Can anyone live on a state pension?

[whatisforteamum]

I've never had a pension,bought a house on a low income so scrimped and scraped to make ends meet and paid the mortgage with no outstanding debt .Dh put into a small pension over 30 yrs.
We are in our 50s and 60s and feel the thought of living on the state pension daunting.
We do have life savings and I will call the government pension advice line.
AIBU to think the state pension won't cover the bills of most pensioners?
Can anyone survive on just state pension.

The trouble is the unexpected bills in retirement. Dental treatments and physio for my back this year cost me £500 but I am still working.

It’s a risk IME to live a frugal life to receive a better lifestyle in retirement. My dad did this and he died at 62, I wish he’d had holidays and a decent car etc when he was younger.

@Fr0thandBubble

OP if I were you I’d just keep working as long as I was physically able. That’s what I plan to do - I’ll work until I drop. I think people retire far too young generally.

Do you like your job then? Because for me the thought of another 25 years is totally soul destroying, but then having to work even longer into my old age...

@Manzanilla55

The trouble is the unexpected bills in retirement. Dental treatments and physio for my back this year cost me £500 but I am still working.

Wouldn't your dental treatment be free?

Not unless you are on benefits. Sometimes even a very small private pension excludes you from benefits such as free dental treatment. So folk end up worse off.

I think this is what people really have to think about. If you have no decent pension for years, then it’s really not worth kicking in a few hundred a month in your last working years. You can end up worse off by making yourself just over the threshold for many other benefits and things like free dental treatment etc.

It’s not a case of “every little helps” for some people. It will leave them worse off in retirement. So people really have to look at their own circumstances and plan accordingly.

True''
Free tv licence (75+) £159, 'Warm Homes Discount' £140, 'BT Basic', reduced rate broadband, free dental treatment.....are just some of the benefits available to people on Pension Credit, and not available to others. As said above a small personal pension could put you over the threshold for such benefits, and leave you worse off.

@Manzanilla55

The trouble is the unexpected bills in retirement. Dental treatments and physio for my back this year cost me £500 but I am still working.

Physio is available on the NHS where I live. Retirement is exactly like working; you set money aside for unexpected expenses. Why wouldn’t you?

I have a private dental plan but had to pay for root canal and extraction. That came to £300 even with 20 per cent off. As a rule I dont pay extra.

The other thing my elderly mum also needs is transport to regular hospital appointments. A lady from the church does this, so far she has ferried mum to about 6 this year. But she can’t always do it and a taxi one way is £40 from where we live. There is no direct public transport route. I’d take her but I’m tied to a desk and kids…

"Retirement is exactly like working; you set money aside for unexpected expenses. Why wouldn’t you?"

Well, just like with working, some people's income doesn't allow putting anything aside and the state pension is so low that saving on the side might be hard for some.

@Neveragain990

The other thing my elderly mum also needs is transport to regular hospital appointments. A lady from the church does this, so far she has ferried mum to about 6 this year. But she can’t always do it and a taxi one way is £40 from where we live. There is no direct public transport route. I’d take her but I’m tied to a desk and kids…

Don't they have those green 'ambulance' things that take people to hospital?

the criteria for qualifying for hospital transport has become more and more stringent.
we have to answer an interrogation every month, even though the patient's condition, and impossibility of using other transport, will not, cannot improve. these questions take over 10 minutes.
it's like dealing with waynetta slob: can she use a wheelchair.
well it depends, she can't use a standard wheelchair because her leg cannot bend.
answer the question, yes or no, can she use a wheelchair.
if you fail to answer yes/no she will not get transport. it's like the stasi.
this is a privatised service now, more salami slicing away at the nhs.
so whereas in the past older ambulance technicians would do this as a kind of step down job before retiring, it is now provided by dhl and similar.
they have little training, and less interest in patient welfare, with a few exceptions. pay peanuts etc.
last time, my neighbour who has multiple complex morbidities was hurt by being bashed with the carry-chair, despite our warnings.
real ambulance personnel are careful, knowledgeable and sympathetic. but they don't get to do transport to/from hosp appts any more. so they have to struggle on at the high-impact end of emergency calls etc, and if not fit enough, they're out.
the dhl driver was also openly racist, and challenged on it by my elderly white neighbour. the driver laughed it off, saying, he, her colleague who was african, doesn't mind. he in the corner couldn't say much. the driver was ignorant rather than malicious. saying the sort of thing might have been comedy 40+ years ago.
guess dhl are not going to waste money on that sort of training.
they don't bother much about patient care and handling training.
it's a great life if you don't weaken. mind how you go.

