Is living on the state pension really that bad?

You can live on it, but things like car/car repairs, holidays, gifts, dentist, haircuts, appliances to be replaced, insurance… it all has to come from that 12 000. Or, what’s left after you paid your bills and food. Not to mention the odd days off.

My parents live only on the state pension and say they have more (and predictable) money than they ever did in their (obviously low paid) working life. They are mortgage free though which must make a big difference.

A family member did just fine on state pension, in fact he saved money from it. He lived in sheltered accommodation (so a tiny flat), no car, had always lived a cheap life so he didn’t have to cut back at all. He’d still get a paper and an occasional coffee and a lottery ticket, and give kids and grandkids £20 for birthday and Christmas. He never went on holiday in his working life, other than visiting family, he wasn’t about to start when he retired.

Now me, with my 4 bed house and our 2 cars and not living near a decent bus service, and an expectation of cruises, and wine at the weekend and eating out and takeaways - well no the state pension won’t cover that. So I’ve been prioritising paying into my pension since our childcare costs ended.

Pensioners have not been poor since the 80s

Wouldn't you call living on £12k a year if you own your own house and have no right to benefits "poor"?

Of course not but the answer to that is to make private provision

It’s ok until a big bill comes in, whether it be a full car service or house repair; then I think you could run into difficulties

Apologies if someone has already stated this but I have read that the amount you need decreases as you get older as you tend to go out less. My single neighbour who is 74 lives a very simple life of TV, reading & gardening and claims that her state pension backs up in her account. Then she'll go and blow £8K on a new front door from Anglia Windows, because she can.

No, why would you think everyone is able to do this (or there would be enough manager roles)?

So there's 100 workers on minimum wage, they are overseen by 4 shift leaders earning earning about a pound or 2 an hour more. Them 4 report into the big boss.
One shift leader leaves, 1 person gets a promotion, 99 remain on minimum wage. That's how society functions.

I know people who have been given more on the state pension than they were for working. This is people working in schools.

Pensioners have not been poor since the 80s and it is the poor wages that are the scandal of our times.

Of course there are so many problems coming out way with the destruction of the British ecology and world climate that working poverty may seem like riches in years to come. The boomers’ wealth will be the subject of disbelieved myths.

I think it's obvious that anyone who can afford a care home that insists you have £200k availability is likely to be the best of the best in care.

But I have friends who scouted for homes for a much loved resident and actually chose one of the cheaper ones they saw because it was so much nicer a place than the others.

One friend chose to send her mother over near her sister in Wales because the quality of the care was great in a state funded place in a home there.

There is variation, maybe they were lucky to have choices.

I'm sorry about your Mum, I doubt if there's any way to feel good about your situation even if the home was the best of the best.

https://www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk/

This is a really helpful guide.

£40k isn't for a basic life, it's for a comfortable life as a single person household.

The new state pension amount is a few pounds over the limit for pension credit so unless you are eligible for additional premiums like carers premium or disability premium someone on new state pension would not qualify.

You’d afford to stay in your house and eat

but sounds pretty miserable to me

I’d want to be out a lot / eat out / go for drinks

get tickets for shows and take trips / holidays

wouldn’t want to be broke all the time

This is just not realistic for many people. Going to university or college is never going to be an option. "Working hard" is not the simple answer that people seem to think it is.

What on earth do you spend it on?

This is a good idea. More people should try it. You might find it's fine, you might hate it. Everyone is different. Then you can plan accordingly.

@cateringdayi certainly wouldn’t be comfortable living on just the state pension. It’s designed to cover the basics, but if you want a decent quality of life, it makes sense to make your own personal provision as well. At that point in your life after retiring from work, the one thing you’ve got oodles of is time. I won’t want to spend my days worrying about whether I can afford a holiday or dinner out or concert tickets….

There’s a reason auto-enrolment in workplace pensions was brought in. The govt could not be stronger in encouraging people to make contributions to a workplace (or private) pension alongside their NI contributions for state pension.

so, while it may be doable to live solely off a state pension, it’s not something I would want which is why I’ve worked full time my whole adult life (bar 3 years of part time when my babies were tiny) and paid a hell of a lot each month into my pension.

Even if you just plan on "surviving" rather than any other sorts of travel or entertainment expenses, you need to plan for repairs to your house. We recently had to replace our boiler and radiators at close to £10,000. Because we have teachers' pensions on top of State ones, we've been able to set aside money each month in anticipation of such expenses and so fixing the central heating wasn't such a blow to us. But if we had no ability to save, then it would have been disastrous.

Even if someone starts off at NMW at an entry level, once they get the hang of things don't they move up to shift leader or manager of some sort?

This. I work in benefits for older people. I am genuinely shocked at how many of those just turning state pension age now do not have anywhere near a full state pension even , indicating that they have had huge gaps in their working lives. Obviously some will have been full time carers ot had disabilities themselves but there are also a lot who seem to have just not worked much ! My son's gf mum is one of them. She is early forties and has never worked, just lived off child maintenance and benefits.

My state pension just about covers our household expenses, utility bills etc, not including food, running the car etc. With DH's pension and two decent occupational pensions added in, we have a comfortable life as two retired people in their 70's. I definitely could not live on my state pension alone.

Having said that, we run a modest car, have small UK based holidays and don't spend on expensive luxuries.

If your partner dies you lose his pension. Food bills would be around half, but not your other costs; you'd get lower council tax (but 3/4 not half), and other bills might remain similar to what you pay now.

You could go through what you spend currently and figure out what is essential, what is luxury, and what is not essential but you want to have it or you'd go mad.

I think barring health issues and/or caring for those with health issues you can usually find a way to improve your situation.

DH and I worked our way from growing up with barely anything (in India) to making a good life for ourselves here. Studied hard at school, chose stem courses at uni. Went above and beyond to improve technical skills at work etc.

Moved here and just worked hard.

We downsized,to a 2 bedroom bungalow,10 minutes away from the sea,near the south downs. It's the edge of a village, but bus in the next road,if required later..basic state pension is £230. I have a small NHS pension, paid in for 15 years, then went PT as I got older,so it only counted as 12 years contributions.Couldn't afford to pay into it when dks were small and mortgage rates high. 16% in the 80s.. We've had one holiday in the past 17 years,last year in this country,dog friendly barn. They are our luxury item,if you like,farm bred border collies. We've had 3 dogs live to almost 18.cheap shop own tinned and kibble..vet plus £20 a month each dog,no insurance..My pension lump sum, paid for new double glazing,DH for 12 solar panels and 2 batteries on a scheme with our local authority.. used to go out for a meal monthly to a carvery, because we cannot eat the average restaurant meal. After 10 years, unfortunately it's been taken over,they don't do a carvery on week days,more expensive weekends, I can't cope with my hearing aids and the noise level and the food has gone right downhill and the service is awful. It's coffee and cake now, did that yesterday. We grow a lot of our own food and veg.. luckily DH is very handy, vehicle technician for over 40 years,does our car, and the kids cars.. the only DIY he hasn't done is the double glazing, driveway and new boiler.. We're in the SE, so council tax is pretty high. We are very careful,in the summer months we often make 20/30 kw of electricity a day, the export is banked with Octopus for the winter months, cooking is all electric I batch cook and freeze. In the summer months we used the emersion heater..we have future proofed the property as best we can.
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