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?

He was paying pension contributions before many people even thought about having another pension to boost state pension. A standard deduction from his salary every month. His pension came with terms and conditions and those terms dictate the pension he has now. Of course it shouldn't be cut.

It's not a race to the bottom. The fact that some people have paid into better pensions than others, or that others have paid into no supplementary pensions at all, doesn't mean that you go raid their pensions.

I'd rather the government spent the money on pensions than a shite water rafting facility in the middle of Dublin.

@PhoenixFreesias

No, I think old style pensions should be reinstated for everyone.

This drive to beat down everyone else’s living standards is the equivalent of battery hens pecking one another til they have no curly yes or feathers left.

This. The bloody race to the bottom is so fucking depressing.

''I'd rather the government spent the money on pensions than a shite water rafting facility in the middle of Dublin.''

I meant it as in help the younger generation get on the property ladder. BTW I have a house.

Eh? He's not getting a state pension you know. He's getting a private one that he contributed to over his career? Or do you not think private pensions should exist?

I meant it as in help the younger generation get on the property ladder. BTW I have a house.

It needn't be either/or. Good governments should support people with houses and enable them to have good pensions. After all, many older people end up needing to pay for care costs.

By the way there is a world of difference between landlords (especially the multiple property owning unscrupulous ones) driving up rent costs with their farms of rental houses and someone working and saving hard their entire life to have a good pension. If you think that's the same thing, you're beyond help and hard of thinking.

@Blindering

''I'd rather the government spent the money on pensions than a shite water rafting facility in the middle of Dublin.''

I meant it as in help the younger generation get on the property ladder. BTW I have a house.

Since when has tax revenue ever been used to get people on the housing ladder? Property ownership isn’t a God given right. This is a vile thread.

This sounds like an occupational scheme rather than state pension.
In which case:
A) he has probably been contributing to it too
B) it will have formed part of the terms of his employment - it is essentially part of his renumeration package, albeit delayed in terms of receipt.
C) Depending on whether the scheme is funded or not, whether his employer is private sector or not (don't know setup in Ireland re college ownership), his pension he is receiving now is possibly nothing to do with current taxpayers.

The pensions are barely enough for those who need to live off them!
I'm in England so I don't know about Ireland, but I'm in my 60s and still having to work (minimum wage) even though it's a very physical job which is causing me problems these days.

I have no other money other than my state pension which doesn't kick in until I'm 66. My pension forecast is around £750 per month, that will be all I have. I rent, I have no property of my own. Rent £395 and bills on top of that, I will be able to just do it but I won't be able to afford a car....currently my car is a lease one and I won't be able to afford the payments once I stop working.

Honestly, people who moan about pensioners having a pension really have no idea.

However, having said that, I do think there should be some sort of means testing. If you've got a vast private pension, a property of your own all paid off and plenty of savings in the bank, it does seem a bit much that you can still collect a monthly amount which you don't really need....
No doubt someone will come along saying that if you paid into the 'pot' all your life you're as entitled as the next person to collect the pension, and I guess that's true too.....

''By the way there is a world of difference between landlords (especially the multiple property owning unscrupulous ones) driving up rent costs with their farms of rental houses and someone working and saving hard their entire life to have a good pension.''

I already pointed out that the many civil servants were overpaid on inflated salaries for years hence why the next generation got massive cuts in the last decade which has lead to a crises.

@Blindering

Edit: just to note I say 'old style pensions' because I don't know if they have being changed since he retired for the next generations but in general I think it's madness that people in their golden years are getting whopper pensions every week. Seems wasteful.

you are a piece of work aren't you? Someone contributes to a pension for a good chunk of their working life and in your opinion they shouldn't get the money that THEY paid in for because they don't need it and its wasteful.

''However, having said that, I do think there should be some sort of means testing. If you've got a vast private pension, a property of your own all paid off and plenty of savings in the bank, it does seem a bit much that you can still collect a monthly amount which you don't really need....''

and that's what I was getting at, he inherited a family home and lots of assets from his parents worth millions being the only child and yet gets a whooper pension, seems wasteful in my eyes.

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.

OP for what it's worth people in the UK who don't have a private pension from their work will get a state pension. Of £176 a week - certainly not the £500 a week you seem to think we all get.

You are being ageist. And ridiculous.

''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.

OP: you have no idea how a pension FUND works, the emphasis being on the word FUND - what you get out is calculated on what you paid in according to the current rate. It is NOT tax payers' money. If you were a high earner you paid in more and therefore receive more according to the current levels. Inform yourself - and, by the way, although I was a tax payer all my working life, I now pay tax on the payout I am receiving on my previosly taxed income contributions = double taxation!

@Blindering
Why shouldn't he he worked prop most of his life payed his taxes and everything else so he has earned it 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔. I work full time for the NHS pay in to the pension does that mean when I retire I'm not entitled to government pension. While I know people that's never worked a day in their lives and think their entitled to everything going, so it's not fair someone who has worked all their lives to be entitled to nothing he's more entitled to it than someone who's never worked if you ask me.

OP, attitudes like yours are absolutely revolting.

They are the thin end of an ageist wedge that leads to old people being disrespected, abused and robbed.

Give your head a wobble.

Someone agrees to their salary and benefits when they take a job. You can't turn round years later and say "actually, I think you were paid too much for that so you need to pay back 20% of everything you earned"

That's basically what you'd be doing by removing people's occupational pensions.

I don't have a defined benefit scheme - too young - but my employer contributes to my pension. That's part of my overall package, if they didn't do that I'd expect a higher salary upfront.

He probably contributed massively from his wages to his pension. Leave the man alone , he's worked for what he has.

It is tricky. My University pension is steadily getting worse and worse, I have to keep paying a greater percentage of my salary to get my pension later and receive a worse pension. This is in part because of having to continue to pay the pensions of earlier generations who were able to retire earlier with a final salary pension who are in general, unsurprisingly in such favourable circumstances, living very long lives.

The final salary pension was removed during my working life and the defined benefits calculater get worse and worse while the age to receive it goes up. I do not understand why my pension entitlement can keep changing but the pensions of those that retired earlier are set in tablets of stone and cannot be even slighty reduced to help the scheme deficit and support the next generations.

Not helped that I have a vile retired family member who gloats about his fat final salary pension from USS and how I am working to pay for it - when I will never receive anything like it.

It is a great intergenerational unfairness so I don't think the OP is being unreasonable in raising it.

Yabu. It was part of his contract.

I work for a public sector employer and will (assuming I work for many more years)have a decent pension. But that is very much a trade off as if I worked in the private sector I could easily earn 10x what I do. I love my job and it is fulfilling but I will have absolutely earnt my pension.

I don’t know the situation in Ireland , but in the UK anyone with a pension income that is above the single person taxable earnings threshold pays income tax on it, just the same as if that was an income derived from an occupation.

I also don’t know what the figure is for taxable income derived from pensioners but I imagine it is substantial, I am fed up of the assumption that we sit in the nest like overfed cuckoos and take and take without making any financial contribution. We do, we pay income tax, VAT, council tax, stamp duty, death duties and any and all other taxes and fees that are asked for.

So, if he's to lose his pension then I assume it you'll be happy to pay back some of your salary (because his pension was part of his agreed remuneration package at the time) in years to come if future generations decide you are being overpaid?