My mum has a tiny works pension. Which means she misses out on everything that pension credit gets you.
She manages but would be better off with pension credit.

You can claim Pension Credit to top up the State Pension, but you'll have to wait until both of you are pension age.

It's not completely clear from your posts whether you've paid off your mortgage yet? As long as you've paid off the mortgage you should be ok.

I suggest you contact Pension Wise for some advice. Get a State Pension forecast as well. And if you want advice on benefits and budgeting, contact Citizens Advice.

When I look at the amounts for state pension, I'll actually be better off by then than I am now - when I subtract my mortgage payment (which will be paid off) and my childcare from my current salary it leaves me with less than I'll get on a state pension.

The state pension is a lot more generous than unemployment benefits that people are expected to live off. My friend gets £410 a month!

At least by that age most have paid off their mortgage - those on UC get no help with mortgages. My friend has been told she'll have to wait 18 months before she is allowed to take out mortgage interest support which is a loan essentially. It only covers £150 anyway.

She is having to sell her home as clearly an £800 mortgage but £400 income dont fit. That is without other essential bills like food or fuel.

Pensioners are comfortable in comparison.

@Willyoujustbequiet is friend not able to work then?

360 pw is 1440 pm.
Surely that's plenty of money.
More than I have now with 2 kids to support.
And you'll have no mortgage.
I dont see the worry, what are your outgoings?

if you have savings then at a certain
level the pension credit is reduced - better to cash under the bed 😂
If you have any on going illness you may be able to claim
Attendance allowance which isn’t calculated
My parents both had a state pension and private pension and both had AA
They had no mortgage and were getting over 2.200 a month in total

Leave school at 16 or 18
State pension age 66 to 68
50 years to contribute
Need 35 years NI contributions
So should be achievable for everyone

You don't have to retire! Keep working as long as you feel able to, your state pension increases by 6% each year you defer taking it after retirement.

You can also take in a lodger if you have a spare room.

Well the problem is that many people have no choice but to live on it! ATM if you have no MG or debt or just a small Mg left ,should be enough with few luxuries I suppose .Many younger people with DC have to manage on a min or low pay job with DC as well.

@Oldsu no she's recently disabled. She's submitted all the evidence to universal credit/DWP in the hope of getting the disabled top up but she's been waiting nearly a year for their assessment - covid backlog apparently .

She's been left to rot basically. This wouldn't have happened if she was a pensioner and entitled to minimum/more generous pension benefits.

[quote Willyoujustbequiet]@Oldsu no she's recently disabled. She's submitted all the evidence to universal credit/DWP in the hope of getting the disabled top up but she's been waiting nearly a year for their assessment - covid backlog apparently .

She's been left to rot basically. This wouldn't have happened if she was a pensioner and entitled to minimum/more generous pension benefits.[/quote]
Sorry but you just mentioned unemployment benefits not disability benefit, I take it she is in the support group for ESA, has she applied for PIP as well.

As sympathetic as I am to your friends plight ( I happen to think disability benefits should be more and easier to get ) but you cant use it as an excuse to complain about what you think pensioners get.

The state pension on its own is contribution based (30 years for the old pension 35 years for the new) and as such has no additional benefits, no passported entitlement to free dental care etc , no automatic right to housing benefit in fact nothing automatic at all (apart from the winter fuel allowance ) everything has to be applied for with no guarantee of acceptance.

Pension Credit is means tested the same way as income based benefits for working age people (the savings limit is slightly more) and has the same additional benefits as working age people on IB benefits get.

Disabled pensioners only get PIP if they got it before pension age, otherwise it's Attendance Allowance which is for personal care only there is no mobility component attached.

Perhaps you will supply a list of the benefit you think pensioners get if I have missed anything out