Is living on the state pension really that bad?

I'm single and have my state pension plus a small occupational pension. I find it manageable, but if anything significant goes wrong, eg house repairs or a big car bill, I'd struggle.

I'm quite envious of my MIL, who gets pension credit as she has no state pension. Because she's on a means-tested benefit, she doesn't have to pay any council tax, but I have to pay all mine, which accounts for almost my private pension. And when anything goes wrong with her house, she just has to ring the council and they come and fix it, whereas I have to dip into my meagre savings.

I plan to move to a cheaper area to release some equity, and I realise that I'm lucky to have that option, but it does gall me slightly that MIL gets more from the state than I do (she gets full housing benefit for her rent as well as 100% off her council tax) when I've worked for over 50 years and she only ever worked for 10!

I would get pension credit, so that would help - I only get a small amount of my husband's pension.

The big issue is replacing things that wear out and unforeseen costs. For me, enjoyment of life! A basic pension doesn’t provide for much. Bills are going up and most people cannot survive on just a state pension.

No mortgage, two pensions and my job pension- we get about £1k per week net and save £2k per month. We are not wealthy but we are not broke either.

Yes I think it's perfectly do-able if you have no mortgage. A single person would get 25% off council tax if living alone and likely additional council tax support. I guess heating which you can't manage without as you get older is the biggest cost. I think the problem is that the state pension was meant to provide a basic income but today's generation of pensioners have largely always driven and had holidays and expect to be able to maintain that lifestyle which probably isn't realistic on slightly less than £1k a month.

Some people have to. It's not necessarily a choice.

This attitude is just not true. We pay tax and NI for the current pensions. You have to have full NI contributions to qualify for the max state pension, but this is where it ends.

There are many current pensioners that have/will have received 3 decades or more of state income. I don't think there is any way in which we can say that these people have 'worked all their lives'. It is not a criticism of pensioners at all, just the language and attitude needs to change.

It is not sustainable (as we can see front the ever increasing state pension age).

I haven't read the whole thread but my State Pension is £200 a week not £250. It wouldn't allow for unexpected expenses or luxuries.

It's not an attitude, it's a fact.

And you may pay NI all your working life but you're not 'paying into' your own pension, you're paying the pensions of the people who are already getting it.

The only ways to pay into a pension for yourself are to pay into your employer's scheme or a private pension (you can of course do both).

For the 2025/26 tax year, the full new State Pension is £230.25 per week, which equals £11,973 a year, requiring 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions. For those under the old system (basic State Pension), the full rate is £176.45 a week, requiring 30 qualifying years. Figures are expected to increase further for 2026/27.

You will then need to calculate for the following:

• Council Tax
• Gas & Electricity
• Water
• Broadband & Phone
• TV License
• Insurance: Home (buildings/contents), car, or life insurance.
• Transport: Fuel, public transport, or car payments, car maintenance
• Subscriptions: Streaming services (Netflix/Spotify), gym, or internet packages.
• Food/Groceries: Regular household food budget.
• Service Charges/Ground Rent: For leasehold properties/flats
• House maintenance
• Holidays
• Entertainment
• Clothes, shoes and personal items
• Birthdays and Christmas
• Hobbies

There probably others, but i think that would eat up one pension, easily per year.

Life is expensive, you need to be watching every penny.

Surely it very much depends on what lifestyle you have had previously. Big house with all associated costs, couple of cars, regular holidays, expensive meals out. Then £12k would feel very limiting in retirement. If you have lived on less your whole life maybe it seems “enough”

That's exactly right, poorer pensioners are often single women. DH and I are older pensioners, we have an income around new SP levels, just under £2k a month. We have no mortgage or rent but pay full council tax. We don't get any means tested benefits.

We live well, still run a car, the house is warm. We haven't been abroad since lockdown, health reasons mainly. I'm in a hotel atm, short break with DGD. We still have some savings as a safety net. However, singly it would be a lot tougher.

This! There's no point comparing yourself to other people.

Compare what you earn and spend now to what your pension would be in retirement.

The Donegans' website and YouTube course (Rebel Finance School) is worth studying too - if you won't have enough to be happy, then there are ways to address that.

