When will people realise that pensioners have paid for their state pension.

[notsafeanymore]

Every time there is a debate about the cost of living pensioners get a bashing.
And some have also paid for a private pension.
It's people who have never worked that should be targeted first.
I'm not on about the disabled. It's people who are benefit cheats and have never worked.

Exactly, my hubby abd I have just paid £3k each to top up our state pensions so how is it a "benefit"?

@WhereverIlaymycatthatsmyhome not sure @20thCenturyFecks was referring to that generation 😉

Why would paying for something not make it a benefit? What do you get back for that 3k?

It was only pensioners who voted for brexit. Dont think so.

@Scotiasdarling when we lived in Copenhagen childcare wasa fixed fee ( very reasonable too at around £280 a month) regardless of income or whether your little one was 6 months or 4- - to be honest I think it’s fair because those on £100k income are also by far the largest tax and NI payers and getting not much for it - I don’t believe in free hours, it never works out that way and nurseries are getting round it by adding in excessive ‘costs’ to make the business work - I think very subsidised fixed fee regardless of income is far fairer all round- and even if I was on minimum wage I would think the same -

One can and is indeed complaining.

As for the lost generations (for want of a better word) employment has been an issue for a growing number of individuals who are perfectly capable of working for some time. If you want figures go and look at the Blue Book (UK NationaI Accounts) Im not here to educate you.

I hope they will. I just don't think the "King of the North" is the answer, or that he has any of the answers.

If more spending, more borrowing and a bigger state were the solutions, Britain should be thriving or starting to thrive by now.

Because you are under the number of qualifying years of NI contributions needed to receive full state pension - so your £3k , which is about 6 years voluntary contributions if I remember correctly will give you around £1500 a year extra pension ad infinitum - a great deal! You can only go back 6 years though maximum.

Really 🫣

I'm glad I followed the advice given 30 years ago and started a private pension when I started working!

We seemed to have had mass immigration anyway and it is not working, many of them need housing and benefits however much the government pretends they don’t

absolutely agree.
Labour- don’t pick on the ones who worked enough to get a state pension. Think about all those who have never worked (not profoundly disabled) who lived life on welfare.
Labour can’t keep taking from the people who contribute

Well they certainly won’t include the things that the generations since continue to benefit from because boomers fought for them. Off the top of my head:

Age, sex, racial, religious and disability discrimination protections established by the passing of various legislation - latterly the Equality Act 2010.

Maternity. The legal right for women to take time off to have kids without losing their jobs, which laid the groundwork for statutory maternity protections and pay. Not to mention making it illegal to fire a woman for announcing she is pregnant.

The right for women not to be arbitrarily excluded from occupational pensions, or losing access to them on leaving work.

Not exactly what I would call pulling up the drawbridge behind you, but then only on MN are boomers so roundly hated for simply being in the right place at the right time.

I think this is what many people fail to grasp - you can’t just make up the number of lost contributions you need. As you say the last six years is the maximum you can regain.

Yes. Completely agree.

Benefits work both ways.

Every person who can build some degree of financial self-reliance and minimise their dependence on the NHS and the state is a benefit not only to themselves, but also to taxpayers and those who genuinely need support.

Labour would have you believe that anyone who manages to build any degree of self-reliance has somehow gained an unfair advantage. That is how distorted the debate has become.

That is what I think should change. Say a reduced rate where income is twice the state pension amount.

It shouldn't be true, but it is possible for some.

That’s not what the pp said, but I appreciate your need to utterly ignore nuance. In any case, here you go: EU referendum: The result in maps and charts https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36616028

Anyone who thinks its not fair that they pay in if blah blah blah so they will stop, spend all their money now and rely on the state is a fool.

There will be nothing and if you haven't made your own provisions, you'll be fucked.

So yeah, spend all your money now so that you'll get the same as Joe blogs down the road who never did anything and enjoy it when that 'same' that you get is sweet fa, poverty, cold, and the shittest of all basic care homes.

Celebrate that you didn't have to pay for the fuck all you're getting and be pleased that you didn't save money you could have saved that would have seen you warmer, better fed and happier cos you really got to stick it to the government 👍

@Scotiasdarling people still do that.

The pensioners wouldn't except it and neither would the children as it's inheritance money they think they are entitled to. These same children would have also bought cheaper houses as prices only really shot up after 2010

Woolly thinking. Someone on £125,000 doesn't get free childcare. They are however incentivised to reduce their income to below £100,000 to get that benefit. I am simply pointing out that they should pay their own childcare bills out of their own taxed income. The people drawing pensions now did exactly that.

It’s genuinely so refreshing to see this perspective rather than the usual screaming of “I’ve paid my dues!” As if the rest of us have been sitting around doing sod all. The fact of the matter is the younger generations are, and will continue to overpay their dues with absolutely nothing in return.

Because you expect to get back a lot more than you paid in?

I would be fine losing out on potential inheritance. I’m not sure how you can be sure all of those dc are on the property ladder though.