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.

They are getting much more than they actually put in

Oh I could have written that, I do agree with you. I sometimes think I wish I could have them back just for a day at maybe 3 and 4 so I could hold their hands again.

That’s not how it works
Their money, when working, paid for the pensioners of their day

I started work in 1981, there was no company pension scheme available to join. I just don’t recognise or remember any information, adverts, talks or whatever about taking out a private pension on my own. Also I had more than one financial professional in my close family who would DEFINITELY have encouraged me.

Having said that, there was no spare money at all after paying mortgage and bills so I might not have been able to do it anyway. Like I knew how important it was to have savings and there was no cash for that either. It’s a misconception that we all had it easy back then with our “cheap houses”.

When I got the opportunity to join a company scheme I took it without hesitation. This was well into my thirties. Now being a pensioner but not yet retired, I kind of wish I’d taken the clever route and got a civil service of NHS job, I would be so much better off, and would simply retire!

Ah ok, thanks - will educate myself (pardon the pun 😆) and look it up. I suppose I regard university staff as public rather than private sector, and I thought they got final salary pensions.

Private pensions weren’t launched till 1988

Uni staff, private schools we pay to attend
So not state

I paid into my companies pension for years. It wasn’t a choice

What will I get back

Precisely £0

Pension was used to prop up the failing company. The company and the pension money is long gone.

Thankfully now history due to the compensation scheme now in place.

I spend time with my young team explaining about pensions. Our company only offers the minimum ( that's a different campaign of mine), but I demonstrate to them how it adds up to 10% and putting an extra 1% in each payrise makes little difference now but over time adds up to a big difference.
I'll never live to see it but kinda hope it makes a difference in 2066!

Same 😘

But then moving from a band F council tax home to a band C can help with monthly outgoings if you are asset rich cash poor

State pension won’t be abolished it will just hit 70 before you can claim it

and once the boomer generation moves through the system the financial burden lessens

earlier retirement you will have to fund yourself I mean we already do

It is possible to live in Band F or higher and not pay council tax (or very little) due to circumstances.

I have a family member who owns and lives in an old big run-down house worth £1 million. It is band F. He only receives the state pension, no other income. He has savings under £10k.

I helped him fill in the forms for a council tax reduction and he pays….. under £30 council tax A YEAR. Thats due to low income, low savings and the single person discount. Where he is the usual cost for band F for a year would be approx £4k.

If he moved and released the money from the property, he would have cash in the bank and no longer be eligible for the discount (except the 25% single person reduction).

So the council tax payment is not really an incentive to move.

I’m not sure that’s true, there are a lot of people in the millennial bracket now, and immigration will only increase this. While the UK birth rate declined, immigration has increased the population among that age group and surely they will be eligible for state pension one day?

They paid what was asked at the time to get the credits to draw state pension when they reach their entitlement age

and as for state pension being lower than minimum wage - well obviously- it costs money to go to work and the assumption is during that time you are paying mortgage and supporting others

state pension is enough for basic bills and housing
cars, holidays etc that’s on you to fund and you have the whole of your life to make decisions on if you want to live rurally say you will need to fund a car until you can’t drive then fund taxis etc

if you want to stay in a bigger house, go away, retire early, you need to invest for this

the uk pension is about fair for what we pay
we pay in middle of the road in relation to rest of Europe and our pension is middle of the road

Exactly. I roll my eyes when people moan that state pension is less than minimum wage. When you deduct the working age deductions from it, it probably isn’t much less.

A person of working age earning minimum wage will be paying NI (which you don’t pay when you reach pension age). They will also be paying a portion of their salary into a pension which pensioners obviously won’t be.

They will probably be paying mortgage or rent (which you are less likely to have over pension age)

They will also have commuting costs which pensioners don’t have, as well as costs you’re more likely to have as a working age person (children and family etc)

If they have 35 years of contributions then yes - probably be more like 40
and will be more like 70 when they claim

many working immigrants do the essential jobs that the uk population won’t do

And millennials are more aware of pensions and investing so it might stop the whinging of people who save nothing towards their retirement complaining which is at a least one step in the right direction

yes I know that previously people didn’t get funded childcare but at the same time their children didn’t pay uni fees say so we all have things to pay for
most people know they should’ve thought about retirement earlier - complaining when you get there is pointless

And contributing or working for the services the pensioners use most of

yep

still not enough for some but there you go

Could you live on £1000 per month?

Yes wouldn’t want to
hence private pension investing at some considerable sacrifice to the here and now

and we want to retire at 60 not 67/8

but yes without a car, holidays, generous presents, etc etc with a bus pass, yes could live on £1000 a month

I mean we couldn’t right now because we are supporting two teenagers (our choice)

but just me when I am 67 - yes

I couldn’t. I’m retired btw. No state pension yet. We get £3000 per month and couldn’t imagine living on a third of that.

If it makes pensioners feel any better the current cohort won the financial lottery

most of their adult working lives was in the uk with a relatively robust economy, housing was a much fairer price, work, living and travel was easy and free across all of the EU. The world was largely at peace and stable, and they had the benefits of a free at point of us healthcare system and the effects of climate change hadn’t really started

honestly they had it all

complaining they didn’t put a bit away for their later years is disingenuous it really is

everyone following will have to pay much more out just to obtain half of the same, which is no one’s fault, but the whinging about the state pension is neither here no there - no government once they look at the figures is going to think - hey let’s triple the state pension that seems fair - no one whatever the colour of their rosette

enjoy what you have and budget with what you’ve got as they like to tell the younger generations

I remember taking my first private pension out on the advise of a financial advisor and opting out of serps, this was the early 90's. I also enrolled in a endowment payment plan to buy a sports car for my 30th birthday.

By the time my big birthday arrived, the advice had changed, I'd opted back into serps, the pension had been scrapped by the finance company and I had a choice to leave the money in, where it would be subject to a monthly charge for the next 35 yrs or withdraw the money and lose 25% of the value of the pot reserve. The endowment lost money and paid out significantly less than paid in.

I am now 14 years from retirement hesitantly started a new stakeholder pension as I got to 30, it hasn't performed brilliantly. I also invested in stocks and shares, have isa's to support retirement.

Currently living on £500 pw as a family of 4, if we hadn't saved we would comfortably be able to claim UC instead we are living off our retirement savings and still in our 50s.