to think the poorest pensioners in the UK aren't actually that poor

[twistedsista]

The minimum amount a pensioner will get at the moment if they have made no provisions is 7714.2 pa tax free + free bus / train (depending on areas) + winter fuel allowances + warm home discount + free perscriptins + consesionry prices for many things etc and most bought homes when they were reasonable so they have minimal housing costs.

Compare this to a single person on nmw who could be paying 25 a week on bus travel, 130 a week on rent with no hope of buying. they have to pay tax and if they are under 45 they will never get the benefits that they are paying for pensionrs to have at the moment.

I'm not being ageist, just looking at the sums

as a single person she can move to find work.

What a stupid comment, just because someone is single doesn't mean they don't have commitments! That's hardly going to help with there are 3m people chasing 0.5 m jobs

I thought it was a reasonable comment not a stupid one. If you want the work to come to you you might be waiting for a while.

Single people can do all kinds of work that people with families can't. They are at a definite advantage.

Its not easy to move. Are you really suggesting that someone moves just because theres a vague hope they might get a minimum wage job elsewhere. Really???? Then after the cost of moving has bankrupted them (assuming they could afford to move in the first place) a minimum wage or zero hours contract job will in no way cover it.

Where is the deposit on the place they are moving to coming from.
Where is the cost for the removals van coming from.
Or do you mean sofa surfing as a price someone has to pay for not having or not being able to have a child or a partner.

When I am feeling rich enough to do a food shop in M&S, I am always astounded by the crowds of pensioners filling up their trolleys. Pensioners are richer than they have ever been.

Well it's a rum do if, after working and saving for fifty or more years, we are not supposed to buy a cottage pie in M&S.
Now we are old, are we meant to only shop at Iceland or Netto?

To answer people who say pensioners get more then they paid in.

My dad gets more then the basic state pension because he DID put more in his extra years of working (50 years in total) gave him a second pension and the years he paid ENHANCED NI contributions had given him a bit more plus a private pension which he had to pay for also gives him more.

When I was a child my Dad worked 3 jobs too give his family a good standard of living, now you may say younger people cant do that as there are no jobs that might be true , but if my Dad had the same type of in work benefits , like HB and CTC WTC etc that todays workers can claim for then he wouldn't have had to work those 3 jobs.

There was a thread on here with someone asking if they are unreasonable to allow their OH to take a lower paid job as WTC would make up the difference between the lower wage and what they were getting at the moment, there was no WTC when my Dad was working if he took a lower paid job or lost one of his 3 that was it no extra help, nothing he could claim for.

I suspect that many of the younger workers here with all the benefits they can claim will find they also have taken out more then they out in when they retire and possibly even before they retire

I agree in part mrscaruso but I see your saying there was no WTC etc and I raise you that there were no zero hours contracts or workfare back then either.

He would have been scuppered if some of those jobs wernt actually paying a wage.

I work with lots of older people who live on the Guarantee Pension Credit which is £148.35 for a single person or £226.50 for a couple, this is the minimum they should get per week.

Some people live ok on that and some do not.

there is many reasons for that.
Just one for an example is:

Gas and electrictity prices I have seen for a 1 bed drafty un-insulated flat are ridiculous because of old heating systems, drafty windows have literally no money left, and are struggling, no options to improve or to move.

But another person on the same amount of money per week happens to live in an insultated mid terrace with double glazing, decent boiler etc, is obviously not spending as much money on the heating.

So there you go two of the poorest apperently, getting the same amount of money each week one can freeze to death and one is quite warm, that is just one of the MANY examples of why this can happen

59 pages of adverts for work placements.

apprenticeshipvacancymatchingservice.lsc.gov.uk/Navms/Forms/Vacancy/SearchVacancyResult.aspx?Query=FaVh1BAu3Va4LyRAEO%2bu98EyC04mOCKJ70XBn6uyN3K0cKcP9%2b8XLm97IIhYF3cmTnw301uTzg0fX0NIRb5M0FMFCtRj3cVZMqUSQoo97E2OgIqlyyyTSD7Db7yt3QW4iG92btk4D6kJbau%2ft4R6CIPFxiWJ%2bDJpkJ8YvY4vt1n5yD2mIUAU0t4yqMt52JiyUfQ2Nag5a8kLT3DnpcHw6iwDZblDzHAbwxchciHADdKXNsd2ekHZPFyeeXEuUBKMNjmsqmoynGfUPXXprvlUXAuuIpj0sGhdwepygFZ6%2b8h%2b5TzStKn2aITe0fBSxeRXuwyexguKtSM6RHWLrNbCaOBIJPRh9UnHQKDmee5YU05kUAusiIYOi2EkyoVXaE4%2fvRBuspvt1evg8%2b4sVQ7x3yJaBpAssB6HR0L8me47NQJcdL%2b4rCTkIfDz%2b6pYYiR5uwaMrW3yKUkKDIcIEjPOpXBfIUtSVb3BU9ANu1gZgtev7D8tMJuOKdc%2buO4xSrJkdDgQNjx5WbSKhDqYtjL2ZqM4xxBKOlXseZnUdh4TIj%2f9B97z8hjA3YZ3JHqkc%2fckNpRFFbkVxF8LgNB6vvitQ%2fZNYwuFt%2bUwYxfK7CsYad0%3d

