Pension credit only £3 less than State Pension

I've no idea how some people just have no fire in their belly ?

I can't imagine being this passive.

@fastingforweightloss I can't really envy someone who has had such a small limited life and achieved very little.

I completely disagree with this. I'm 57 and have had a private pension since I was 25. There has been publicity about having to save for your retirement for many more years than just since auto-enrollment became a thing.

You should be getting carer’s credits in that case

You reap what you sow.

She wasn’t bringing up children for 50 years, obviously. It took 21 years to get them to 18. She worked neither before nor after. Her choice, but she’s never paid any tax.

So if they "choose" to.have an insufficient lifestyle then they should do what in old age?

I'll get it because my son is disabled and I don't work due to that.

I'll swap if you like? I'd love for my son to not be disabled.

If they've been lazy and entitled their whole life then maybe that's what they deserve? What incentive is there to work hard when you can have an equal lifestyle for sitting on your arse?

That's your mum.

What about the thousands of lazy arseholes who have done feck all, other than smoke, drink, lay around, take drugs, shop lift, cause trouble, etc etc? Ooohh pension credit, ta very much.

Feel free to live on benefits for your whole adult life… some of us have a more considerate viewpoint. I’ve worked for 50 years, paid NI and income tax for 50 years, at times as a higher rate tax payer. I’ve managed to buy my own house, have many holidays abroad, helped my DDs onto the property ladder and no doubt myriad other things as a direct result of the salary I have earned. I have absolutely no objection to some people being paid pension credit in later life because they may have not been able to contribute via NI.
Your viewpoint speaks volumes.

Yeah people of pension age who haven't paid in to their NI contributions should be forced to either continue working (because most people on pension credit have worked, just not the full contribution amount). Alternatively they should just eat less, wear more jumpers and not socialise so they can live on nothing. Because we shouldn't be providing people with free money.

They should take the necessary steps to avoid that outcome. It is an individuals choice.

You had better get ready to do all the personal care for your elderly relatives then as the care workers do as you say and leave the profession in droves to get a better paid job so they can afford to pay in.

Think you will be ok with clearing up the faeces of a relative with dementia? Be careful what you wish for

Not if she’d elected to pay the married women’s stamp.

The consequences of which were definitely not explained to all women at the time.

You are better off with no money in this country then you get the care home for free 😄

The state pension already costs £138 billion pound a year.

Who is going to pay the tax to increase that bill massively? Younger people who already can't afford homes?

That doesn’t make any sense. You’ve always been able to get credit as a SAHM for any children. So if she was a SAHM and then worked she should have a full state pension.

This BULLSHIT makes me so mad!!

In a previous job I did, I met families where generations didn't work. No reason, other than utter fucking laziness. It's not fucking fair.

Fine, if you don't want those people to starve, give them something, but not £3 less than people who paid in for 35-50 years. If the difference was say £500, I could get over it. But £3? It's such an insult to fairness.

Yes I agree.

This isn't true. My DM was a SAHM for 14 years, then worked full time and has three very small private pensions. She now gets Pension Credit because she couldn't make all the contributions necessary to get the full pension as a SAHM. But she had four kids and didn't have any state paid childcare. She volunteered at a daycentre for elderly people in the 1970s, and volunteered for the PTA, the church and other organisations.

When I was 11 she set up a school bus from our town to the nearest city in less than four weeks, subsided by the council so that church school children could get to school. As that wasn't enough to pay for the bus, she then managed to get enough private school children to pay a small sum so their parents didn't have to drive them to their schools.

My DM saved the state a huge amount of money with her actions. She absolutely deserves the pension credit.

This is one further reason why the government needs to make it an absute last resort not to be in work before retirement age.

This is why we need to focus on young people with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression whose benefits only discourage them to tackle real life and make each year more difficult to get back to work.

It's also why anyone whose kids are in primary school and certainly secondary school in FT work. Not based UC on earning the equivalent of FT minimum wage but to be working at least 35 hours.

To be honest OP I’m afraid if all you have in retirement is your state pension, then you are most likely worse off than those on pension credit due to passported benefits https://www.saga.co.uk/money-news/pension-credit-extra-benefits-explained

Exactly this.
I have saving, my own home and a will have a good private pension.0P, l really think you’re being unreasonable to be hacked off! Would you be happier, to know people for whatever reason, are getting pension credit, are living in poverty!