purpose. It is bankrupting the country to the point of beyond repair. The benefits system is an unfunded con. It will stay way until the time the cash runs out or a political miracle occurs that reforms the government so it operates within it’s means. Do you believe in miracles?
July 12, 2025
+1
July 12, 2025
I favour a phasing out of the state pension, on the grounds that anything government does it does badly and expensively. Now that the Pension Act is in place, occupational pensions should take over completely.
It would be appropriate then to reduce employee’s national insurance contributions so workers have that money to put into their own pensions.
Employer’s national insurance on the other hand is a tax on jobs, contributing to making UK manufacture uncompetitive, and should be eliminated anyway. Such a measure in addition to other pro-enterprise policies would pay for itself in increased income tax receipts.
Reply You cant do that as current NI pays current pensions.
July 12, 2025
Reply to reply – if I may
I believe you are correct, but that isn’t the opinion of pensioners who think it’s their in work contributions that paid for their state pensions, even though every year there is no evidence of the surplus of their contributions, rather the National Debt goes up and up.
As to current NI contributions paying current pensions – how come the previous Conservative government were able to reduce the NI rate from 12% to 8%? Surely that would have led to a deficit in the fund.
It begs the question what obligation do current taxpayers have to previous taxpayers? Given the dire state of public services, it doesn’t look like we are passing on much investment value.
Reply The “ fund” remained in surplus. They publish annual accounts.
July 12, 2025
“There could also be an option to pay more into the state to have an earlier access to the state pension”. Without knowing whether the triple lock would be removed and thus no guarantee of future increases ? Or even future means testing ? That would be a very risky investment.
Reply Governments make all investments much riskier as they regularly change the rules after you have committed
July 12, 2025
Reply-Reply
Agree JR that is why no rule changes should be retrospective on funds already held within a current system, change the rules “on going” by all means, then people know what they are signing up to, but no retrospective changes should ever be made at all.
July 12, 2025
I don’t agree about the Triple Lock; it is simply unaffordable. We should revert to linking state pensions with inflation or wage rises, but not both. I also think reintroducing the WFA was a big mistake. The conservative answer to fuel poverty is to reduce its price by ditching the pointless and destructive Net Zero.
When the state pension was introduced people rarely lived much longer to collect it. Now most can expect to live to 80+. We need to bite the bullet and raise retirement age to 70. Working a bit longer should help reduce the need for all those immigrants.
July 12, 2025
Working a bit longer sounds fine, but employers game the system and employees find themselves laid off, and the marketplace is a brutal situation to find work. Even the over 50s struggle let alone the over 60s.
July 12, 2025
Stop giving NI credits to those on benefits. If they haven’t got enough years of contributions for a state pension, then pay them means tested benefits once they reach retirement age. At the moment, we have people living abroad who have never worked, and in some cases, never set foot in our county, who receive a UK state pension. Also, stop all non-contributory benefits being paid to people abroad. Other countries don’t do this, so why do we?
And why, oh why, did the last government allow people living abroad the option to buy added pension years, for a pittance? This exercise to get additional money into their coffers will cost us dear in the future. Idiots, the lot of them.
People don’t know the half of how our welfare system is being abused.
July 12, 2025
There are just over 9 million working age people not working and receiving state benefits and support.
With a population of working age individuals i.e. 16 to 65 age group of 37 million, we can not carry a non working population of 24%.
It is also worth remembering the 6.1 million people directly employed by the state do not contribute to the exchequer, they are net costs to the tax payers i.e. the private sector. With that reality in mind the number of people available to contribute to the tax pot is too low to be sustainable.
The result of the missing tax payers is, state borrowing increases to fund state handouts. This year the cost of the interest charges on that borrowing will be £111billion. It is now the second largest cost after the NHS.
With average UK earning just over £35,000/yr. that debt repayment requires another 3million people handing all of their wages/salaries over simply to cover national debt interest.
These numbers are staggeringly real and unsustainable.
July 12, 2025
+ many.
July 12, 2025
£2.5 billion as part of the bigger package announced for Ukraine including anti drone missiles and support for Green transition.
