To think that not all old people have worked hard all their lives...

[MrsKittyFane]

Go on, flame me.

All of my grandparents owned their own home.2 were in service too so not on big incomes.Houses were far cheaper to buy then.My parents were middle income and always owned,all only had 1 income too.

My inlaws were very poor and owned their own home.Having said that we've always been told they were poor and the more you hear the more you realise they had it pretty comparable to many hard working families now.

I was brought up in a terraced house , the majority of the houses were rented ,A lot of these streets were demolished in the 60s/70s to build council estates.

Hence many top earners claiming for something they don't need.

Would be nice if they either didn't get it until they stopped thus saving us having to pay for it some money or they retired and let those younger move up the job ladder. Seems they have the best of both worlds particularly since we're paying for it and aren't being left enough to pay into our own pensions properly.

Fair-I don't think so.

None of my gp owned homes.
I am in my mid 40s and wc.

My exeperience is going to be different from others from different backgrounds.

My mum always worked which wasnt that usual in the 60s/70s.

Where I was brought up and my parents were brought up, everyone rented. It was during the thatcher era that home ownership began to rise. Look at stats Heffley - not your own personal experience, to confirm this.

You were thought of as rich if you owned a house in my day.

Yes but it's the possibility to do so isn't it not wether many did.

Heffley - don't be ridiculous!

Why is that ridiculous?

My grandfather was a gardener in service and scrimped and saved.A gardener now on one income would be very unlikely to get a mortgage big enough to house 3 kids anywhere let alone the expensive area my gf bought in.

Because you are basing your assumptions that anyone could have bought on your own personal anecdotal evidence.

If I do the same i would say that nobody could buy their own house. My dad did various low paid jobs - factory work, bus driver, etc. My mum worked part time then full time doing various low paid work. We lived when younger in privately rented accommodation - 1 room when babies, then moved to 2 rooms without outside toilet shared with other families, no bathroom and no hot running water.

Then in slum clearances they were lucky enough to get offered a council house. They then struggled for years to pay bills, feed us all, heat home, etc. There were no working tax credits or anything except cb. They lived in a large council estate where everyone was prettymuch in the same boat. Nobody had money spare to buy a home.

Ergo nobody coulda fford to buy. Just because house prices were historically low does not mean that people had the income to actually buy. Even if buying would have cost the same as renting, getting a mortgage was difficult unless you had a good income or a wealthy guarantor.

I think you're using your own anecdotal evidence too.

It was normal to rent. One of my Grandfathers was Director of Social Work. They rented, when he considered buying a house the bank manager told him it was a ridiculous idea.

My experience was the same as lesley33. No way could my parents have afforded to buy a house.

There are good and bad in all age groups. That's why it is misleading to say all pensioners are bad or all teenagers are bad.
There are a lot of very moving case histories on this thread which show how hard-working our pensioners have been in the past. But that does not cover the whole population, does it?
Yes, I am sure we will find in the future that there will be a huge number of pensioners who have never worked or have only worked part-time and or/ cash-in-hand so that they have never contributed to the system and then expect to draw from it. This is going to change radically the way we see State pensions and how we set about funding them.

Home ownership was not the be all and end all though tbh , people were happy to rent decent homes ,which was the point of council houses in the first place.

Sadly not any more.

Agree - some pensioners were hard working, some had an easy life and some were lazy.

Fed up with benefit bashing, and on to old people is it?

What do you suggest - free access euthanasia from 60? They're all a bunch of fucking scroungers looking for a free ride anyway aren't they? I bet they're laughing at you working so hard when all they've done all their life is sit on their arses leading a life of luxury. I bet they even have plasma tv screens in the old people's homes.

FFS.

threeleft - Its worse than that! They get cheap meals delivered to their house - no ordering expensive takeaways for them; and they are much more likely to get given one of those blue badges that let you park in parent and toddler spaces.

I don't think theres anyone else left to bash on MN now.

usual - i am sure we can think of someone if we try really hard [evil grin].

Every 20 year old expects to have a relatively new car? Absolute and total bollocks Gladys. You've made that up.

Yes MrsHeffley you can claim a state pension whilst still working.

And of course OP is nbu in saying not all old people have worked all their lives. That's just plain fact. What one extrapolates from this undoubted truth is the complex part, the undoubted truth is not.

lesley it's worse than I thought!

I think you need to read the whole thread three.

There have been interesting articles re the expectations of todays pensioners,they expect a lot out of their retirement.We have/will put exactly the same hard work into our retirement and will get nothing. They are not all old,ill,poor pensioners living in poverty-far from it.

65 is not old which is why many continue to work. Many couples in their 60s will be on 2 good wages,2 good pensions,no mortgage along with many expensive state benefits and 2 state pensions.Questioning that is not bashing pensioners as a group.

Nobody is bashing the frail and poor,far from it.If there was more control on wasted money for those that didn't need it perhaps more could be spent on those that did.

And yes DC's mantra re all pensioners being hard working all their lives is wearing a bit thin-many didn't,many did.

My parents were both from working class backgrounds and my mum became a teacher and my dad a solicitor. both came from council houses but social mobility seemed to exist more in the early 60's or maybe it still does?

Agreed.