Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

State Pension

293 replies

JollyPollysjolly · 25/04/2024 22:02

my Husband is sure that by the time we reach state pension age (me 45, him 49) that it will no longer exist - or maybe when we reach 100 ha! Anyone with any knowledge that can add to this idea so I can argue back?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
User2460177 · 26/04/2024 11:36

NoisySnail · 26/04/2024 11:32

The UK has some of the lowest state pensions already.

That’s again not true. The situation is complex but considering what we are required to pay for our state pension, it’s not bad comparatively. Most other countries have state pensions combined with private pensions or require higher contributions for higher amounts.

User2460177 · 26/04/2024 11:33

Willyoujustbequiet · 26/04/2024 11:26

I read recently that if you are low income and in an age gap relationship you can't access your state pension until the younger of the two reaches pension age.

So say for example you are 10 years older than your spouse and have built up a full state pension yourself. You can't get it until you are 78 if your spouse is claiming UC.

Seems very unfair.

That’s not true. Your age for claiming state pension is not related to your partner. Your eligibility for benefits such as pension credit may be dependent on a partner’s income tho. But not state pension

NoisySnail · 26/04/2024 11:32

The UK has some of the lowest state pensions already.

LakieLady · 26/04/2024 11:31

Willyoujustbequiet · 26/04/2024 11:26

I read recently that if you are low income and in an age gap relationship you can't access your state pension until the younger of the two reaches pension age.

So say for example you are 10 years older than your spouse and have built up a full state pension yourself. You can't get it until you are 78 if your spouse is claiming UC.

Seems very unfair.

You will still get your state pension, but it will be treated as unearned income and deducted in full from your UC entitlement, so you end no better off as a couple.

One of my colleagues has just done some work with a "mixed age couple", as they are known in benefit speak. She worked out that they'd be loads better off if they split up and lived separately. Both would get their full rent covered by benefits!

toomanyy · 26/04/2024 11:30

Willyoujustbequiet · 26/04/2024 11:26

I read recently that if you are low income and in an age gap relationship you can't access your state pension until the younger of the two reaches pension age.

So say for example you are 10 years older than your spouse and have built up a full state pension yourself. You can't get it until you are 78 if your spouse is claiming UC.

Seems very unfair.

This can't be true.

User2460177 · 26/04/2024 11:30

Hateam · 26/04/2024 10:23

If anybody has their state pension removed, they should get a full refund of all of their NI contributions then.

Edited
Show quote history

Why? Other benefits are contribution based (eg job seekers allowance). You don’t get NI refunded if you don’t claim them.

BIossomtoes · 26/04/2024 11:30

Willyoujustbequiet · 26/04/2024 11:26

I read recently that if you are low income and in an age gap relationship you can't access your state pension until the younger of the two reaches pension age.

So say for example you are 10 years older than your spouse and have built up a full state pension yourself. You can't get it until you are 78 if your spouse is claiming UC.

Seems very unfair.

That can’t be right, surely? That’s scandalous.

BIossomtoes · 26/04/2024 11:29

Hateam · 26/04/2024 11:25

Err... too late to edit my post. I stuck with the state penis.

Thankfully my private one will be bigger.

Your private penis? 😭

I wouldn’t worry, that will provide a lot of laughter today. It’s a pubic public service!

Vaccances · 26/04/2024 11:27

OddityOddityOdd · 26/04/2024 11:20

If voters keep voting in Tory governments and swallowing the "unaffordable" drivel, there will be no state benefits, just tax, for which you will see little direct benefit. What is wrong with the tax people pay being spent on the people who pay it ? Yes, pensions, maternity, paternity and everything else will go. They are coming after the sick and disabled now, I bet some of you are clapping your hands with glee, useless bunch of workshy skivers that they are. My piss is truly boiled with this thread, nasty, mean, penny pinching selfishness. I'm pretty disgusted with it

100%

But pretty disgusting that Labour also plan on having a go at the least well off in society too :(

Whilst ruling out any sort of wealth tax on unearned income, which of course only the very wealthy benefit from.

Willyoujustbequiet · 26/04/2024 11:26

I read recently that if you are low income and in an age gap relationship you can't access your state pension until the younger of the two reaches pension age.

