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.

Yes, I realised I was 3 years short of full at 64 due to a number of years where we set up our business and paid only in dividends and I couldn’t make that up as was 20 years ago - I am however still working so should reach it by 67 . I simply didn’t pay attention to it at the time - H is the same but is 61 .

use a compound interest calculator, you’ll see actually it comes out approximately double that, with an end point of approx £800k if withdrawn at around £1200 per month.

I don’t disagree with that, just stating facts. A poster was comparing boomers receiving free uni education as opposed to today’s young people who have to pay. There’s quite a difference between supporting 15% of young people to participate in uni, and 50%. It’s a sign of the times, rather than anyone’s fault, but as usual on threads like these boomers are the low hanging fruit and evidently the source of all that’s evil in society today.

You are back with more insightful comments.

And wages were lower. And a larger % of income went on food.

Thanks for posting the same information that has been posted throughout the thread.

The state pension triple lock was first announced in the 2010 Budget and was implemented to take effect from the following year.
Today's retirees have not had some lifetime guarantee of the triple lock. When they began paying tax it wasnt in place.
It is not correct to suggest that over their working life they had an expectation of the triple lock.
Whether it should be removed is debatable, but it certainly hasnt been some type of lifetime 'guarantee'.

And wages were lower. And a larger % of income went on food.

Back in the day we spent much more on food & much less on housing.

@NorthXNorthWest

I don’t think one party can solve it tbh. It’s too big & it will take years. We need cross party consensus and long term thinking.

Let's call it what it is - a giant, state sanctioned Ponzi scheme. It's worked well while there were more taxpayers than pensioners, but now that the birthrate has started to drop relentlessly? Today's workers will not be able to enjoy the pensions we have today - and they are hardly generous.

Exactly, people just don’t seem to understand this. And unfortunately food costs are now rising astronomically as well. Give me higher food costs and lower housing costs any day.

Does anybody genuinely think differences in food account for a difference of this size?
This isnt about blame etc. It is just a fact that the relative increase in housing costs compared to earnings are squeezing finances.

Now you cannot expect to come onto a thread like this and talk sense, that’s madness! Just keep blaming 18 year olds for decades of failed economic policies.

@Scotiasdarling this may be helpful or perhaps he’s also stupid 😆

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/spasms-uk-mortgage-market-spell-pain-homeowners-economy-2023-06-15/

"It takes a far lower mortgage rate to create the same amount of financial stress in terms of repayments as a double-digit mortgage rate did back in previous periods," Hudson said”

The "he stole your cookie" meme applies here. Generation vs Generation while ignoring the successive Governments which caused it. Divide and conquer.

The new state pension, which you have to be 66, or is it 67 to receive may be £12,000 a year but anyone who retired at 60 will be in receipt of the old state pension which is considerably less. Making things up to support your claims is pointless.

it's the other way around, students are sucked into Unis because that's what the employment world has decreed!

This point is so often lost from the debate.

When I started work a degree was required for my role, for my seniors who started before it wasn’t. As time went on specific degrees were required. This is why so many feel they have to obtain a degree.

There are a number of examples of this, and the loss of career paths that start with GCSEs or A levels.

@Owlbookend

Does anybody genuinely think differences in food account for a difference of this size?

I don’t think they do but it interesting how so many deflect and simply refuse to acknowledge reality. Imo that is why boomers face such criticism, it’s the denial.

Making things up to support your claims is pointless.

The irony of this 😆😆

Wages should be higher today but

“Before the 2008 global financial crisis, real wages in the UK grew by about 33% each decade. Since then, average pay has stagnated.”

Well I suppose if many acknowledge the truth that leaves the door open for some kind of change/reform and many don’t want that. The status quo suits them.

The entire concept of national insurance is one of the biggest and most successful confidence tricks in history.

It's a tax, nothing more and nothing less. But "tax on working age people" isn't nearly as palatable as "paying into your pension and the NHS."

But that wouldn't be fair to the under 40s. Why draw the line there and say they have to lose out - having paid in for 20 years and getting nothing back? And who would pay for the over 40s between now and them being euthanized at 75 (your suggestion, not mine).

The whole issue is that it's a ponzi scheme that doesn't work when the working population isn't growing and keeping pace with the ageing population and their increasing life expectancies.

Something has to change. And that change should be staggered, not a big cliff step change.

And a lot of self employed men who never paid their full NI contributions. Used to see them all the time in my last job. Ended up with a low state pension which then just got topped up with pension credit.