Yes but housing benefit is based on local housing allowance which is based on council rent prices. Private renting is usually a few hundred more than max housing benefit and so that has to be paid out of state pension also. Just like with UC. So anyone private renting is well and truly stuffed in old age. Not to mention securing a private tenancy on such a low income would be impossible should your landlord decide to sell.
Home owners will always be better off than those is private rentals.

You do know there are people working FT with mortgages and childcare costs to pay with less income than you have now?
tone deaf.

I did say as a couple to be fair. I said £800 for bills (excluding savings/ birthday etc admittedly). As a single person that £800 would drop slighty given reduction in food, i admit as a single person it would be significantly tighter.

Currebly as a family of 5 our bills, excluding savings/holidays/birthdays, are £2300 and thats with a mortgage and car finance hence why I cautiously said i had wondered how bad it would be.

Many pensioners (I think around one in eight of all pensioners and one in five of single pensioners) rely on just the state pension and pension credit.

Yes, you certainly can live on a state pension.

"I hear stuff saying you need £300000 in pension pot to have a comfortable retirement, why would you need that much?"

Many people will use their pension pot to purchase an annuity (a regular monthly payment). Incidentally, up until 2011 it was compulsory for everybody to purchase an annuity with their pension pot.

For example, I am 60 and will retire at age 67 and am in generally reasonable health. If were to use a £300k pension pot to purchase an annuity to start when I retire then that would pay out £16k per year if I wanted it to increase with inflation or £23k per year if I were happy with no increase.

So a £300k pension pot could give you between £16k and £23k per year on top of your state pension. The lower figure would give you a total of £16k + £12k = £28k. You will have to pay some tax on this and would have a take home of just over £2,000 per month.

That has nothing to do with how many children people have and as long as we have unemployment over about 2% it will never have any thing to do with how many children people have.

The change in the ratio of workers to pensioners is because of an increase in life expectancy.

My DM seemed to think similar or just buried her.head in the sand, not sure which perhaps both.

Unfortunately we live in the south where it is more expensive.

She is still paying a mortgage and hasn't paid enough off, so no mortgage free house for her unless she sizes down which she's currently trying to do.

Problem is she hasn't maintained the house so it is worth a lot less than it should be.

She can't afford to heat it and it's freezing.

Even when she sizes down unless she puts some money aside from the sale she still won't have enough to cover her costs. Short of leaving her whole family and upping to somewhere cheaper she's going to have to make some very hard choices about her next move, which when you are mid 70s seem that much more difficult.

I would encourage anyone to plan and think about retirement as having even a small amount of money gives you more choice.

Before anyone thinks I haven't tried to help my DM believe me I have but that's another story.

Really? Do you have evidence for this fact? AI tells me that only 10% of over 80s live in care homes. Around half of over 65s need extra help. That's hardly pretty much everyone.

But that will change. Dementia is now the leading cause of death in the UK and cases expected to rise worldwide.

For most families trying to care for a loved one with this disease we have no choice but to place our LO in a care home as it will progresses to a point that care at home is no longer viable.

Sadly more care homes will need to be built and more people will end up in a care home setting towards the end of their lives.

Strange question, so many people live lives on minimum wage, there wouldn't be anyone in the shops, food places, cleaning etc if they didn't.
Then there's millions more who live about 50p an hour over minimum wage.

Older people often need a lot of heating and might struggle to cook and start buying more expensive options like ready meals.

Then you need to think about everything else you need to fund - travel, gifts for family, holidays, clothes, toiletries. If you just want to survive maybe its ok but you would likely be living in relative poverty.

To be honest, I think it would be very difficult. The cost of everything is through the roof and doesn't seem to be slowing down, it keeps going up..

Have to factor actually having a life too. Petrol in the car, presents for grandchildren, getting your hair cut, feet done, clothes, paying for someone to come help the job you no longer can do etc. And what if something breaks in the house? Say your boiler broke down and needed replacing? Certainly need some sort of savings pot imo.

Obviously, the owning your own home bit doesn’t apply to a lot of people. You also need to factor in, as you get older, that you cope less well with cold weather, so heating bills will increase; you may need to pay for help with physical tasks around the home that you used to do yourself; and you’ll need savings for unexpected expenses. Things you take for granted now you might not be able to do when you are elderly without paid help. Spare cash might help protect you against ending up leading a limited life in a home that is crumbling around your ears.