At the rate Ukraine is being destroyed by continuing this war between Slavic people that have different histories, I don’t think that we will get much back from this ‘investment ‘. But apparently 2TK is looking good on the world stage according to the BBC. It’s only money after all.
July 12, 2025
And the wasteful and futile spending on Net Zero. You would think that even those who have been captured by the communist ruse that anthropogenic emissions of CO2 controls global temperature, even though the both the history and science of climate shows this is false, would recognise the futility of bankrupting our country net zeroing our 1% contribution to global anthropogenic CO2 emissions which itself is only 5% of total atmospheric CO2. Table 12 in Chapter 12 of the IPCC’s Working Group 1 (“The Science”) shows there to be no signals for climate change (precipitation, droughts and storms) other than some mild warming which UAH satellite data since 1977 shows to be 0.14 degrees C per decade for the lower troposphere. On p95 of the same report the IPCC calculate that doubling atmospheric CO2 gives just 1.2 degrees C of warming.
July 12, 2025
Public sector pensions are based on final salary at 50% usually but more if early retirement is needed, as with universities with unfilled courses.
There is a tendency in local authorities and education to increase salaries with many over £100k. As a result, many retire on pensions that are higher than private salaries. Expenses at retirement age are low, with mortgages and debt paid off and childcare mot needed. I know of retired police and others lin health and local authority work who have six holidays every year. This is where government should be looking for taxation. But will they ever fleece themselves?
July 12, 2025
The old saying turkeys will never vote for Christmas about covers it It is why, Public Sector pay and perks including guaranteed secure pensions, insulated from inflation and often taken in the early fifties are never reduced, they are only ever increased.
If we want to make real reductions to the treasury’s outgoings, the fairest and simplest option would be to insist no one is allowed to retire before the official national retirement age of 67 and receive state pension/public sector pension.
gobble gobble gobble as they would say.
July 12, 2025
Sir John
Is it the State Pension that’s out of step? Or is it ‘defined pension’ guaranteed by the taxpayer? Or more correctly Parliament saying one thing and doing the opposite.
As the state pension requires specific contributions and it has been the State that has squandered those contributions rather than creating the fund envisage by the wording National Insurance – it has become a ‘con’ a ponzi scheme created by Parliament that would be illegal if it was anyone but Government gaming the system. To change the system after the event, null and void 30years of contributions because of Parliament neglect, is as always Government kicking people in the teeth.
The basic State pension for 2025 stand at £176.45 requiring 30 years of contribution. If just 4% of employee and employer contributions to NI had gone into a pension pot (as it is sold by government) this pension would be greater. Its a case of Government, Parliament neglect that they now want to reverse the situation leaving it to late for those affected to make alternative arrangements.
The other camp, defined pension, directly supported by the taxpayer just nowadays requires to have been employed by the State and everything is guaranteed.
July 12, 2025
By all means get rid of the NI having anything to do with pensions, but to do it retrospectively for all those that had to make compulsory payments is corrupt and dishonest. Hand back the NI contributions and let people make their own choices.
July 13, 2025
Many made optional voluntary payments to buy extra years too.
July 12, 2025
For clarity I wasn’t meaning 4% of the payment( the employee pays 8%, now employer now 15%.(Increased by 8.7% from April 2025) so it should be half of the 8% being that 4% going into the pension pot and leaving just 11%(4 +11 = 15) employer contribution in the general pot. I know percentages! they can be a game and used as half truths, the Government thinks the 8.7% increase in what has become an employment tax is nothing- they only see it as 1.2%.
I concede that NI on its own would not be enough for its objectives for how they have evolved, the objective is now to define a formal purpose and restrict abuse. The concept of having a compulsory National Insurance is good but Government abuse of the Promise bad
July 12, 2025
Every household (at least the majority) up and down the land knows what ‘budgeting’ means. It means spending to a level of what is coming in. To be able to spend more on specifics you either have to earn more or cut back on something else.
So budgeting is controlling expenditure from a defined pot. The defined pot is based on the wealth the money in the real economy creates.
The economy creates wealth and taxes, the removal of money from the economy reduces what is available as tax. A circular situation as one feeds the other.
