Pensions in England :

The situation in England :

The legal age for retirement is 65 for a man and 60 for a woman but a person can be retired after 50. There are 11 million of retired people in England but 2 million of them live under the limit of poverty. The full pension is about 550€ per month (440€ for a single and 610€ for a couple). It’s the lowest in Europe and the consequence is that 11% of people who are more than 65 are still working not because they want to but because they need to.

The system is based on a minimum of contributions from employers and employees to the State so it explains the little pension given to retired people.

Consequently, England chose a system of private funds or capitalization but most retired people don’t have enough money to save it for their retired period. Women suffer the most of the situation because in many cases they didn’t win so much money to save or they stopped working for a few years to raise their children. Furthermore, these pensions’ funds depend of financials markets which were advantageous on the 90’s but not anymore in the last decade (2000’s) because of stock market crises.

The amount per month will be based on the last wage. The pension is divided in two parts: an allocation of reference stable and an amount function of your salary.

The government’s reforms:

The life expectancy is increasing in all Europe and the problem is also in England. More and more people are retired and if nobody saves enough it’s the State alone which contributes to give a pension.

Like in France, the government is thinking about put off the retirement age to 70 in the next decades. The country voted for the age of 68 in 2026 with 49 years of contribution. It’s a solution to keep a system almost stable and fair.

If a person works until 70, she receives a bonus of 32 000€. In 1986, some reforms increased the period of calculation of the average wage from the 20 last years to the entire career.
Since April