To think the old style pensions should be capped.

[Blindering]

ok, I am in Ireland so unaware of how UK pensions function but my neighbour who worked as a college lecturer but retired in 2008 in his 70s gets 600 euro a week in pension, equivalent to 513 stg.
This is on top of a 150k pay off he got when he left the job which I believe all civil servants here were getting.

But aibu to think a bachelor living in a house with the mortgage long paid off has no need for over 500stg a week? Like what would one need the money for at that stage in life?

@wewereliars

House prices are high because not enough houses are being built, its simple economics.

Supply is less than demand so prices are high.

Absolutely nothing to do with pensions, private or state.

I'd argue there is a link with pensions tbh - but not in the way OP suggests! Pensions declining and lower returns on some investments, plus high house price inflation has contributed to more people becoming BTL landlords instead of investing in pensions - which in turn pushes up property prices more.

But making pensions insecure and subject to arbitrary capping would make this worse, not better.

YABVU. If it’s a private pension it’s absolutely none of your business.

If it’s a state pension issue write to your MP.

As to what he’ll spend it on- it’s his money to do with as he likes. He’ll probably spend it on care needs in his old age. My late DGM’s care home cost £4K a month.

@Blindering

''Most pensions arent paid by the government''

retired teachers, police and nurses in Ireland have over inflated pensions higher than many wages in the uk.

Bloody teachers, police officers and nurses eh? Being paid crappy wages working in crappy conditions to keep us safe, educate our kids and care for our sick. Can't believe the cheeky bastards actually want a pension as well! They'll be asking for some respect next!

We are living in a system of capitalism, fairness is not an issue one way or another.

No body has made central decision to increase house prices.

Maybe your elderly neighbour is very bright, earned a decent salary and now has a decent pension. Sod all to do with you.

May be set up your own capitalist utopia OP.

I kind out agree with you op. There is definitely a 2 tier system for pensions where people in the public sector will get much better pensions than those in the private sector. It's our kids who will end up paying out of their taxes.

There are plenty of people in the private sector on low incomes as well. Factory workers, delivery drivers, shop workers etc etc. Only a few are on these mega salaries people seem to think all the private sector are on.

A modest public sector pension of £25,000 costs the taxpayer around £500,000 and that's without any lump sum. It's just not sustainable.

To really equal things up everyone should save for their own pensions but that's never going to happen with the union's etc.

''Most people I know in their 30s have afforded to buy. ''

the ones I know got help from bank of mum and dad.

Here you go OP. This might help you get a bit of perspective.

For example I’ve picked 1970 in South East (it’s only U.K. I’m afraid).

Yes the average house price was 67% less (adjusted for inflation), but the average wage was also 41% less, and the cost of groceries was 27% more. Compound that with extraordinarily high interest rates and it’s not a pretty picture.

So yesthe average house price was 4 times the average salary, compared to now it being 7 times average salary, but other costs of living were more. And taking just the cost of the house is disingenuous. A monthly mortgage payment on that average house at 15% interest is £2,500 compared to just £753 at today’s lower interest rates.

www.hillarys.co.uk/back-in-my-day/

''Being paid crappy wages working in crappy conditions to keep us safe, educate our kids and care for our sick. ''

the latter in Ireland were never paid ''crappy wages'' until 2010 when the existing ones threw their younger counterparts under the bus and agreed with the unions to sacrifice their own pay so that those who started after that got the ''crappy wages''.

OP: no one is taking you seriously, you are just being goading and looking for a fight. You are of the mentality "what I say is right and you are all wrong"!
Carry on..... you'll soon find yourself alone because no one will be bothered listening to your bizarre opinions - neither here on MN or in real life.

''Here you go OP. This might help you get a bit of perspective.''

and yet everybody I knew in London over 45, many on basic jobs that required no education had houses.

Yes OP everyone should give their money to you.

@blindering I have a 1 bed flat. I got it cheap as it needed a lot of repair work and still does.