Government with the approval of more that 50% of Parliament, that is 50% of the Full legislator, some 50% of 1400 individuals, is not acting in isolation we may blame the ‘talking head’ pushed into the limelight, but they are doing it with more than 50% of the UK’s Legislators approval (HoC, HoL) otherwise it wouldn’t happen. So in essence we have a rotten system stuffed with self-indulgent egotist that don’t understand their job, what they were paid to do and who empowered them
July 12, 2025
Why is the taxpayer forced into paying unproductive entities, things that have no way of contributing to their own funding let alone the Nations.
Why is the Taxpayer in a Nation of equals forced into funding ‘discrimination’ (DEI)? That is wasted money on someone’s vanity that produces nothing. It is also removing from our culture natural fairness respect and politeness. The culture that some others are better than the rest.
Someone with ‘tennis elbow’ can have the Taxpayer give them a car, not even just have their own car adapted but given a brand new car. That is not controlling expenditure or even having a budget that is fleecing the economy for personal self-gratification
July 13, 2025
Indeed, my family and I have owned about 40 cars over the years. I have never bought a new one why would you unless bothered by image? The most I ever paid was £13k for a three+ year old Volvo V70 when the three kids were young and we needed baby seats and the extra two kids seats in the boot. The others were never more than about £5k. So why do people on benefits get £40k new cars!
July 12, 2025
All good, but any increase in NI to pay for enhanced pension benefits would simply be swallowed up into general taxation and squandered just as it now.
Great idea but any additional contributions should go into a Sovereign Wealth Fund from which the enhanced benefits could be paid
July 12, 2025
353 criminals were smuggled, in plain sight, into the UK yesterday on the 11th July from France…no French police slashing rubber boats ?
July 12, 2025
Glen
“slashing the boats” Simply a Publicity stunt for the Macron Visit.
July 13, 2025
With the BBC called in to film this stunt!
July 12, 2025
Yesterday Ukraine bought £2.5 billion of ammunition from NI. The U.K. is paying for the ‘loan’ to Ukraine.
July 12, 2025
More Government give-aways
Britain has spent £400 million on border posts, why? The reasoning goes is that the EU is concerned on what enters their territory(the EU) from the UK. More costly EU appeasement.
That is spending, in a backwards ideology. If the EU is concerned on what enters the EU it should be them building border posts on their side. It isn’t up to the UK to pay for their irrational behaviour.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/07/11/brussels-insists-uk-builds-border-posts-it-does-not-need/
July 12, 2025
I suggest a serious government could cut many things before attacking pensions. The major pension reform needed is to switch all government and council employees to a defined-contribution pension, not a final salary one. The inflation link also needs to be cut. My father-in-law, an excellent teacher, was a teacher for his whole working life, so he got the maximum pension. By his late seventies his pension was more than his teacher’s salery because of inflation.
Civil Service numbers need to be drastically cut, government advertising needs to be stopped, and Net Zero needs to be dropped completely. Additionally, numerous other savings can be made. Then the tax system should be reformed so nobody pays tax on the first £20k of earnings, and the other bands lifted pro rata. With current taxes, a person on an average income has no chance of saving for a decent pension. In the long term, the pension age needs to be raised, but let’s also give people a chance to save a decent amount for a pension.
Reply Yes, as I have set out many times there easier faster acting cuts. I tried to persuade Osborne in 2009-10 to close final salary public sector schemes to new accrual where they were unfunded but he refused. He even refused to say no new recruit could join a public sector unfunded final salary scheme. Big missed opportunity.
July 12, 2025
@Keith from Leeds – not wanting to sound churlish as I agree with the thrust of your comment defined-contribution and final salary pensions are essentially the same thing the pensions are a promised retirement income is defined by a formula and not by contribution. With the State employee version it is the Taxpayer that funds the shortfall
July 12, 2025
@Keith from Leeds – is the £20K the thing, or is it just tax as a whole. As a whole tax is just to high and is used to fund things that are mere political vanity projects, ideology or jobs for the boys. Only the top 10% pay in more than they get out. Everyone else gets hand out.
