To be annoyed pensioners effectively now get a bigger personal allowance

38 X 20p = £7.60
£7.60 x 52 = 395.2

Not quite 1.976 gross unless I have completely misunderstood.

Most pensioners have also worked for huge parts of their adult life.

The vicious ageism on this site is the most ignorant and dimwitted bigotry imaginable, as if we are lucky we will all be old some day.

And no, I am not old, nor a pensioner, I just haven't allowed the government to groom me into venomous hatred for anyone else that seems to be doing a bit better or have a bit more than me.

The UK has been being groomed for a long, long time into spiteful hatred for anyone perceived as having more or having done well. They have been sold the lie that anyone wealthy - or even just owns their own home - is just lucky and not hard working.

Now the government has all but destroyed the ability to buy a home for younger people, has given the young no hope and has massively increased taxes to a huge burden while paying out benefits nobody can afford, the people are turning on one another. That was always the plan.

In the UK, you must now be absolutely blindingly wealthy or utterly destitute to live without fear and constant struggle. It's not a glitch, it's by design.

Only for those who qualified in 2016. The OLD basic pension for pre 2016 retirees is £9614 from next April, or £184 a week. Nowhere near the threshhold for us oldies!

I’m always surprised that so many people think there is only one rate.

I’m an older boomer, DH is the end of the Silent Generation. I agree, we bought a house from a family whose business failed in the 80s due to so many customers being on strike, then out of work. I think things improved as our 70s born children became adults. Unlike us, they had opportunities for higher or further education, which set them up for professional careers. I also know that wasn’t the case for everyone.

We became parents at a much younger age, they got established first. They have friends of a similar age who have far surpassed their parents in terms of earnings, lifestyle etc. I accept it’s going to be tougher for the DGC, but as we die off inheritances will help, and as boomers are the biggest cohort of owner occupiers large numbers of families will benefit.

So on 38 hours x 52 weeks that totals £1,976 gross.

The basic state pension is around 12k. That is similar to the tax threshold. I can’t see the problem.

"The age-related personal allowance was phased out starting from the 2013/14 tax year.

The Coalition Government announced in the 2012 Budget that the age allowances would be frozen at their 2012/13 levels until the main, basic personal allowance for all taxpayers caught up. The aim was to simplify the tax system and create a single personal allowance regardless of age.

The age allowances ceased to be in force from the 2016/17 tax year onwards, as the standard personal allowance had increased sufficiently to match and then exceed the frozen age-related rates.

Currently:

• Everyone, regardless of age, receives the same standard Personal Allowance, which is currently £12,570 (for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 tax years).

• Your State Pension, private pensions, and any other income all count towards this single personal allowance.

One remaining age-related tax benefit is the Married Couple's Allowance (MCA), which can still be claimed if you or your spouse/civil partner were born before 6 April 1935."

Pensioners used to get age allowance which was slightly higher than personal allowance that’s all thsts happening. So if it’s their only income it’s not worth the hassle to tax it

Actually that won’t be happening as the OP doesn’t understand it either😂

Back in the day HMRC would issue a direct assessment to you and ask you to pay up … they still have that option.

state pension counts towards your taxable income. I.e. SP 12000 Private pension 8000 total income 20,000 less tax free personal allowance 12570 = 7430 taxable at 20% =tax due £1486

The only thing on that list that didn’t exist was the mobile phone. We didn’t even have a landline. Everything else on that list was a crap version of what was available. There were colour tvs, automatic washing machines, new cars, but we couldn’t afford them!

oh, and I’m not retired yet, so still paying my taxes.

I'm not going to claim the 70s were harder than nowadays, because I suspect that 2025 is going to look horrid for everyone in retrospect. But everyone claiming the boomer generation were featherbedded is deluding themselves. In the late 1980s people bought property to live in (not investments) in 1990 and by 1992, found it was worth 25% less than they had paid, and when they were made redundant in 1993, they had negative equity. A friend owed £47k on a one bed flat in Harlesden that was valued at £34k two years after. Seriously, it was not the fairytale boomer dream some people are imagining.

My area, along with othres, suffered a lot from industrial action. Also high inflation at the time and growing unemployment made for hard times for some.

They really aren't the largest demographic of voters

The population is likely way more than estimated.

The population explosion put housing up.

Once the population drops, through the lack of babies being born and suspected next government, (there will be probably 20 million leaving the country over a few years as we see in the USA), house prices are going to collapse and will never grow like they did for you again.

If I knew I was going to be in the 20 million getting deported I would sell at the top of the market.

1989 I remember mortgage interest rate was 14.7%

Typical boomer comment
My kids have worked since 14 alongside their studies and my daughter worked 30 hours a week while at university to help fund her studies as it’s not free now. Everyone she went to uni with worked.
My other child has also worked since 14 washing dishes

@Saz12
Your post seems a bit muddled to me?

Sorry but could you explain / expand on this with a computation as I don’t understand what you mean

Thank you. I just get annoyed when I hear so many older people (of which i am one i guess) pretending things were so much harder in the 70s and 80s. That really wasn't my reality and we were NOT wealthy. Its SO MUCH harder for the youngsters today. I really worry about my kids generation.

I totally agree there was real deprivation and benefits were not generous but the vast majority of poor families then in my experience were non working households. Back then, most people who worked full time could afford a decent standard of living where I grew up

Later on too, I was in the same position as you.

The older generation weren’t afraid of hard work, we started working at 15 , and did so for a further 50 years. The younger generation leave school at 18, then uni then a masters then a gap year then start to look for work at about 23/24 years of age, except a lower paid job is beneath them!!
our first home was almost uninhabitable but we brought it as it was what we could afford with only a wicker conservatory chair to sit on ( not a fully furnished new build).
guess what, we spent every spare penny on the house sold for a profit, did this several times to become mortgage free .
my point stop bashing the pensioners maybe listen to them, they just might have some life learnt advice to help you on this path of lifr

You're not wrong @Sexentric . I was just pointing out how different things were then and how needs, funding and expectations have changed.