There is an old-age pension scheme which is funded out of normal revenue (our constitution frowns of government revenues going into special pots of money). Thi

There is an old-age pension scheme which is funded out of normal revenue (our constitution frowns of government revenues going into special pots of money). This is entirely separate from the system called superannuation where a mandatory fraction of your income goes to a retirement fund of your choice. (Obviously I am grossly simplifying). From what little I understand of US politics, any move to something like superannuation gets called "privatizing social security", and is a no-go zone. On the other hand our government pension system is proudly socialistic and does not pretend to be an individual savings plan. Social security seems very 20th century American in that it puts an individualistic veneer over a programme that makes more sense from a socialist point of view.