So say for example you are 10 years older than your spouse and have built up a full state pension yourself. You can't get it until you are 78 if your spouse is claiming UC.

Seems very unfair.

Hateam · 26/04/2024 11:25

Err... too late to edit my post. I stuck with the state penis.

Thankfully my private one will be bigger.

ConstitutionHill · 26/04/2024 11:25

daffodilandtulip · 26/04/2024 08:00

It'll be like everything else. The poor will get it from the government. The rich will have private pensions. Then there will be a skint group in the middle with small private pensions, entitled to no help.

You have nailed it!

Just like:
Care home fees.
Legal aid.

LakieLady · 26/04/2024 11:25

OddityOddityOdd · 26/04/2024 11:20

If voters keep voting in Tory governments and swallowing the "unaffordable" drivel, there will be no state benefits, just tax, for which you will see little direct benefit. What is wrong with the tax people pay being spent on the people who pay it ? Yes, pensions, maternity, paternity and everything else will go. They are coming after the sick and disabled now, I bet some of you are clapping your hands with glee, useless bunch of workshy skivers that they are. My piss is truly boiled with this thread, nasty, mean, penny pinching selfishness. I'm pretty disgusted with it

Me too. It makes me glad I'm old, tbh, if this is the way things are going. I don't want to be in need of care and support in a society that doesn't give a shit about the poor, the sick and the vulnerable.

I'll spend my last few grand on a one-way trip to Switzerland, I reckon.

Vaccances · 26/04/2024 11:24

IvorTheEngineDriver · 26/04/2024 09:51

Having worked in pensions all my working life, this is how I see it.

When originally set up, the State pension was intended to be paid for approx 15 years BUT as life expectancy increased no government could be bothered to raise the State pension age.

This, plus the aging population, means that the country can frankly no longer afford it in its present form BUT no party has ever had the courage to tell the public that the State pension age - for men and women - should be 71 or even 72, if the pension is to be affordable to the country.

Remember there is no "State Pension Fund" as such. The taxes collected by HMRC this week are used straightaway to pay this week's State pensions.

Politically, it is impossible to actually abolish the State pension IMO, but sheer economic necessity means that sooner or later: (i) the amount will have to be cut back or frozen OR (ii) there will have to be a massive hike in State pension age OR (iii) both of the above.

Edited

Whilst someone who works at a desk in Pensions all their life can doubtless continue working into their 70s and earning a significant salary - the majority cannot, they have more physical jobs, drivers, nurses, construction, technicians, engineers, agri, logistics, warehousing etc etc.

This has vast wealth, huge numbers of multi millionaires and 100s of billionaires, vast inequality, yet, even now, some of the lowest taxes in Europe, why is it acceptable for people like Sunak to pay less proportionately than anyone on PAYE?
Why is unearned income taxed so very differently from earned income?

The issues are nothing to do with affordability, its about greed, those at the top wanting more "Trickle UP economics" if you like.

NoisySnail · 26/04/2024 11:23

Life expectancy is falling. A shocking indictment of modern life. People are going to die younger anyway.

Iwasafool · 26/04/2024 11:23

NoisySnail · 26/04/2024 11:17

@Iwasafool sorry perhaps I tagged the wrong person?

Thank you for the apology. I just couldn't figure it out.

toomanyy · 26/04/2024 11:21

OddityOddityOdd · 26/04/2024 11:20

If voters keep voting in Tory governments and swallowing the "unaffordable" drivel, there will be no state benefits, just tax, for which you will see little direct benefit. What is wrong with the tax people pay being spent on the people who pay it ? Yes, pensions, maternity, paternity and everything else will go. They are coming after the sick and disabled now, I bet some of you are clapping your hands with glee, useless bunch of workshy skivers that they are. My piss is truly boiled with this thread, nasty, mean, penny pinching selfishness. I'm pretty disgusted with it

What are you talking about? Who has been 'nasty, mean, penny pinching selfishness'?

