I will probably get flamed for this but ...

[glitterytrainers]

When anyone talks about pensioners they say that the person has worked all their life, deserve their pension, free bus pass etc. Do you think it is possible in the near future that there are going to be a whole bunch of pensioners who have never worked a day in their life? I certainly know a few who have never paid into the system but will get the same pension as me. And no, I'm not talking about disabled people or people with chronic illnesses or carers.

When anyone talks about pensioners they say that the person has worked all their life, deserve their pension, free bus pass etc.

I actually don't think that phase rings true anymore either. We went from exactly the above, to the older generation being perceived as the thieves of a decent life for the younger generation. Just like that. Older people ruined the environment, got decent pensions, all the "free Stuff" that the younger generation don't think they are going to be able to have. That's more what I hear now tbh. Because when people lived their lives, they weren't just doing the best they could for themselves and their DC etc. they deliberately tried to ruin it for everyone - FACT!

There’s a bloke on our road who you just know hasn’t ever worked & I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s his daughters grandfather either.

I know a couple of women just hitting pension age, never worked, too overweight. One has a husband never worked, back problems, never wanted to get off it, their son, overweight, worked for a month in his youth, didn't like it, never worked since, council house of his own.

The mother of the two women was a hard worker, pillar of the church - worked himself to death at 55 (her husband died in the mines in his 30s). The wasters find a way to bend the system.

they should just get the same pension as the rest of us

MPs do get the same pension as the rest of us. They also get an occupational pension, like most of us.

Perhaps, OP, you had a lot of luck in your life .

Not everybody does you know . Yea those on benefits will get a State Pension but how it would be MORE than you, who earns, I don't know .

Quite frankly sick of benefit bashing
Some try to find jobs but the jobs they USED to do , the companies now want under grad's ffs .
Life is not the same for everyone .

The problem with the more you pay in the more you get out argument is that it further entrenches inequality.
I am a high earner. I pay shedloads of Tax and NI. I also have a decent private pension pot and rental income. Should I get more?
The state pension is there to ensure a basic standard of living, I don’t begrudge anyone who is trying to survive on it. I don’t need more out of the pot because I’ve paid more.

The thing is '@glitterytrainers , you could use your argument for any sort of tax/ benefits. Lots of people pay into the pot and don't get a return commensurate with their contributions.

This is especially so with high earners who pay 50% tax compared to 20% yet still get the same state pension. And people who have not paid in enough NI do get less pension than anyone with full contributions.

What about a refund of tax for people who send kids to private schools?
What about a refund of tax for people who have private health cover and rarely if ever use the NHS?
Or people who are childfree and yet pay for other people's kids ? (education and child benefit.)

The state pension is a pittance - max £169 a week under the new rates for anyone with full NI contributions. This is to cover a person's food, clothing, fuel bills, transport, and everything else. Most people nowadays top it up with their savings, or have an occupational pension, or keep doing some part time work if they can. Those who don't find it very hard. So although they may not have worked much, it would be hard for them to survive on much less.

I am not sure I agree with your notion that you will be 'poor' in old age.

You will have 2 x £10K plus your husband's pension whatever that is .Given you will probably not have a mortgage at 67, that's a pretty reasonable amount to live off.

You’ve got three children, OP, they’ve been educated with the taxes of people who have one or none at all. That’s just as unfair.

My DMiL has never done a days paid work in her life but now lives on pension income of almost £40k pa. This has come about because DFiL paid into various valuable pension schemes plus the state pension throughout his working life and sadly died 10 years ago leaving his widow well taken care of.
I don’t care who pays in and who doesn’t, everyone should have a guaranteed income in older age, not least because no bugger will employ anyone over the age of 50 if they can avoid it.

not least because no bugger will employ anyone over the age of 50 if they can avoid it

Not true. I was hired on more than one occasion in preference to younger women because I wouldn’t get pregnant and didn’t have child care issues. Smart recruiters know hiring older women makes sense.

alsohuman the plural of anecdote isn’t data

What does that even mean? The silly face doesn’t make it any clearer.

not least because no bugger will employ anyone over the age of 50 if they can avoid it
Is that your personal experience or anecdotal or data driven? @JosephineDeBeauharnais Many companies have a positive attitude to older workers. It is also quite possible to retrain at 50 (I did) and many people do this and work for another 15 + years. I have two friends who trained as psychotherapists aged 50+ and one carried on working till she was 80, the other late 60s. People need to be a bit more resourceful if they want rewarding work and get some skills that are sought after.

