will I want to work on after 65,answer yes,if I have my health I,d also like to live mortage free with a bit extra wealth .lets face it the job that we all do today is no where near as labour intensive it was,even when I started driving twenty six years ago;power steering,air assist clutch,automatic tarping systems,auto gearbox and air suspended seating,heaters!oh,and our helpful health and safety executive to look out for us.yes I definitley look upon this goverment descicion positvely.keep me off the park bench.what do you lads think.
i think no government of what ever name has the right to to tell any man when he should or should not stop working, having seen my own father who’d worked all his life take retirement at 65 and then loose all the things that had been his life due to lack of money like a game of snooker and a copuple of pints with his pals on a friday night and become totally ■■■■■■ off with the sheer boredom of retirement, i’ll never stop working till the day i die!
that is a of coarse, a completely different subject as to weather a new government has the right to tell people who’ve spent years paying into a system in the believe that at 65 they would be entitled to some of that money back in the way of a pension, that they’re not going to get as much back as they’d thought because they now have to work until they’re 66, thats scandolous in my opinion and bordering on the ilegal.
There are 2 issues here, the first being income, if you can afford to retire, then why not retire at your retirement age.
The second being health. usually when someone reaches the age of retirement, they begin to experience health problems, and therefore have no choice but to pack it in, regardless of their income.
For most of us this industry did not offer a long term pension arrangement, and because most companies treated a driver like a ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ ( no change there then ) then we would change jobs as quick as changing a light bulb.
Some of us are dependant on the age olod pension, others more fortunate, in the fact that they have either saved for the old age, or taken out a pension plan.
We were kidded by the then government years ago, that we would receive the last known wage as our pension, they called it final salary…they dropped the idea, only to keep it for government workers, and not forgetting the fact they awarded themselves a whopping £100,000 annual pension…so im alright then jack. I would gladly agree to them taking out an extra £10 per week of my tax or national insurance, if they would guarantee a good deal for pensioners. I retire in 6 months, and my income is £400 private pension + £80 private pension, + £210 pension +the government one which should total around £800 a month..now considering that i usually take home around £2000 a month, thats a considerable drop in income. I can of course get help with council tax etc and i will have no mortgage to pay either. The fortunate part is the fact i have a home abroad where everything is so much cheaper, so i will in fact live like a king whenever i am there. Winter months will see me working 2/3 days a week, which will help with the car : servicing, mot, repairs etc, i average my income will be an extra £1200 a month which will almost put me back on par with what im taking home now, so i will certainly be better off for working a 3 day week…but it depends on the company, for i want to work under my terms : no weekends, no nights out, and to take time off as and when i want to, so therefore i want to not be tied down to a contract, of working every single week as and when they want me, if they dont want my terms, they can shove it, and i will retire gracefully, and manage with what i`ve got…and thank you very much. we have a guy working as a shunter who is 73 yrs old, and i suppose its the old belief that he has to work or he will drop, i dont believe all that nonsense, only the fact that if your healthy you can choose to work on or retire, but as i said before i think everyone should be able to retire with a good pension, and enough time left to enjoy it, but unless you are prepared to take a private pension, and sacrifice certain things, then you will certainly suffer in your old age financially.
theres a big debate going on about this very subject, 20+ drivers over 65 have been told there finishing on the 28 th of august so im told, some are not happy as for varios reasons they want to carry on working, so im told its now in the hands of a solicitor who says there on a sure fire winner because something that should be in the contract isnt,
dont think its so much about retiring ,more the grumpy old ■■■■■ 
dont like being told what to do 
.
me, if my eyes carry on going down hill like they are i think in a year or two ill be able to get invalidity benifit 
It always looks wonderful to retire and have all that time to yourself, but is it really the best option. Unless you have many hobbies or interests then filling the 60-80 hours you worked can sometimes be a problem.
It is not like two weeks holiday, it is fifty two weeks every year and that includes winter. Keep busy and active, and you will probably live a lot longer than getting bored and just giving up.
I think many of us will have to work past the age of 65 unless we have another source of income, but then the state pension was never meant to support so many people for so many years.
When the pension was first introduced the average life expenctancy for a working man was only 50 years, it now nearer 80 and many pensioners are far fitter and healthier in thier late 60’s and 70’s than thier parents were in thier 50’s.
id prob work part time tbh, though id want to enjoy retirement.
How many have worked out what they will actually have once retired?
For those with small to average private pensions all they will end up doing is substituting benfits for those private pensions
Those with large private pensions will benefit more but still help the Govt !!
I tried this with a Govt benefit calculator site - THIS ONE
Try putting in that you have no private pension and see what benefits are available to you and then try it by adding different private pension amounts…
Simple made up examples -
Govt says you need £1,000 a month to live on
Private pension = £0
State pension = £500 pcm
Benefits = £500 pcm
Private pension = £500 pcm
State pension = £500 pcm
Benefits = £0
OK - it’s not exactly accurate but it gives the idea as to what roughly happens
If anyone below 40 is counting on any help from the state by the time they retire i’d suggest they make other arrangements.
The state pension will be a thing of the past, the social services is one big pyramid scheme it was never designed to last the distance, and it’s on the verge of collapse (along with the entire welfare state), hence the planned savage cuts.
What concerns me about private pensions is you cannot ever get that money back or touch it, you are gambling on somebody else being free to gamble with it, in the hope they will guess right and it will increase in value, so you can “cash” it in at the end for an agreement. Sounds like a con because it is. They are of course equally likely to guess wrong and obliterate all trace. Proved so very recently with this recession.
