I know this will be contentious - cost of living rise

[qualitychat]

My mum is a pensioner and gets Disability Benefit and Mobility Benefit and Pension Credit. She receives almost what I get in a month. She is moaning about the Government not doing enough about the cost of gas and electricity, which I agree with. The thing is they have said that people on benefits and pension credit will be given lump sums towards their bills. I am a middle earner and so is my husband. We will likely get nothing. Do you not think it will be the ordinary working families who will be squeezed the most if something is not done?

Why ? State pension is designed to replace income. £182.60 a week isn’t a lot when you take that into consideration.

Why should the tax payer / state pay for housing someone when they have a home? Rightly, a person with a privately owned home won’t pay for carers at home or day services if they have very low income even if they own a property as long as they are using it.
I don’t see why a home should sit empty while the state funds the ‘hotel’ costs of the homeowner and local authority care home beds are in very short supply.

State pension is lower than that. The £182 a week is including pension credit that you only get if your total income is less than this amount and you have less than £10k in savings.

It is the same circumstances. Also at that level of income having more than double - an extra hundred quid a week makes a massive difference. It’s a scandal that single people on uc are supposed to live on £75 a week when pensioners get nearly £200 as a minimum.

No it’s not. UC is penalised starting at just £6000 and tapers off at £16,000. Pension Credit allows £10,000 with no penalty and assesses every additional £500 as £1 of income, and reduces entitlement accordingly.

Your Mum must have considerable health problems to receive these benefits.

We’ve tried hospitality but we’ve not had any success. I’m 67 and DH is 65. I did used to do bar work to help pay the mortgage but even though I’m pretty fit I don’t know if I could do it now. DH maybe could and he has done it before and has his Casque Mark qualifications but as soon as they hear his age they decline.
We’ll keep plugging away at it, we thought we’d done just about enough to cover a decent retirement but Covid and now this has cost us in a year what we thought would last for ten! I never thought I’d be looking for a job at this age..

£185.20 a week is pretty good as a minimum yes. And uc is designed to replace income too.

Agree OP. But I’m hopeful that Liz Truss will recognise this, and put something in place to help those in the middle. Guess this is where we should be glad Labour aren’t in Government, as no-one apart from those on benefits would get any help.

Where do you get those figures, My mum is 91 and gets pension credit on top of her state pension - it’s still nowhere near £200. And you’re missing the point. State Pension is intended as a income replacement because you have reached retirement age and no longer work. UC is not.

Except that Keir Starmer lobbied for freezing the cap as it stood before last Friday - meaning everyone would benefit.

No it’s not the same circumstances at all. You can’t seriously compare a young able bodied person of working age and to a pensioner that is too old to work. Age is the great disabler of us all in the end. You’d know this if you’d ever actually seen the struggle of the elderly just to get dressed or wash a plate and cup, to walk, to see, to hear, to exert themselves physically for more than a few minutes.

And single people on UC (with no savings) usually get more than £75/wk as that is just the basic job seeker allowance. There’s usually a housing element too.

It’s not designed as an income replacement benefit in the way that state pension is, because it’s means tested and the rate you get depends on your other income. State pension isn’t.

wrong - state pension is currently £185 a week. You only get pension credit if you didn’t actually work 35 years (even at the most minimal incomes) and so don’t qualify for a state pension. Of these 35 years - 12 can be spent child rearing if you claim child benefits.

Sorry, I thought it was the same. I guess they are allowing a bit extra as most older people save for a funeral. The extra £4k would cover that.

Well You can work and keep all of your state pension. Uc is far less generous. Also you are forced to work on uc unless you have caring responsibilities. So yes, state pension much better.

WRONG.
State pension is £185 a week for new pensioners who have worked for 35 years and not paid into a private pension.
The state pension was raised a couple of years ago. Anyone retiring before then got less.

Also state pension is a minimal income in retirement. It’s not intended to replace wages nor was it ever. It’s also expected that most people will have some other provision.

Exactly. People are under the impression that you can ‘blag’ your way into disability benefits, but that’s just not true any more. They are rigorously assessed and claims require robust medical evidence to support them. The original post comes across as petty jealousy that mum manages on disability benefits paid almost to the level of the OP’s wage. What she conveniently forgets is that these benefits are only paid for substantial disability, which results in much higher costs. The funding isn’t a luxury - it pays for essential extra costs. As an example a friend of ours is substantially disabled, has to contribute towards local authority carers and has essential equipment which either has to remain plugged in, or recharged overnight. She’s also incontinent, which necessitates extra washing/tumble drying and bathing. Unless people live it, they have no idea.

Very few people of state pension age can work though, you act like there’s a choice there where that is only true for a privileged few with good health and with certain niche professions. Less than 1 million over 65s can work out of a population of 12 million.

I think over half the country will be squeezed. We have a good income and no mortgage, but will still have to hugely cut back on our normal life to afford our energy bills. Last year we were paying £70/month. The current prediction for April next year puts us at over £1000. A huge percentage of our income - I can't see how most people can afford that. I am very worried about the country.

The government has said that everyone will get help up to middle earners.

Again you are wrong. Paying into a private pension is expected and even mandated (you can opt out). However if you pay the minimum contributions for 35 years you will get the state pension. It is not means tested and will not reduce if you receive other pension income.

yes some older state pensioners get less state pension but they can also get more under the old system if they paid serps (also previous system only required 30 years contributions not 35).

If they do get less state pension than £185 and have no other income and savings below £10,000 you can claim pension credits to make up the difference.

these are really things that should be taught in schools imo.

And by the same token why should someone who has worked/saved for that home and is using it to fund their care, also be expected to support care funding for someone who hasn’t? Not suggesting the state or the tax payer foots the bill - I’m suggesting a dedicated tax paid by everyone at a rate they can afford, to go some way towards fixing a broken care system which relies on the slightly better off ‘have’s to fund the ‘have nots’.

You have no idea how many over 65s can work. Also there are other benefits for pensioners like disability benefits and attendance allowance.

also the state pension is supposed to be a minimal income. The majority of current pensioners have additional pension income (which doesn’t affect their state pension).