## New pension age kicks in tomorrow.
You may remember from September that we discussed the 3.8 million women affected by the change in the pension age (see recommended contents) and the fact that the Court of Appeals Case was not upheld unfortunately. Well as of tomorrow, 6 October 2020, the pension age rises to 66 and applies if you were born after 5 October 1954 for everyone. If you are eligible for the state pension then you can expect to get £175.20 per week with an increase of 2.5% each year.
It is reported that 43% of pensioner income is made up of benefits, which includes the state pension. But it is clear that this amount won’t support the living standards that most expect to have when they retire. That £175.20 per week is £9800 per year, not enough to cover the average rental property in the UK which was £12,000 in 2019 (higher in London and other major cities of course).
The pension age is due to increase again between 2026 and 2028 when it will rise to 67 and then again at some point in the future (either 2037 or 2044) when it will rise to 68. Of course things may change between now and then. Hargreaves Landsdown did a [survey](https://www.hl.co.uk/news/articles/in-the-dark-over-pensions-what-you-dont-know-could-haunt-you-later) which showed that only 1/3 of people know what their pensions are worth and less then 1/3 (29%) know how much they’ll need in retirement. I do recommend having a look at the survey results and the other information on the page as there is some useful information on there. **Please note that there is no affiliation with Hargreaves Lansdown and TheBoldAge.**
Another interesting point of view is from [Ros Altmann](https://twitter.com/rosaltmann) who runs the [pensionsandsavings.com](https://pensionsandsavings.com/) and has discussed the need to allow early access to the pension given the current situation; read the article [here](https://pensionsandsavings.com/state-pension-age-hits-66-isnt-it-time-to-consider-allowing-early-access-for-those-who-desperately-need-it/). In her article she points out the impact that covid-19 has had on the over-60s both in terms of health as well as the future employment prospects.
Things are tough at the moment, and while these changes make things more difficult I think there are still things that we can do to counteract. We can see the move globalisation to localisation – we saw that in particular at the start of the covid-19 lockdown with the hunt for local manufacturing capabilities. We also see the faster adoption of working from home and the technology surrounding that. We have already shown that the stereotype of a boldie being over-the-hill and declining is a load of (insert your word of choice here) so the only thing left to ask is what are you going to do about it? What skills do you have already that can be turned to a local business opportunity? What’s something new that you’ve wanted to learn that can be a passion as well as a way to earn money?
Reach out to as at alive@theboldage.com if you want to have a chat about what we have done, and are doing as we are all in this together and it’s only by sharing ideas that we’ll find the best way through.
There’s plenty to be positive about even with this negative news. We ARE not we were.