Life expectancy in Scotland is currently lower than in the rest of the UK. On average between 2010-12, a 65 year-old male in the UK could be expected to live to around 83 years 5 months compared with 82 years 11 months in Scotland, and a 65 year-old female in the UK could expect to live to 85 years 11 months whereas in Scotland it was 84 years 6 months.
According to the Scottish government, this means that “a 65 year-old entitled to a total pension of £160 per week could expect the lifetime value of their state pension to be around £10,000 (men) or £11,000 (women) less in Scotland than in the UK as a whole”.
Pension difference from UK average
- UK State Pension officially the worst in the world (worse than Mexico)– but still needs to be cut further.
- Middle income groups receive worse pensions than any other country in the OECD.
- Government actuaries say under-30s won’t get state pension till their 70s as new State Pension system is unaffordable.
Full article is on http://pensionsandsavings.com
Currently, a total of 18.5% of pensioners in the UK aged 75+ have incomes below the poverty line. The main reason for this is the UK’s low level of state pension.
Business for Scotland have several articles about pensions which are worth a read.
British workers can expect among the worst pensions in the developed world, according to a report from investment bank UBS, which compared the retirement outlook for a 50-year-old woman in major cities across the globe.
How much a state plus “mandatory” pension will be worth at retirement as a proportion of current income, based on a 50-year-old female in each city
New York 55%
Hong Kong 41%
Read the full article.
The government must reconsider punishing changes to women’s pensions after it emerged earlier reforms boosted state coffers by more than £5 billion a year, campaigners say.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found more than one million women are worse-off by an average of £32 a week after the retirement age moved from 60 to 63.
The change, which happened between 2010 and 2016, has taken 1.1 million women off the pensions book, saving the UK Government £4.2bn on the state support and related benefits.
Read more at The National