Just want to clear something up. Pensioners who were 65 or older on 8th April 2013 and in receipt of DLA will NOT be transferred onto PIP. They will remain on DLA and if this is a lifetime award of DLA, it will indeed last them the rest of their lives.

OP are you saying that you would feel completely comfortable seeing these pensioners with absolutely zero income when they are pension age? Will you enjoy watching them freeze and starve?

How very odd

Wouldn't worry, pensions will be scrapped before millennials get to pension age. ☹️🤷🏼‍♀️

I retired on Health Grounds at 46. I get an occupational pension and my state pension contributions are made from Employment Support Allowance contributions.

I also had my first total hip replacement at 26, and now need both knees and both hips done, one of them for the 3rd time.

I will undoubtedly get a full State Pension, (assuming I live that long).

Anyone who tells me that it’s not fair for me to get a full state pension has my full agreement. I would think it was far fairer for me to still be physically able to go to work each day, and pay my own contributions. As opposed to spending most days in pain, and at 56 not able to wear lace up shoes, or tights because I can’t get them on.

My aunt, who would have been 112 this year, was saying there would soon be no state pension when I was a child. It’s as silly a statement now as it was then.

I voted YANBU because your post is asking whether there will be pensioners who haven’t worked all of their lives, and of course the answer to that is yes.

I didn’t realise until you elaborated that your question was actually “should these people get less money than me?”, to which my answer would’ve been no. So I’m not convinced that your voting results are that hot, I’m afraid.

Don’t worry too much, lots about d the people who have spent their lives on sickness benefits and not contributing to the system will just die anyway, myself being one of them. I would have committed suicide years ago but I was talked out of that by a therapist. Like many others, I am hoping that my life will naturally end before I am even more vulnerable as an elderly person and disgraced by society for not ‘contributing’ through what has been a very difficult life, for reasons not of my own making.

14UtuNorantiPralatongsThirdEye Are you being serious , children under a certain age get free medical care anyway and what normal working class family can afford private schooling. Please come back to earth and stop trying to make woman feel rubbish for haveing children

My friends dad is a Britain First type. Voted Brexit for racist reasons etc. He’s the first to scream about people coming over here to claim and mouthing off about not working hard all his life to give money to immigrants. However, I know he mainly worked cash in hand doing trade work. He’s also a heavy drinker and smoker and has been in and out of hospital in his later years as a result. However, apparently he’s entitled to drain resources as he’s English.

He’s retirement age so I’m sure he’ll be expecting all he’s ‘entitled’ to again because he’s English as it’s his birthright despite never having contributed fuck all apart from beating up Asians in the 70s/80s.

And yes I massively resent having to contribute towards state pension to a wife beating racist who worked bare minimum and taught his primary aged kids to scream outside a Spanish family who lived up the road to ‘get out of our country, dirty p@kis’ (yes they were Spanish but all non English were apparently ‘p@k’s’ or ‘ni@ nogs’ to him). Friend was even scared to tell him she’d dated an Irish bloke when she was in her 20s!

Most of the very old women needing social care at the moment will not have worked nor paid NI.

My mother and MIL died aged 93 and 91 respectively. They both worked until retirement at 60.

OTOH I’m 58 and know two people the same age who have not worked, barring short spells of part time bar work, since their first child. Children are all grown up and independent now yet they still seem to live through and for them.