Is living on the state pension really that bad?

It could be the opposite though. I have already lived the high life in my twenties, thirties. Enjoyed it very much, but I have no desire to do it any more.

@Squirrelchops1 so someone who doesn’t make any provision doesn’t have to pay for things like council tax & those who scrimped & will have a small workplace pension get taxed & have to pay for all their bills. It makes it seem pointless to save up for old age - unless you will have a decent amount coming in.

But did you pay enough in to cover your living expenses for another 30 years? If you think about it, that’s a lot. Assuming people go to uni, as so many do, that’s working from 22-67- 45 years. Then living another 30 when you aren’t earning… did you really pay 33% of your income into your pension to cover the 1/3 of your adulthood when you aren’t going to earn?

My aunty lives on state pension and she does absolutely fine.
She have always lived a simple life, no holidays etc so she didn't suddenly have the desire to do all these things.
Her bills and food are around £550 a month, she goes out everyday to local cities for a walk around, tea and cake.
I get baffled by these guides saying couples need circa 40k a year to survive when people aren't even getting that in younger life with kids and mortgages!

My mum lives on state pension and pension credit. Owns her house. She manages but does not drive so no car to pay for.
I want more in my retirement. I don't want to retire and struggle and have to shop everything budget.
DH has a pension pot of over 300k hoping to retire at 60 and pension pot should be somewhere between 500k and 650k depending on growth. We will do drawdown taking what we need when we need it. Once we get to 80 (if we get there!) we're not expecting to need as much so with 2 state pensions and 1 good pension we
are expecting a good retirement.
All depends on what you want when you are not a work slave anymore!

Council tax
gas
electric
water
house insurance
tv licence
savings for household item replacement
phone, broadband etc
birthday & xmas gifts
clothing
household maintenance
probable mandatory health insurance if the fagash fuhrer gets power
this probably leaves about 50p per week for food for two
Heaven help a single person

It depends what you enjoy doing. I enjoy walking, swimming in the sea, yoga in my garden, pottering in my garden, reading. I enjoy these things more than a holiday to the Maldives, because I don’t like the stress of getting there. Even if it was like for like price I’d choose my peaceful free stuff.

@thedevilinablackdressbut you say she gets pension credit top ups so that’s more than a state pension.

Living on state pension as a single person can be very tough. You will get scammed through council tax where you are effectively subsidising families with children and paying for their use of local facilities. At the same time you yourself may be making minimal use so you get very poor value for money. If you are going to retire from full time work on a state pension you would be wise to find something part time and not too demanding. Good cleaners are always in demand so if you are fit and enjoy cleaning (or dog walking/admin/DIY etc) a few hours a week could bring in a nice little cash in hand income.

Thousands of people have never worked or contributed towards a state pension and those that have only paid when they worked, not all their lives.

I’m not disagreeing with you. Your grandma does have support from you though. If she didn’t have helpful family and was paying for someone to take her to the shop etc, it wouldn’t go as far.

The cost of getting someone in to help with jobs you can’t manage yourself- changing the bed, doing laundry, retuning your TV (and personal care when the time comes) is surprisingly high.

People with family input also tend to share things between them- someone buys a new phone and gives the old one to Grandad, for example.

Day to day expenses may well be covered, but one offs like the washing machine needing to be replaced, or the boiler dying, are hard to cover.

If you've no savings you could get guaranteed pension credit too. That'll mean no council tax, reduced phone bills, free dentist etc.

Yes, they’ve paid into it, but just like today their taxes funded pensioners then. We don’t have our own individual state pension pot.

What about if you need a new boiler, roof, car, etc.

What about holidays, socialising, going to the theatre, exhibitions, sports events, concerts.

Or needing to pay for private healthcare if the alternative might be a 2 year wait.

I’m fairly frugal but I wouldn’t want to have to count pennies in my old age, or be in pain because I can’t afford a hip replacement.

As pp have said, it’s fine when there are two of you and you also have a small private pension to top it up. But when/if one of you is a widow, it can be tough.

But, if your house is paid for then you have an asset you can sell to downsize, or potentially do equity release ( not that I am advocating that, but for some it’s useful)

I imagine it depends on whether you want to survive or actually enjoy life?

To break that down even further, it depends what you mean by enjoying life. Some people really enjoy a simple life, maybe gardening, volunteering going on walks with different groups, other people want more of a high life with eating out and luxury holidays.

There is social care for care needs. You would need to wait for a care act assessment and then pay a proportion of the money (a contribution) based on your income. It could be very little if you’re earning very little.

I don’t know any pensioner in real life who actually struggles. Including those who only have state pension. Every single one I know, own family, neighbours etc are living a very lovely life. I’m not saying pension poverty doesn’t exist, but I am saying that I personally don’t know any pensioner who is struggling.
my own grandmother is 90, gets everything paid for by the state, and doesn’t know what to do with it all every week. Her life is her little security council flat paid for, my mum takes her to withdraw her £250 every week, takes her shopping (she doesn’t eat much), pays her energy bill for her and then grandma doesn’t know what to do with the remaining. It’s not like she’s active enough to go travelling or skydiving with it.

I am enjoying life, it all depends on what sort of life you want/are used to.
My social life consists mainly of meeting friends for coffee/lunch, occasional visits to the theatre etc. I am happy with that, other people want exotic holidays etc.
I am happy with a simple life.

How old are you and your DH, OP?

Its existence money, you’d struggle to go on many lovely holidays or eat out much but it depends on your lifestyle.
Having your own work/ private pensions to top it up makes it better but on its own it’s not a lot.

Pretty much everyone who lives long enough does. Those who don’t are the exception

Unfortunately no one knows until the time comes.

I think day to day income wise it's doable, but problems arise, if you don't have substantial savings, when big things need paying for, like if you need a new central heating boiler, or roof repairs

Is it? People have paid into this all their lives. What an attitude 😵‍💫