Anyone pay class 3 contributions here? ie, voluntarily?

If so, do you actually think by the time you come to collect it there will be any money in the pot left for you? It’s a serious question, I pay voluntarily but a few people have told me I am wasting my money, for a variety of reasons:

1. state pension will have to be means tested as it’s a giant Ponzi scheme & demographics mean more older people & fewer contributors.

2. due to above the pension age will have to continually increase, price per year go up (it has doubled in the last 10 years & I see this year has gone up again).

3. so the most needy will get it & if there is any left it will be means tested.

Anyone got any more positive ideas, I am about to send my cheque to pay an extra year.

If we continue the current political trend I don’t expect that anyone with a private pension will quality for state pension in 20 years time, everything will be means tested.

Surely it’s a bit like an insurance policy, in that you pay a small (although as you, getting greater) premium which could/will pay out for a long period.

I’m not relying on the state pension being available when I retire put it that way.

In 36 years when I’m due to retire at 68 at current ages I’m expecting every progressive government to of eroroded any form on pension in to the equivalent of a MacDonalds happy meal delivered to your door once a week.

I have the option of paying class 3, though choose not to at the moment. Like many of the people you know, I feel that by the time we come to retire (I’m 36) there will be no such thing as a state pension for those with a private pension. Just look at the current numbers taking up private pensions – nothing like what it should be/used to be.

You’ve just reminded me that I need to get on this.

I don’t think the state pension will be an amount one could live on by the time I retire, but it still seems like a decent return.

poolman – of course the counter argument to the “ageing population = state pension must become means tested” (other than possibly just being a shit idea**) is that ageing population = political policies targeted towards winning votes. The party who kills the pension is going to be unelectable.

Your choice will depend on:
– how far from retirment you are
– how long you plan to live
– what else you could do with that money
– your existing pension provisions
– possibly if you have any plans to retire overseas (there is potential political capital in limiting payments to those not spending the money in the UK!)

** its a shit idea because (a) for people to make alternative provisions for this you need to plan way ahead – so its not a policy you can easily introduce; (b) as soon as you say the state will offer a benefit if you don’t bother to sort something yourself, you remove the incentive for people to take responsibility themselves – unless the state provision is really shit anyway; (c) Reasonably well off people will exploit the system and move assets etc into other family members / trusts names to milk it; (d) the government, like every government, will waste huge amounts in managing and administering the system etc… Policies which creep up the retirement age and limit the growth of pension to less than inflation are much more likely in my opinion, combined with increasing obligations on employers to make provisions.

other than possibly just being a shit idea

There are plenty of shit ideas which become policy, just look at privatisation of the NHS..

https://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/caroline-molloy/billions-of-wasted-nhs-cash-noone-wants-to-mention