If I were a government minister and I had a magic wand, I think 'make people more aware of pensions and how they work' is the thing that solves so many political problems.

This week, the State Pension age started to rise from 66 to 67.

Our new research with people in their 60s shows that most people know about this change.

However, our research also highlights the issue of pre-retirement poverty among people aged 60 to 65.

www.standardlife.co.uk/centre-for-t...

Home Alone
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
...

On the pensioners on less generous DC schemes, we have research our this week with SMF on what could be round the corner when Gen X realise the pension shock they might be in for
www.smf.co.uk/events/pensi...

I'm going down the route of just lying to mine. They'll be disappointed when they turn 18 and find out I was lying about setting one up but we'll deal with that when we get there

Things could be worse.

Just saw a dad frantically on the phone, with a kid in *FULL DINOSAUR COSTUME* at the school gates who had turned up for World Book Day a week early...

Ooh - handy list of PRACTICAL TIPS FOR WORKING PARENTS for anyone after some childcare hacks for the "summer childcare crunch"

Not sure why I hadn't thought of...*checks notes*... the Ritz-Carlton, Gleneagles, Southern California or one in Fiji who actually 'get' what parents need
lnkd.in/eRSJVrUN

Our research and views from few years ago still relevant

library.standardlife.co.uk/Reaching-a-c...

3) social status and identity derived from work for some (evidence shows *men*) who struggle with cliff edge retirement. Lose identity, don't form new social bonds, "A two week holiday and then... the rest of your life...") means planning for this lifestage need to go beyond do I have enough money?

Agree with the piece
We can learn a lot about
1) what value people get from work beyond money (from pensioners who continue to work beyond neccesity)
2) the economic essentialness of unpaid work (volunteering/caring from pensioners)...

100 years ago old age was a very good proxy for need for income replacement and reduced ability to work

If you were designing a UBI system today would you target it exclusively based on 'reaching a certain age' when the association with inability to work and lack of other income is weaker?

Be interesting to see if as many would agree 'one age group in society should receive a UBI'?

This is the right framing and question. We can learn a lot about the real world experiment of UBI in a socially/politically acceptable packaging (the State Pension)

Most agree the State Pension is there to ensure everyone has a minimum level of income in retirement.

Decisions in the dark: How the DC pioneer generation are navigating retirement income decisions Retirement in the UK is changing. The shift from Defined Benefit (DB) to Defined Contribution (DC) pensions, combined with pension freedoms, longer working lives and a rising state pension age, means ...

New research from us at the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement:

"Decisions in the dark: How the DC pioneer generation are navigating retirement income decisions"

Report explores the psychology and emotions of accessing DC pension pots.

www.standardlife.co.uk/centre-for-t...

More or Less - The Stats of the Nation - Older People, Education, Prisons and the Weather - BBC Sounds Tim Harford explores the stats on pensioners, exams, justice and climate change.

I had a great time chatting about older people with
@timharford.ft.com on BBC4 More or Less. The starting question was – are one in four pensioners really millionaires? Quick thread below: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Really excellent, well done! It's such an interesting topic

Brilliant think tank job opportunity

Come work for us at the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement

Asking (and hopefully answering) some of the big questions for people, industry and government

Closing this Mon 12th Jan

fa-enor-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Fantastic news - congratulations!

From our recent evidence session with the Work and Pensions select committee into the transition to State Pension age inquiry

parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...

Knowing with some certainty that there is a group in society who's rates of poverty will double in the next few years - is that the best outcome we can hope for?

That's what will happen to 66 year olds from next April - how can we weather the change?

www.standardlife.co.uk/centre-for-t...

Jam tomorrow? Work, finances and retirement in an era of a rising State Pension age As the State Pension age rises to 67, we think the government needs to put in place policies to ensure that as many people as possible have financial security throughout their 60s and beyond.

New report out today

"Jam tomorrow? Work, finances and retirement in an era of a rising State Pension age"

Higher State Pension age has led to higher employment among people in their 60s.

But there are 250k more people in pre-retirement poverty than in 2010

www.standardlife.co.uk/centre-for-t...

Incredible to see how different things were. In the 1970s pensioners were most likely to live in poverty. Pining after lamp shades, butter and barley water...

Now a new challenge - 250,000 more in pre-retirement poverty since the state pension age began to rise

share.google/9lPMsYNWq0Gt...

And on pensions not ISAs - but people really underestimate the importance of investment growth...

On top of good point on financial literacy - we've found
a) people feel less certain of their future finances because of current world/UK affairs
b) those that feel uncertain more likely to be cautious /save cash, less able to visualise their future self
library.standardlife.co.uk/RetirementVo...

Are concerns about rising costs of studying, waning graduate pay premium a factor? Would some of this group have entered Higher Education under previous scenarios?

The other interesting aspect is how this makes the whole life course more stretched out, with people starting later, working later and living longer

library.standardlife.co.uk/changing-jou...

New research out today

"Retirement Voice 2025: How an era of uncertainty is affecting our attitudes towards retirement"

We used a new 6k survey of the UK population. I had fun designing the charts! Find out how people feel about finances, work and retirement

www.standardlife.co.uk/centre-for-t...

Good piece in the FT which cites our research from the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement on the demographics of the Industrial Strategy workforce.

And to complete the picture - the politics of who then pays for this. Large birth cohorts are also large voting blocs.

Until 2024* Baby Boomers had never "lost" a general election

(*presumably, haven't seen update of this chart)

Interesting chart from this @stephenkb.bsky.social piece.

Should be viewed alongside the birth-rate chart (see next post).

www.ft.com/content/107a...