I should imagine a few MNers who use childcare wont be wild about this......

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This Traineeship Opportunity is unpaid Work Experience as part of an entry to work course. You will gain experience in a childcare setting.

Delivered by Nelson & Colne College.

And that's just one from those many pages.

The sad fact is that there are people in our society who simply do not have enough money to live comfortably, in a warm house with enough food to eat. that worries me, whether they are young or old.
But plenty of pensioners live a very frugal life and still struggle to heat their homes adequately. Especially older women who were expected/made to give up work when they had children and do not have a decent occupational pension.

I agree darkeyes and I hate zero hours but I know one of my Dads jobs was on a come in when we need you basis (I used to love that as it meant that sometimes I saw him before I went to bed) but again the weeks when he didn't have that work he had less money, he couldn't claim any benefits to make up the short fall.

My mum, through no fault of her own, has no private pension so has to work full time (self employed). She gets the state pension, plus £200 per month in industrial injuries PCM. She has rent to pay plus all the usual bill. Believe me, she is not rich. Once I am settled with my partner next year, I am hoping to be able to help her out a bit every month.

Cat, an old person living in somewhere uninsulated can get thousands of pounds to insulate and get a new efficient boiler for free.

Many old people (like my mum) don't have central heating in the first place and if they do, they often can't afford to run it. My mum got hypothermia in January after lying on the floor after a fall for only a couple of hours. A young person would have suffered no ill-effects. Mum nearly died and was in hospital for over a month.

And in any case we get free insulation, both cavity wall and loft insulation here in Scotland and have done so for years. It's not age-related at all.

Perhaps Twistedsista would prefer they all die early of hypothermia so she has to pay less tax.

Scrambled she should be getting housing benefit?

Scrambled are you sure. My dgm has a private pension approx 200 pcm and she gets state pension and full housing and CT benefit. Do her wages take her over the threshold. Go on the age concern benefit calculator. You need her earning and cut band

Ct band

Cat, an old person living in somewhere uninsulated can get thousands of pounds to insulate and get a new efficient boiler for free.

yeah I know that, you know that, loads of people on here know that and we will all tell the older people that, that didnt know for themselves that there is loads of help available but unfortunately there will be the very most vulnerable elderly with no one helping them that dont know they can get their house insulated or new boiler if it broke, and they will sit in the cold and wont tell anyone.

I know one man who through a error at the DWP didnt get his state pension paid for a year and he was eating out of bins, it only got discovered after he was found collapsed in the street and took to hospital. Took one phone call to get it sorted and all the back pay paid but he said he didnt want to bother anyone

Cat it's true my DM is a home help and here and 1000s of pensioners not claiming what hey are entitled to and many have no family to help them. They are living in poverty when they could be looked after with various benefits and help

Pension credit
attendance allowance
they are probably entitles to housing and council tax benefit but no one has told them to claim it.

Once your entitled to pension credit this entitles you automatically to other benefits and this is what I think people are not looking into

Corey out of interest, is your Mum allowed to help them claim?

No I don't think so as even she struggled with grannies claims. I done them all and there was a man from the council I organised to come out and look at all her finances and told me to claim pension credit for her. She gets gaurenteed so that automatically entitles her to housing and council tax benefit but you still have to claim them.

Dm was adamant after speaking to people she visits my dgm shouldn't be getting as much money I she does so I got all her incomes together and went on age concern to do the calculator and it gave me exactly what she is getting so she is getting the right amount and probably the people my dm is visiting are not claiming everything

granny gets attendance allowance and guaranteed pension credit her state and private pension. The guaranteed pension credit entitles her to housing and council tax benefit

I would advise anyone with elderly relatives to check them on age concern as for years dgm wasn't getting what she was entitled to. She was paying full rent and council tax when she shouldn't have been