What is the point of paying NI for 35 years to get a full State Pension, when people who have never worked receive Pension Credit anyway?

My gran only worked before she was married. Spent her time raising children, then caring for my disabled grandad.
She was on PC.
Can we please stop and think that not everyone on PC spent their life fucking about and being "lazy".

Better let my DS know - he gets higher rate PIP and works. Sometimes I think the UK is a nation of people who love nothing more than to kick down at those less fortunate than they are.

Did you just work for your pension? I work for the salary I live on - the pension is an additional perk
I guess the 35 years of a better standard of living having a salary is the bigger gap you are looking for

I think it pays to be lazy OP!

What hyperbolic shite.
I can screenshot my UC statement if you want. It just over £800pm. On what planet is that £200k?

I hate to tell you this but 35 years of NI does not give you a full pension! I have 39 years and only get about £180 a week as, as a teacher we were contracted out .

It is was what it is! Someone who didn’t work, lived on benefits most of their lives with multiple children, now receives basic state pension £104.00 per week + pension credits = £238.00 per week (not exact figures, but not to far out) + housing and council tax benefit + attendance allowance, £300+ per month.

My DH, full SP + £1500 private pension per month + owns home mortgage free + £3,000 work severance pay per month + private assets + health and quality of life.

Which one would you rather be? We are all going to get old, those that can make the choice, don’t live as of tomorrow never comes.

Jeremy Vine show were describing it as an out of work benefit last week. These absolute hypocrites were some of the first to moan about misinformation during Covid.

Well obviously NI doesn’t just cover pension benefit (and it is a benefit, one which comprises most of the welfare bill). Most of us acknowledge that such a benefit will be gone by the time we reach pension age, so I don’t really worry who is getting it currently.

I would advise you OP to not spend your time worrying about what others may receive or who has worked harder, because I imagine many people have contributed significantly more than you have.

By comparison, an economically inactive claimant on Universal Credit (UC) for ill health with the average housing benefit and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) would receive an income of around £25,000, rising to £27,500 for those awarded PIP’s highest rate.

That is only one highly specific scenario.

Aside from the fact that PIP is not an out of work benefit, which so many posters of a certain political bent conveniently like to forget, not everyone with an ill health claim is eligible for PIP. Not all claimants on UC claim for ill health. You can't extrapolate from this - however much you want to.

PIP isn't means tested, you could earn 200k a year and get PIP. You can work on PIP, it's not an unemployment benefit.

In the real world, I was made redundant last year. My redundancy payment meant we weren't eligible for any UC. JSA would have been less than £500/mth.

We get DLA for DS and DH gets CA, and earns about £5k a year self employed.

We could have really been raking it in and living the high life! Instead I was offered a part-time job that I took as £1200 a month is better than less than £500 and rapidly running our savings down until we could get UC.

Calculations and evidence of this would be useful.

Many people, who reached pension age before 6 April 2016 get state pension of £184.90 per week. to get this they had to pay NI for 44 years.

Many married women who reached pension age before 6 April 2016 get only £110.94.

You are misreading part of a much larger system

The alternative is having starving pensioners living on the streets or maybe bringing back The Workhouse. Some people would be pleased with both of those of course.

The key here is you ‘retired 11 years ago’. You were not subject to the crushing conditions workers are today. Comparing apples and oranges. How much did you buy your house for and in what year, out of interest?

How many fucking times do people like you need to be fucking told. There are plenty of people claiming PC who worked damn hard and paid into workplace pensions that disappeared when companies went bust. There wasnt the regulation decades ago that there is now. Im fucking sick and tired of people trying to rewrite history

Recent CSJ research revealed that by 2026 there will be more than a £2,500 gap between earnings and combined benefit income. A full time worker on the National Living Wage (NLW) is expected to earn £22,500 after paying income tax and national insurance.
By comparison, an economically inactive claimant on Universal Credit (UC) for ill health with the average housing benefit and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) would receive an income of around £25,000, rising to £27,500 for those awarded PIP’s highest rate.
New analysis published today finds that, as of May 2025, there were one million people claiming a combination of UC health, housing and PIP, following a dramatic increase in awards for anxiety and depression since the pandemic.
Seven in ten new UC Health assessments now involve mental health conditions, and PIP claims for anxiety and depression are up threefold since 2019.

Don't be ridiculous I have never earned anything like that much. I was a teacher and was earning less than £40k a year when I retired 11 years ago. I have my teachers' pension and a state pension, mortgage paid off and consider myself quite comfortable. My husband earned similar in the NHS he is retired but doesn't have his State Pension yet.

If I had never worked I wouldn't have had a mortgage never mind paid it off. Some people on here have absolutely no idea of the real world just bitterness and pointless envy.

This poster makes a lot of ludicrous comments.

Have we actually reached peak MN with this ludicrous comment??
😂😂

But many people who get full state pension and maybe a small private pension will still also qualify for some help towards rent and council tax. Not paid in full like those on pension credit but still a significant amount of help.

In what sense is there almost no difference?

So Oh and I earn £50/£60k ish respectively (massively less than your £200k). With that we can afford a 5 bed terrace house, to run a car, to send our 2 kids to multiple clubs/activities, to go on holiday a couple of times a year, to go out regularly, to never worry about putting the heating on or the kids having extra friends over for dinner or something breaking and needing to be replaced. In what sense is that the same life as a family who are not working or working in low paid jobs and claiming benefits?
Honestly I get in some parts of the country it’s expensive and the period while you can claim for your kids maybe it feels like there is a lot less difference but eventually they grow up and leave and then what you are able to claim changes significantly

Because without people working their whole life, and paying tax, there would any revenue to pay a pension to those who have never worked.

OP is well known for taking a certain stance on benefits. Which of course she is fully entitled to.
And no, I have not advance searched - I read a lot of political threads.

And the paupers can just die of cold a d starvation presumably. And you'll be fine with that.