When you've fixed it up you could downsize to a studio. Just like old people don't need a lot of money you don't really need a separate bedroom do you?

paid into from an over inflated old style salary from tax*
🙂 You have no idea what you're talking about.

I don't know about where you are, but veryone in England pays for their govt pension in National Insurance deductions from their pay every month.

Some of us also pay into either private pensions or our employers' pension schemes. According to you, if we've paid the extra to get a company pension, we should forfeit the government pension that we've paid into for 40 years? Seriously?

I hate this race to the bottom nonsense. I'm in my twenties and would much rather we fight for better pensions for the younger generations than worse ones for those who are retired now.

If we accept and endorse (further) decline it's hardly going to pay dividends when it's our turn.

@Blindering

''Here you go OP. This might help you get a bit of perspective.''

and yet everybody I knew in London over 45, many on basic jobs that required no education had houses.

There is clearly no point reasoning with you 😂

Dunning-Kruger effect

If your neighbour gets 600 euro a week, it's not from a state pension. Presumably that's the total he gets from the govt and any private or employers' pensions he might have. It sounds as though he's been very sensible and paid in extra for a long time.

£25k a year isn't a modest public sector pension, it's a high one. The average public sector pension pays out nothing like that - mine will pay out about £14k a year after 35 years of full time NHS work. I won't get a full state pension because I was in the contracting out scheme, so I expect to have to work part time well past retirement age. I'm actually fine with that, I'm not the sitting around doing nothing type, but people should really stop pushing the 'gold plated public sector pension' crap when the situation is that averages are distorted massively by a small number of very, very high payouts.

Exactly Hotchoc and the person wanging on about unions seems as hard of thinking as the OP.

Pensions and all workers' rights in general have been and are being decresaed all the time because unions have been made powerless by successive right wing governments who govern by and for the rich.

Since the late 70s the ordnary working person has seen a massive re distribution of wealth from them to the wealthiest. That's the wrong that needs rectifying and will never happen without unions.

FROM HIS OWN OCCUPATIONAL SCHEME THAT HE PAID INTO HIS ENTIRE LIFE

And not anything to do with taxpayers money. If that even needed saying. But obvs does.

@Blindering

''Live a comfortable life basically because they earned it. ''

and so when folk of the next generations and indeed this generation complain of bad pensions and renting in middle age is it their fault that they didn't earn it?

If people in their 30s pay into a private or company pension as I did, then yes, when they get to my age, they'll have a similar pension to me (at 65). If they don't pay in, then they won't.

Again, I can only talk about the UK, but now everyone, whoever they work for, can participate in a pension scheme that their employer has to pay into on their behalf. So in that respect, younger people now will potentially be better off than the generation above them who didn't have that option.
So tomorrow's pensioners, provided they worked and opted into a pension, will have more money coming in than the present generation have.

It's not about everyone having the same level of shit OP, we should all have the same opportunities as your neighbour if we live in a society which is meant to be progressing and becoming fairer.

Sick of people blaming each other in this race to the bottom - blame the government, policy makers, tax avoiding corporations, The BofE. They are the ones who have fucked everything up for younger generations. People like to create these Us vs Them threads to divert attention from the real offenders. Don't get sucked in.

@pointythings

£25k a year isn't a modest public sector pension, it's a high one. The average public sector pension pays out nothing like that - mine will pay out about £14k a year after 35 years of full time NHS work. I won't get a full state pension because I was in the contracting out scheme, so I expect to have to work part time well past retirement age. I'm actually fine with that, I'm not the sitting around doing nothing type, but people should really stop pushing the 'gold plated public sector pension' crap when the situation is that averages are distorted massively by a small number of very, very high payouts.

Same here. 37 years of teaching, and I get £15k.

I paid a lot into it, I'm very grateful for it, but the whole 'gold plated' thing is highly exaggerated.

This isn't a pensioner bashing thread

Don't piss up our legs and tell us it's raining.

@Blindering

''His pension won't be coming from tax money. It will be coming from the pension fund that he paid into for all his working life.''

paid into from an over inflated old style salary from tax.

But that's not his fault?

You sound very bitter.