Joel finally landed his first graduate engineering job after years of lower-paid roles. He is in his early 20s, lives with his parents and works in London. But instead of spending the extra cash on holidays or a house deposit, he is channelling more into his workplace pension. The reason? He does not think the state pension will be there when he retires.
“I don’t believe that I’ll be a recipient of a state pension. I know a lot of people my age don’t think they’re going to be… There just won’t be enough money,” he said.
“Half of Gen Z expect no state pension; Joel, 20s, saves more as state pension age rises to 68.”
Joel is not alone. According to a new survey, around half of Gen Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – say they do not expect the state pension to exist by the time they retire. For a generation that has grown up with headlines about an ageing population, a shrinking working-age population and strained government finances, the doubt runs deep.
“It just mathematically doesn’t make sense… There has to get to a point where that state pension is taking up too much of the budget and can’t exist in the way that it exists right now,” Joel said.
The state pension age is already shifting. At the start of April, it began creeping up from 66 to 67, a rise due to be completed by March 2028. Another increase to 68 is scheduled in 20 years, though the government has an ongoing independent review that could bring that forward.
Connor, a 27-year-old retail manager who contacted the BBC, called the trend “the goalpost keeps moving”. He said: “At the minute I’ll be 68 by the time I can retire, but I do think I’ll be probably closer to 75, if I’m honest.”
The demographic pressure is stark. More than 13 million people – 19% of the population – are currently of state pension age. Even with the rise to 68, that group is projected to exceed 15 million by 2050, nearly a quarter of the population, and climb towards 17 million by the 2070s. That means more people drawing the pension and a smaller proportion of workers paying the taxes to fund it.
At the same time, almost half of working-age adults are not paying into a private pension pot. For many, the state pension would be their sole retirement income – yet relative poverty rates among pensioners already stand at 14%.
For Joel, the arithmetic leaves little room for optimism. His generation, he believes, will be the one to lose out.