UK PENSIONERS. A BURDEN ON THE STATE.

When the Old Age Pension was set up, it was never intended to be the solo means of support for a pensioner. It was only ever meant to be a safety net. It was expected that a working person would make provisions for their own retirement.

I did NOT vote this government in and I am furious at the attack on young poor families,single mums etc but all pensioners are not well off. A lot of our friends are in our situation DH and I are 65 & 68 and will have £13000 pa. We still have 2 DC's 6 & 13 (don't ask) at home and we will find it hard yes we still get CTC but no wonderful holidays for us. The winter fuel allowance is very much needed.

Readers interested in this thread might like to see what pensioners are saying and doing themselves. Try the Saga website.

Rather than just making a noise, they are campaigning about the winter fuel allowance calling on those who don't need it to donate it, into their "recycling" fund, which will then help those in greater need. A small, but practical and laudable step, and one which is much more useful than criticism without an alternative programnme.

If you have elderly relatives who might feel themselves to be in a position to give up their allowance, do send the link on to them.

Frankly unless you are loaded I can;t see why everyone isn't scared of being old and on a low income and potentially dependent on private sector carers that may or may not turn up to look after you.... In our society unless you have some economic worth you are not valued and sadly for me ( who is not going to be loaded in retirement ) that may be the case. In the mean time I will enjoy it as best I can . I come into contact with older people who on a regular basis who are dependent on others and all I can say is someone will need to help us all when we get there...l

It is not anti-elderly to be of the opinion that 'retirement' should not be 20-30+ years long as standard.

Because it is becoming patently obvious that no economy can sustain such a model as people live longer and longer. They will have to work longer for less pension, use savings, have a lower standard of living. Just like all the rest of us!

The anti elderly ...One day you will be old - I hope you don't starve or freeze in the winter as so many do.

I agree with Jinx! Absolish the universal bus pass and winter fuel allowance. I have a boomer mate, 60 in February and fit as a fiddle, who is ever gloating about these, on her husband's £26K/annum final salary pension (he will get more once he draws his state one), no mortgage and using the fuel allowance to go on a 5-star mini break whilst I sell things on Ebay to keep my young children warm and you expect sympathy?

She boasts, oh his pension is guaranteed. Does she really think my husband and I, and all our generation, and our children, will slave to pay such a fat pension to someone with no housing costs when the depression that will come arrives and we were are semi-starving and our children go without so she can go on holiday and gloat on Facebook about how she doesn't have to work?

People live longer, they should expect to work longer. 'Pension' was only supposed to be 5 years or so or less and then you died, not live for 20-30+ years playing golf whilst those but 20 years younger toil on knowing they will die standing at their work!

You think that's mean? You've probably never lived in a place where food is scarce.

Abolish all these wastes of money!

But they won't. Because they have boomers voting in governments who think we should pay for them to have a 20+ holiday whilst we know we will drop dead working. And we are not fools. And we are getting very very angry about it all.

Which government attacks single mums and the disabled and who are the elderly people who voted them in?

Well, what all you elderly people keep doing is voting in governments who attack us single parents and our young disabled friends. Hardly surprising we don't like you much, is it?

I would cancel the bus pass, winter fuel etc.. and pay people a decent pension so they can decide how to spent their money.

Pensioners themselves should be able to decide if they want to spent their money on high fuel bills or a few months in the Canaries and if they wish to travel by bus not the state.

My granddad is lucky enough to have retired on a final salary scheme, he is 92 and still takes of to Spain in January and doesn't return until the end of April. Believe it or not but he actually saves money that way. Go Granddad!

Ivanhoe - Against my better judgement, will try to engage you on something you've said as fact: it's rubbish to say that most local services are paid for by local taxes. See Directgov:
"Local government spending is about a quarter of all public spending in the UK. Local authorities are funded by a combination of grants from central government, Council Tax and business rates."
And there's more here explaining that Council Tax provides about a quarter of Council funding.

But, judging from your attitude on this and other threads, this is probably just a great falsehood perpetrated by someone sinister and you will be right anyway.

My Mum too Solo, so we help her out where she lets us do so. My fil is almost 80 so he has two final salary pensions plus state pension, and he was careful with his money and saved and invested. Good on him that he did; early retirement planning evidently works!

Scary, my Mum has a little over a quarter of that :(

Our generation and younger will be fucked because we can't afford a house AND a pension even on average salary the retirement age will no doubt be raised several times if not scrapped entirely so it's likely the state pension will be even worse or won't exist, because people are living longer therefore it's just not affordable to pay a state pension when you're likely to live on another 30 or even 40 years!
On top of that my generation are unlikely to benefit from house price or share price booms!
Only the very rich from the generation below me will be able to go to university making social mobility much less likely.
Even private/company pensions now aren't worth very much!

I am 25yo btw

I had occasion to go through my pils finances for IHT planning late last year, as pil has terminal cancer. I was astounded at the amount pil receives in pensions (both state and employers), it is about £40k plus per year net. Not all pensioners are hard up at all, and thanks to saving and investing in an employers pension, my pils have a good income.

But seriously, my gps are in their mid 80s. My gd is fighting fit and walks the dog daily, has lots of little hobbies and the garden. My gm is in constant pain from osteo-arthritus, is getting increasingly immobile and is very frustrated and sad about it.

However, far from being poverty stricken, they have a good life all in all. Too young to be called up in WW2, they were given fantastic council housing when they started their family which they remained in until nearly retirement age. Then then exercised their right to buy under the Thatcher govt and benefitted from rising house prices. This gave them enough profit when they sold up on retirement to buy a smaller house OUTRIGHT.

They only had a modest income, but have managed fine the last 20 years on their state pension/savings. The council has offered to put in a stair lift/wetroom. They benefit from free transport, free prescriptions etc etc
I am sure that there are many WORSE off, but there will also be many better off - they are a purely average couple.

They don't NEED more cash - more community support maybe - but not money taken from others to suit this cause.

It is MY and younger generations I worry about. We will be fucked.

would it be bad form to start a thread saying the op is a drain on mumsnet?

Personally I think I might prefer to be turned into sausages or something when I get past my sell by date, than clutter up the planet whilst the pills keep me going. I reserve my right to feel differently about this in 40 years.