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.

I don’t think there is WFA for people below pension age?

There is the warm home discount which is different, it is £150 added to your energy account if you get certain means tested benefits. But the threshold definitely isn’t £35k.

Yes, if I had no commuting costs, no childcare costs, no pension contributions, no NIC to pay, no rent/mortgage to pay, no prescriptions nor bus fares to pay, lots of discounts such as discounted attraction entry, discounted rail fares, even OAP discount days in supermarkets.

It’s not called winter fuel allowance
but it’s a payment to every relevant household

Low-income households in the UK on qualifying benefits receive a £25 Cold Weather Payment automatically whenever their local average temperature is recorded or forecast to be 0°C or below for 7 consecutive days. The scheme runs during the designated winter period from 1 November to 31 March

For each 7 consecutive days they receive a payment.

For the winter of 2025/2026, there were 34 separate cold weather triggers across England and Wales. An estimated 1,447,000 Cold Weather Payments were made to vulnerable households, each worth £25 for every qualifying seven-day period of freezing weather

Ah yes, but that isn’t a guaranteed payment every year and only happens if the temperatures go below certain levels In their area. Pensioners on pension credit can get this too, in addition to WFA.

Agree
The point however is
As Nothing was changing in that at the time of the wfa announcement so why would anyone be expected to be up in arms about it
It wasn’t being taken away

I couldn't. Regarding prescriptions, everyone in Scotland gets them free. Bus fares, all under 22's and age 60+ get them. I don't use the bus so I haven't applied for my pass. Can't remember the last time I had a prescripion, during lockdown I think for a tooth abscess, though my husband has had them for years for an under active thyroid.

And I'm too young for all the rest.

I just couldn't.

Different lifestyles I suppose.

Yes that’s what I’m saying. That’s not how it works. So when the pensioners say that they paid in enough that covers everything I’m saying that it doesn’t and they are lucky that it doesn’t work like that. Because in reality they are getting a lot more out than they paid in

If pensioners are saying they paid in their day
surely they mean they paid and supported the pensioners that were around when they were working. As each generation do

I would say
Yes Theyve paid their dues and it’s irrelevant how much

Their tax is the raising of the next generation without which society won't just not function, it won't exist. They deserve their pensions because they have worked for them. And they paid tax.
That someone no longer is at home raising the children but instead childcare is monetised (like everything else) is one reason we are in the social mess we are in. outsourcing childcare to other than the parents causes problems in children who need their mothers, not be socialised in group care.

As everyone always has.

@Differentforgirls got it bang to rights when she pointed out that we weren't born aged 60. When I was a twenty six year old single parent my daughter and I lived on what I earned. No UC top ups, no free or discounted childcare, very little childcare. Every month I looked at what I paid in NI and tax and thought I couldn't afford it and I couldn't, but I did pay it and didn't complain. The result was that my parent's generation had pensions, and I now have a pension. If you don't keep on trying to limit it you might get one too. It has always been hard financially when you are young.

But now, total taxes generated don't go anywhere near the public spending costs etc., so the shortfall has to come from somewhere. If it's not politically acceptable to reduce/means test state pension, then I think we ALL, including pensioners have to accept pretty severe tax rises. The deficit has to be reduced somehow and the "fairer" way is for EVERYONE to pay more tax with NO exceptions based on age. If that means several percent on income tax to compensate for scrapping NIC, then fair enough, maybe alongside a reduction in the tax free personal allowance and maybe the removal of other "benefits" such as the extra £5k annual savings allowance, or the OAP exemption to the new cash ISA rules. More than one way to skin a cat!

Yes, but your housing costs in proportion to wages was a lot lower back then than it is today. Housing costs have something like doubled in relation to wages in real terms.

Bank but IT division so quite ordinary. I doubt they still have this arrangement for current staff. Non contributory too with favourable mortgage rates at the time. It was a significant pull.
My previous private sector employer had also had a final salary scheme that older staff were not happy about changes to. Not offered when I joined (though it was about as good as it gets 10% to my 5, but my salary was terrible).
Public sector don't generally have final salary now, it's not as good as it used to be but better than most private sector. But it is contributory and the % depends on grade. But the semi decent pension is the excuse for the wages not being as high 🤷‍♀️

I think those of us wanting to retire in the next 20 -25 years or so are going to find it tricky as many will be reliant on a state pension to top up employer pensions that aren't livable

They have doubled because you are borrowing an amount based on two salaries. I explained how this has happened in my post at 17.08 on 19/06. Suffice it to say that we could only borrow about half as much as people do now. I'm not going to explain it again.

When will the focus switch from portraying pensioners as parasites to talking about growth?

What happens when pensioners have been dispossessed of all their supposedly ill-gotten gains? What happens when the government runs out of other people's money and assets to tax? Because that pie is fixed in size. Let's face it, they can't touch the super wealthy or billionaires because much of their wealth is tied up in complex structures, assets and in jurisdictions that that are far harder to get at.

What then?

At some point, surely the conversation has to move beyond redistribution and onto how we actually grow the economy, create wealth and raise living standards.

WFP

I agree

Taxes should rise
I’d say all income should be taxed, no free lower threshold, no exemption on any savings eg ISA
Min working hours should be increased above 16
Higher rate tax threshold should be reduced to £40,000 ( £35,000 seems to be a Govn marker used for many benefits so £40k is just above that )

We aren’t generating enough money.
Services are desperately in need

But whilst we are raising taxes for workers we need to reduce the number of people who claim by requiring more weekly hours / person ( not per couple ). If people do more hours they earn more themselves and are less reliant on the state.

I also believe we need to look again at the White paper recommendations on PIP

None of this is popular
No one would vote me in as an MP

( ps. I hate that saying about skinning cats ☹️)

Oh good because its complete and utter nonsense!

House prices rose because of the seismic shift from multigenerational social housing to nuclear family aspirational home ownership, Right to Buy, MIRAS and financial deregulation
Essentially demand outstripped supply

You sound like my late ignorant DF
" bloody womens fault for wanting jobs and houses"
Really do educate yourself because your posts are embarrassing

Taxes should rise

1 Laffer curve
2 The wealthy avail themselves of complex structures and of overseas jurisdictions which are difficult to tax.

If people do more hours they earn more themselves and are less reliant on the state.

This is already how it works.

no?

Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's nonsense.

And don't try to portray me as bigoted.

I think we need to stimulate a massive boom in productivity, not to stifle it (by making everyone poorer).

NHS here and was in the lovely position a few years ago where my paltry annual rise, cant remember how much it was but no more than 2%, put me in the next pension contribution category. So I actually had less take home pay every month for that entire year. I am still pissed off about it.

But you’ll get a great pension won’t you so isn’t it worth it?