When I started work after finishing my (mainly government funded - my second year was the first year of the student loan scheme) degree my understanding was that I would retire on a state pension at 60 (being female).

In the intervening years this has risen and today I realised that I’m covered by the newly announced changes meaning that I’ll be eligible at age 68.

I decided to do a bit of maths, so here’s my reckonings:

  • At start of full time “proper” work in 1993 I reckon I had 38.66 years until I was eligible for a state pension.
  • Today, I reckon I will have had 46.66 years until I’m eligible for that same pension.

So, in 20 years it has increased by 20%. That seems like quite a lot.

It is worth pointing out that this is intended to be an observation only. Not a rant. I think I’m one of the lucky ones - I work with a lot of recent graduates in a field of work where having a Master’s degree is an expectation. Many of them are young enough that they had to pay some element of tuition fees in order to get into this line of work. That means that they are starting their working lives with quite a bit of debt. And for them, retirement is likely to be at age 70. I guess they need those extra years to allow them to pay their loans back(!)