In a fair society everyone would contribute, but the amount would be significantly less, at the moment there are allowance for this that and the other, subsidies to address the imbalances created by the system. The structure has become unwieldy cumbersome and costly.
If tax was just collected to fund the framework, the infrastructure. tomorrows safety and security it would be a lot less. As it is I wouldn’t mind betting 50% would produce the same result, the same future if it was thrown down the drain
July 12, 2025
Reply- reply
A very sensible suggestion at the time JR, would be saving £hundreds of millions, perhaps even billions by now had it been introduced.
July 12, 2025
The arch anti Brexiteer(Jamie Dimon) sums the state of play up.
Europe is “losing” the fight for economic supremacy against its main rivals China and the US, and faces a drought of globally competitive companies, the head of JP Morgan has warned.
“You’re losing,” he told an event organised by Ireland’s foreign ministry. “Europe has gone from 90pc US GDP to 65pc over 10 or 15 years. That’s not good.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/07/10/jp-morgan-chiefs-message-to-europe-youre-losing/
WEF & EU Socialism fights the people, fights prosperity, fights tomorrow, put simply that is a loss of 28% of revenue, there is 28% less to spend, there is less 28% for tomorrow. In around 10years. Starmer and crew thinks this should be the future, securing the ‘great reset’ and his Utopian Marxist State
Starmer has written for Socialist Alternatives and Socialist Lawyer reminding the readers that that “Karl Marx was, of course, right”. Also he states he supports social ownership and investment in the UK’s public services. – or in other words expenditure before earning
Any one wishing for freedom and democracy will find in 4 years time every notion off it has been destroyed, confined to the trash can
July 12, 2025
Starmer is a(n) (international) human rights lawyer who does not believe in the nation state and instead believes that anyone has the human right to come and live in the UK and bring with them their grievances, customs, religions, practices and laws from their home country and furthermore whatever they say or do will be allowed because they are (curently) a minority and the anti-democratic HR legislation is specifically designed to protect them from the will of the incumbent majority. Also because Starmer is a lawyer and previously the Chief Prosecuter we are seeing the disappearance of the separation between the legislature and the judiciary. We are now ruled by lawyers.
July 12, 2025
I will be contraversial here :
For more than seven decades, men were discriminated against over state pensions and that was not properly addressed when the pension ages were equalised and increased. On grounds of cost, relative life expectancy should be the limiting factor.
Women currently live two years longer than their male counterparts. The cost would be equalised if the pension age for men was set at 68 and that for women at 70.
The next government has got to get to grips with all aspects of Pensions and quickly :
Firstly, the triple lock. As a pensioner aged 73, I cannot justify the triple lock when younger people have to contribute so much towards paying for it. I would deduce it to a double lock.
Secondly, all Public Sector pensions, including MPs, and especially Starmer’s individual and very expensive deal, need to be Reformed. ( pun intended! ). They should be changed to Defined Contribution schemes , just like the rest of us receive.
Reply Starmer is eligible for a civil service pension which is unfunded pay as you go and an MP pension which is fully funded and paid for from an independent pension trust fund out of accumulated contributions and investment gains. The two pensions therefore have different legal and policy backgrounds.
July 12, 2025
If the pensionable age is increased to 68 and affects me I envisage my mental health declining. My retirement date is penciled in in stone
July 12, 2025
Off topic but this is important !
This morning, my wife and I were at Dunkirque on the way back from visiting friends in Germany. The ferry was to sail at 4am (don’t ask !)
When we arrived at the french passport control we expected our passports to be scanned and stamped and we could then have moved on to UK passport control.
However the French young lady produced a hard-wired camera and asked me to look into it so my irises could be photographed. She then produced a large handheld unit with a green screen and took electronic fingerprints of my fingers of both hands. The unit was connected by a printer cable which was clearly far too short because my extended hands could barely reach it. When it was my wifes turn, she had to get out of the car and walk around to the booth. Her photo took four attempts and the fingerprinting had to be abandoned altogether when her second hand could not be scanned.
