I’m very glad for reassurance as issued by that good man Robert Cochran

It is very important that people to continue to have confidence in their pensions in general and in what the state pension offers.

In the comment are some criticisms of Robert’s sensible reassurance by people who have had to wait longer than they expected (the Waspi women) and there is no doubt that the DWP did a bad job of communicating the equalisation of state pensions meaning that many women had to wait a number of years beyond the 60 they originally expected,

But I don’t think that should be taken out on Robert, who (as his hoodie tells us) is an employee of Scottish Widows who are not owned by the Government. It is not the job of Robert Cochran to clean up the DWP’s mess.

Those of us who are close to retirement, or even the age you thought was retirement (maybe 65 for men maybe 60 for women) have to accept that if doesn’t feel much like retirement! That is a Waspi moment and one that should make us grateful we can anticipate, not least because of people like Robert.

There are two things going on with ageing, firstly the need to save longer to live longer and secondly the ability to work longer as working through your sixties should not be that hard.

The very loud gent who is announcing has return to work under the title “CEO of Freedom” is reminding us that retirement is not the Rubicon it once was, it has a bridge and there is no toll to cross back and forth.

Actually the State Age , which is going up shortly from 66 to 67 is being introduced extremely fairly and inexorably. It is scheduled to rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028. This increase will be phased in, affecting those born on or after April 6, 1960. 

There are no votes for putting the state pension back and no votes in denying Waspi, just some very tough economics brought about by the demographics of an ageing nation.

Robert is right to celebrate the way he does, there is an inexorability of delay that is evident with our various types of workplace and personal pensions, that should be a clear indicator of what will happen to the state pension age  in the not too distant future.

Those who have yet to reach their later fifties are not going to get a minimum age to draw private pensions (55 unless you have a dispensation you should know about). That is not going to be 55 for long.  It will increase to 57 from April 6, 2028. The idea is that you can draw occupational and personal pension benefits 10 years below your state pension (though that is not a guarantee you can afford to). Expect that to go up with the state pension too and go up beyond 57 if the state pension goes up again,

All this is going to become a lot more realistic when we can compare the pensions we are promised on the pension dashboard which is “only” a year away (October 2026) and while readers of this blog probably know all this, the people Robert and other folk who talk on TV need to do it as simply and sensible as Robert does.

When we lose the triple lock, which inevitably we will, the state pension will have been accelerated to a level that is closer to adequacy and paid for longer than I might have expected when I started my career. We shouldn’t forget that when worrying about losing the third lock. Actually we are enjoying a golden age of state pensions in the context of what has come before. State pensions have not gone up in line with life expectancy and they have gone up since 2010 , faster than inflation (except one year when the promise was broken).

The people who Robert Cochran reassures, should be thanking their children for what is happening today.