To think we are heading into a pensions disaster

https://lottie.org/fees-funding/do-pensioners-pay-council-tax/

Every council has its own rules but if you receive the Guarantee Credit portion of Pension Credit you can be eligible for up to 100% discount. They won't tell you about it though! You have to enquire.

You do realise that Government employees have to contribute A LOT towards their pension! DH was a serving soldier for 17 years and now a police officer for 18 years. He’s had to contribute an absolute fortune over the years to his pension without having a choice and by goodness we’ve struggled. The money gets taken before he gets paid and we’ve had years when our kids were little with no heating in the winter. People grizzle about heating or eating these days but it’s only on the last 2 years, now our DC are out of their teens that we’ve been able to have the heating on! Many a year we’ve sat in coats and blankets.

DH will get a good pension because he’s contributed most of it for the past 35yrs! We are both in our 50s so we won’t get much if a state pension because older people who have never worked reap the benefits!

just out of interest, where do you get the 0 council tax from? I am retired and pay full council tax and my income is my state pension and a very small NHS pension. I live alone in a Band A house in a horrible area and now pay £135 a month and that is with with the 25% discount. Who are these pensioners who do not have to pay any council tax?

Some people on means tested benefits get council tax reductions up to 100%.

Oh come on.

I cycled 4 miles each way to uni, lectures/seminars/lab work all day, every day, played for the uni hockey team - 3 evening training sessions per week plus 1 weekend match (usually a 2/3 hr drive away), lived in and paid for my own flat with my boyfriend at the time, worked Fri/Sat/Sun night in a bistro to earn £150 per week plus tips.
Zero need for handouts from 'mummy and daddy'.

I was 19. Most 19 year olds have LOADS of energy.

There is no reason why students can't work. None.

What do you mean? Please explain

People on low pensions will qualify for pension credit.

A lot of the current generations need to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ will certainly come back to haunt them in later life - the expensive cars on finance, stretched themselves with Mortgage’s for the big house etc. Even a extra £2/300 a month directed at pension/investments would
make a huge difference.

This. Half my friends are driving newish range rovers, big audis etc all on tick,yet grumble they haven't enough in pensions

If you look up the rents
Youll see it’s not the pot to piss in that’s the problem it’s food !!! that’s the issue.
If you have £10,000 ( approx ) grant and £7300 rent. ( Exeter uni as an example ) A student is left with £2700 a year.
Thats tech, books, equipment, gas, electric, water and food.

If people can live on £2700 a year why are we topping up salary with UC and why are we paying so much in benefits.

If your kid has no money you aren’t going to leave them to starve ffs! This has nothing to do with being comfortable and everything to do with basic subsistence.

Sun life a while back had on their website article on the changing face of retirement because a lot of people simply do not have the funds to just stop working at 65.

simply put many people will have to keep working in someway shape or form.
others will likely receive a portion of inheritance from their parents estate to prop up their own retirement
others will go down the lifetime mortgage route

I don’t really believe it. I think there’s a very defeatist attitude toward job seeking on here of ‘if I can’t have/find exactly what I want immediately then call it a day and say it’s impossible’.

just out of interest, where do you get the 0 council tax from? I am retired and pay full council tax and my income is my state pension and a very small NHS pension. I live alone in a Band A house in a horrible area and now pay £135 a month and that is with with the 25% discount. Who are these pensioners who do not have to pay any council tax?

How many of them will be able to afford houses with a granny annexe? Without further help from the parents that is..

Hey how about looking at it like this, you help your DC through university and then when they're earning well later in life, you can go and live with them in the granny annex that they can afford because you helped put them through university.

@Suzuki76 , yep that sounds like St Andrews . No chance of a job there.
No chance of a job in many Uni towns.

Im amazed MNs on here don’t know this.

Who says it isn’t? All I’m saying is not having a pot to piss in as a pensioner to enable a more comfortable uni experience for your DC is crazy.

The ones I know will find it very difficult to give up their big house, it will be one hell of a culture shock!

Agree
Yes of course and so many people these days are forced to work just a few hours for several employers.

This exactly!! Uni should be for all

A lot of allied profession courses too e.g. psychologists, physios, occupational therapists etc!

This isn’t accurate.

Thank you, he works damn hard , as I said up thread, luckily we can support him so that he doesn't have to wait tables for a few pointless quid a week

Unbelievable. Let's further worsen the inequality between rich and poor students, by saying not only should working-class students get a job when their rich classmates don't need to, but that they should further earn their place there by being intelligent enough to pass without needing to study outside office hours.

Some unis don't even let you work. That includes Oxford and Cambridge - but at least the rents are cheap in those cities when you live out. Oh, hang on...

I went to a very demanding uni in a small city. There are 16,000 students in a city that's got about 3 streets of shops, 4 pubs and a Pizza Express. I'm not sure where they're all expected to waitress or bartend when they have the option of local sixth-formers who don't disappear from May to October every year.

Although tbf That’s what the private sector is like.
We’re not all rolling in high salaries or reasonable hours and many jobs are very recession led. So we can lose our jobs at the hint of a downturn.

The student loan is means tested. And the threshold is low. We have a household income of £65k. That means my son will only get half a student loan. We have to choose, £5k to support him, or £5k in the pension pot

And part time staff below the threshold (I have multiple part time jobs and was not eligible for auto enrolment. I had to really push one employer who did cave in)