A more senior officer was summoned and tried again but the whole process failed, but by then it had taken more than ten minutes. Luckily, at 3am there was no queue. Heaven knows what difficulties there will be when leaving Dover if this system is ever introduced because when asked, the officers confirmed they were trialing the equipment to be used for passengers departing from the uk !
When we advanced to the British booth, I told our much more friendly officer who raised his eyebrows and he told me exactly what he thought !
You have been warned !
PS : Thailand has a similar system which takes barely a minute and you are then on your way, So with the right equipment it can be done !
July 12, 2025
Chris
Think the new system you speak of is planned to become operational in October this year.
The worry was always going to be Coaches full of people causing a huge delay as they get off and back on again.
July 12, 2025
There must be millions of Private Sector pensioners who like me expected the government of the day and the Financial Conduct Authority FCA to ensure our savings were protected from incompetent Directors. It turned out that the FCA directors themselves were so incompetent the incompetent government promoted at least one to head up the incompetent Bank of England!
Now along comes another incompetent Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister wanting to tax even the crumbs left too.
It’s no wonder if the triple lock goes so too will this incompetent government.
July 12, 2025
Foreigners (anyone not born here) get paid £12 billion per month by the government. That is £144billion per year.
The deficit last year was £157 billion.
Just sayin’
July 12, 2025
I bet absolutely no one in government knows this !!! …..or cares
July 12, 2025
Plenty of people born her but not bred here are foreigners.
Plenty of our own people are stuck in our old colonies.
Jesus was born in a stable by he was not a donkey.
July 12, 2025
Are the people stuck in our old colonies drawing a stipend from those countries?
Jesus is many things to many people.
July 12, 2025
The basic concept of private pensions is that contributions are invested and cumulated in a fund that then pays out on retirement. If investment returns are reasonable then the system works. It may entail overseas investment to secure better returns. Unfortunately government investment has a singular track record of large negative returns, and this is really why meagre state pensions are deemed unaffordable as the population trends to older average ages. Worse still, real private sector returns have been crippled by regulation and increasingly inadequate and inappropriate education of the rising generations, limiting the economic value of their output, with many finding limited economic activity is sufficient to get by so long as the state can subsidise them.
Addressing some of these problems would go a long way towards making pensions more affordable.
July 12, 2025
So this debt heavy nation sets an example to Mr nobody….They borrow beg and steal, compete cleanly when they can be seen.They give away money to people trying to destroy us,we work until late seventies pay tax and NI, whilst they laugh and suck us dry .
July 12, 2025
Sir John, your suggestions are all far too sensible to gain support from this government, which seeks through all its legislation primarily to punish its political opponents.
July 13, 2025
Enabling retirement is one of the very few worthwhile things modern government does. I would rather cut out almost everything else government does (usually very inefficiently) rather than raise the retirement age. I would certainly rather apply the other cuts advocated in this blog (including not giving much better pensions for public rather than private sector pensions )and more – for instance I don’t agree that the disabled who don’t work should in principle get more state money than others who don’t work and they certainly shouldn’t be ending up with more money than many who do work.
July 13, 2025
It does seem that state pension age will, out of economic necessity, have to rise.
All these advances in medical knowledge and improved techniques will just be for the sake of allowing people to remain in harness for longer. It is sad because, by the time people are able to retire, they would be too old to enjoy the time they have left. Is retirement, in effect, just sitting in God’s Waiting Room, waiting to be called?
There must be more to life than just working. I always worked, in order to live. I never lived to work.
The general public fulfilled their side of the deal. We left school and started work the next Monday. We endured a lifetime of work, looking at our gross pay, looking at the deductions, and seeing our net pay, believing those deductions were providing a pension for us to have a pension in our latter years, which would give us a good standard of life. This was what we were told when the state pension was created. Our only mistake was to believe the government had our best interests at heart and would provide what they said they would.
We need to stop our politicians from throwing money at other countries everytime they go abroad. £500m here, £500m there, they’re like drunk sailors on shore leave throwing their money around.
I suggest the costs incurred for legal aid, hotels, etc for the dinghy people, should come out of the foreign aid budget, as should the cost of the support Starmer is giving Ukraine. We are not a rich country any longer and certainly not in proportion to our politicians egos.