Young people & State pension reform

If you are a young person, you are likely to be hardest hit by proposed State pension reforms.

That is the warning from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) who found that those born in the mid-1990s onwards could receive thousands of pounds a year less from the State pension.

A new single-tier State pension at £146 a week is due to be introduced in 2016.

While this will benefit those who are already close to retirement age, it will be financially disadvantageous to those who are younger. Those in their late 20s will find the new State pension system far less generous than it was before.

The IFS research found that women will be better off than men, at £5.23 and £1.62 per week better off respectively.

The self-employed are also winners from these reforms, with State pension improvements of £7.51 per week for those who have been self-employed for at least a decade.

So what can younger people do to counter the losses caused by this State pension reform?

Starting to save for a retirement income is something that needs to start early and become a habit during your working lifetime.

With life expectancy continuing to improve, we can all expect to live longer in retirement.

To some extent this will be balanced by an inevitably longer working life, with retirement likely to happen much later in the future (availability of work and state of health permitting) than it has occurred traditionally.

The future for later life planning looks set to be about taking more personal responsibility for your retirement income.

Relying on the State, which used to be provide a generous albeit it borderline base level of retirement income, is no longer an option for younger people.

It will become important to balance longer term financial objectives such as retirement income with immediate pressures on spending, including debt repayment and living costs.

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