Ignoring the above for a moment, can anyone honestly say (assuming you have a mortgage/bills) that they can afford to keep 10-15% of their salary to one side to save for retirement. There simply isn’t anything left.
You would be better off saving the conventional way, only problem there is you will need to save about half a million quid (assuming 20k/year, you retire at 65 and hope to live to 90). Problem with this is maintaining the value of your money, anyone got any savings? Interest rates are paltry and have been for couple of years now. Government measurements of the rate of inflation cannot be trusted, as they will change how it is measured in order to make the figures look better.
So when you hear that CPI or RPI is 2-3%, it is likely to be 12-13% in real terms. Whenever anything is inflating too fast they just remove it from the list of things included in “basket” used for official figures.
All this means that your savings are losing their purchasing power all the time, you might make your half a million quid, but by the time you get to 65 a loaf of bread might cost 5,000. Might. In which case you are stuffed.
Notice a pattern here? Outlook is pretty grim.
Owning a second property and letting it might be the only way to secure your future, but with prices doing what they do, it is hardly viable for a normal income.
If anyone has any bright ideas, i’m all ears.
if my financial situation is the same as it is now i will be still working then 
Chewyboy:
if my financial situation is the same as it is now i will be still working then
If my 1st wife could have kept her legs closed to those outside the marital home, i’d have 3 years left on my mortgage (i’m 43 now so may have had plenty of time to 'put some money away) but seeing as i she didn’t and i remarried n ‘started again’…it know finishes in 20yrs 
which would give me 2 years until packing in so, like some of the others, i to will need to carry on, but if i can meet the various requirements then i’m not bothered. Have known guys work all their lives from the age of about 12,retire when 70, sit around for 6 months with no regular routine in their lives apart from a bit of shopping n weeding only to turn their toes up. Boredom is obviously a bigger killer than being a stressed out, hacked of, under pressure worker 
Dead right ROG,you need a big pension or no pension.I always feel that the people at the bottom pay for the people at the bottom, I am 61 dont know what to do one minute I think sod it sell truck chuck it in but next I am happy as larry
I kept on until I was 68 but ended up on UK work ; excellent pay ,good kit & a good firm to work for but I was bored stiff & jacked . I would go back on International tomorrow without the speed limiters & rules & regs . Moneywise you’re on a winner .You pay 24% tax on your pension but you don’t pay the stamp .So you can work less hours but get a bigger take home . I would advise anyone to keep going for a coupla extra years .
Who knows what will happen with me, at the age of 23 I’m not looking at what I’ll do when I retire, that’s wishing too much of my life away! What I do know is I’ve started paying into my works pension, so when the time comes hopefully I’ll have something behind me to live on 
The whole issue is just a big government rip off being dressed up to look like they’re doing something positive to ‘help’ those who think,at the moment,that they’d like to work on past what is already a too high age for retirement.Most of them won’t feel like it when it comes to reaching that age but they’ll be forced to for economic reasons.Effectively it’s just another government pensions cut and the employers will follow with company pension schemes.What it really means is that most workers will have to work until they die and in this job it’ll mean most will have to look for a totally different type of occupation in later years as the levels of fitness required to drive a truck are’nt there for many even at 60 let alone 65 +.So instead of enjoying a happy retirement at a reasonable age the reality will be the job centre at 65 where you’ll be forced to take a job at a burger outlet or DIY store or get less in dole money than the pension would have been (assuming that they don’t decide to withdraw even that for some bs reason as they often do).And for all those who’ve swallowed the government bs about people living longer just take a walk around any cemetery and look at the ages on the grave stones the fact is many in the recent generations are actually dying earlier than those in previous ones.
garnerlives:
Who knows what will happen with me, at the age of 23 I’m not looking at what I’ll do when I retire, that’s wishing too much of my life away! What I do know is I’ve started paying into my works pension, so when the time comes hopefully I’ll have something behind me to live on
If some thieving git hasn’t relieved you of it… 
garnerlives:
Who knows what will happen with me, at the age of 23 I’m not looking at what I’ll do when I retire, that’s wishing too much of my life away! What I do know is I’ve started paying into my works pension, so when the time comes hopefully I’ll have something behind me to live on
Ha ha!!! Only another 42 years to contribute then,keep up the good work
Dunno then?:
garnerlives:
Who knows what will happen with me, at the age of 23 I’m not looking at what I’ll do when I retire, that’s wishing too much of my life away! What I do know is I’ve started paying into my works pension, so when the time comes hopefully I’ll have something behind me to live onHa ha!!! Only another 42 years to contribute then,keep up the good work
I shall do my best The makes me feel you don’t appreciate the work I put into the big red team
Also you have a pm
I was advised(friend of family financial adviser) to start paying the top bracket of 9% asap in my companys final salary, then to start paying another additional 2% of extra contributions.
But a guy in my work retired a year ago , then died 6 months later from cancer. I thought to myself he has paid into this his whole life - done the proper thing, but for what. If he had ■■■■■■ all his contributions up the wall and relied on the state pension he would have had more fun in his life with the extra cash.
Im not sure on the right course now, enjoy life now to the max, or be safe 
garnerlives:
Dunno then?:
garnerlives:
Who knows what will happen with me, at the age of 23 I’m not looking at what I’ll do when I retire, that’s wishing too much of my life away! What I do know is I’ve started paying into my works pension, so when the time comes hopefully I’ll have something behind me to live onHa ha!!! Only another 42 years to contribute then,keep up the good work
I shall do my best
Also you have a pm
The big red team just would’nt be the same without you!!