OddityOddityOdd · 26/04/2024 11:20

If voters keep voting in Tory governments and swallowing the "unaffordable" drivel, there will be no state benefits, just tax, for which you will see little direct benefit. What is wrong with the tax people pay being spent on the people who pay it ? Yes, pensions, maternity, paternity and everything else will go. They are coming after the sick and disabled now, I bet some of you are clapping your hands with glee, useless bunch of workshy skivers that they are. My piss is truly boiled with this thread, nasty, mean, penny pinching selfishness. I'm pretty disgusted with it

toomanyy · 26/04/2024 11:20

BIossomtoes · 26/04/2024 11:18

The full state penis is mine for as long as I live.

😭 Brilliant typo.

Crikey

BIossomtoes · 26/04/2024 11:18

The full state penis is mine for as long as I live.

😭 Brilliant typo.

NoisySnail · 26/04/2024 11:17

@Iwasafool sorry perhaps I tagged the wrong person?

Hateam · 26/04/2024 11:17

hairbearbunches · 26/04/2024 10:44

@Hateam I don't care how rich anybody is. If they have paid 35 years' of NI they have purchased a full state pension. That is the deal.

It might be the deal but even 35 years of NI contributions comes nowhere near close to having 'purchased' your state pension even if you only draw if for a few years. Do you know how little NI contributions actually are? Pensions are paid for by the workers of today and there are fewer and fewer of them actually putting money into the pot.

Well that depends on how long I live.

If I live until 72, I'll have paid in more than I will be paid. If I live to 92, vice versa.

But that's irrelevant. The government have set the price of a full state pension not me. In less thN 1 yearcI will have paid the price. The full state penis is mine for as long as I live.

NoisySnail · 26/04/2024 11:17

The conservatives are not going to get elected anyway.
Seriously if the state pension ever became means tested I am retiring tomorrow and cashing in my private pension.

Iwasafool · 26/04/2024 11:15

NoisySnail · 26/04/2024 10:38

@Iwasafool people always quote extremes to justify means testing the state pension. Except we all know what would happen. Initially only the very richest would be affected. But the threshold would remain frozen so that in the end many people would no longer be entitled to the state pension. It would end up that if you have savings over £16k you do not get the state pension until you have spent your savings.
We are not stupid. We know how these things work.

What extreme have I mentioned? I said 50 years ago people were saying there would be no pension when I reached pension age and in a 2nd post I said a £3k pension would be useful if you needed care. Nothing about means testing and I can't see what is extreme as both those statements are perfectly true.

I have no idea who is stupid but I have no idea why you posted that to me.

TeaMistress · 26/04/2024 11:15

IvorTheEngineDriver · 26/04/2024 09:51

Having worked in pensions all my working life, this is how I see it.

When originally set up, the State pension was intended to be paid for approx 15 years BUT as life expectancy increased no government could be bothered to raise the State pension age.

This, plus the aging population, means that the country can frankly no longer afford it in its present form BUT no party has ever had the courage to tell the public that the State pension age - for men and women - should be 71 or even 72, if the pension is to be affordable to the country.

Remember there is no "State Pension Fund" as such. The taxes collected by HMRC this week are used straightaway to pay this week's State pensions.

Politically, it is impossible to actually abolish the State pension IMO, but sheer economic necessity means that sooner or later: (i) the amount will have to be cut back or frozen OR (ii) there will have to be a massive hike in State pension age OR (iii) both of the above.

Edited

I honestly don't think they can keep hiking the state pension age because if it keeps going up, it will reach the point where not many people live long enough to claim it. Some people are living longer, but a significant proportion are living in poor health from an earlier age.

How many people do we all know who start to get significant health problems whilst still classed as "working" age. Those people either struggle through the final years at work while having deteriorating health or try and claim ESA / Pip to eke out enough to live on.

Some of those people die at an earlier age so they never get to retirement age and never see a penny of state pension or if they make it to state pension age they die relatively young I.e mid seventies or earlier.

Its a meagre pittance that barely allows pensioners enough to live on as it is, so I don't think they can reduce the amount paid either or freeze the amount so inflation then makes it worthless.

I definitely don't think they can combine raising the state pension age and reducing the amount paid / freeze the amount as then that becomes a con....people will effectively never get a state pension as they will either die before getting to qualifying age or they get to qualifying age and the amount they get is so small that nobody could live on it.

The cost of living is so high that a lot of people can't afford to pay in to private/ workplace pensions.

Swipe left for the next trending thread