Pensions to rise with inflation - but what about working people???

[doris9034]

BBC Website: "Liz Truss and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt jointly agreed to guarantee that the state pension rises with inflation next year - thereby maintaining the "triple lock" - ahead of PMQs this morning, Downing Street says.
In a huddle with reporters after PMQs, the prime minister's official spokesman said the decision reflected the "unique position" of pensioners who are "unable to increase their earnings through work"

But I - and millions of others - are also unable to "increase our earnings through work" because we are in the middle income bracket, our employers do not have the capacity to raise our earnings in line with inflation and we don't qualify for any state related benefits.

So, whilst I 100% don't begrudge the helping of pensioners (many of whom are probably among the better off anyway), I can't help but feeling a bit annoyed that it always seems to be the ordinary working person / family that never gets any respite from the ever increasing cost of living.

I think (although as we have a new chancellor this may change?) an announcement was going to be made on 31st October about working aged benefits.

SOME pensioners are well off, but the vast majority are not.

Silver voters keep the tories in power so of course they’re going to rip off working people to fund them even more.

Working people who are now receiving their pensions are ordinary people, who have worked hard all their lives

Same here. Although you can guarantee that by the time I retire, the triple lock will be binned. Poverty while working, poverty while retired. No opportunity to really live differently in this country - you can't live in a trailer like in the US for example - so you have to spend your paltry money on a bricks and mortar home and pay council tax on it, leaving you with not much left for travel etc. Doomed to sit in an armchair in a cold house watching out of the window and only dreaming of the fun you could have. Grrrr.

Well, some of them have worked hard. Some of them have worked - and some of them haven't worked at all, theres a varied mix.

In any case, it's to do with the older generation voting tory and the tories not wanting to lose their core voters.

Quite sad really - whats the point in being in power if all you're gonna do is make sure you win the election next time no matter what. Surely our leaders should, well, LEAD.

@PainterJane but will that just be for people who work and qualify for UC etc? If you don't qualify for any benefit, there isn't any help (AFAIK) and you just have to try and manage all of the increases with no comparative increase in earnings.
I understand that's the way the world works now and i guess we just have to suck it up till we get a chance to vote for a change, but it just really annoys me when the government gloat about things like the pension increase, when in reality, the majority of us working people are still stuck in a s**t show.....

Not well off. Worked 40 years to get my state pension
Frequently had 4 jobs at one time just to keep a roof over our heads. Not for my own car, or holidays. Last one was almost 14 years ago.

YANBU. My mum is in receipt of a state pension, plus a £40k p.a. (inflation linked) widows pension courtesy of my dad. She lives in a huge 6 bed house, alone, no mortgage, £250k in the bank. She gets winter fuel allowance, all the other allowances pensioners get and has the brass neck to bang on about how poor she is.

The thing is though, for every pensioner like my mum, there are (at a guess) another 10, trying to scrape by on the state pension. Many of them in ill health, unable to afford to put the heating on or the TV for a bit of company. The issue is, I suppose, how do you distinguish between the two for the purpose of the triple lock? I genuinely don’t know.

I am fairly newly retired from a public sector job, in which we had frozen pay increases for years, with occasional 1% or so rises, well below inflation.

In real terms our pay went down considerably throughout my working life.
I saw the difference between my lifestyle and private sector employed friends - and other, more valued public sector professions.
So I do understand how that feels.

But I can’t help feeling a bit pleased about my pension. I haven't got a great deal of earning potential nowadays, so it's a big deal to me to be inflation linked at last.
They won't keep it, of course.

iguess you could look at it as all of us will gain from the uplift each year when we become pensioners. So our pension will be better as it has kept up with inflation rather than been eaten away over the years.
pensions falling behind inflation affect everyone eventually

Have they? A lot of the women won’t have paid a full working history of NI. There were many more SAHMs.

Well yes, there's the JH budget on the 31st, replacing KK's justification for his budget. But that doesn't mean they can't/don't make other announcements.

Tgey wanted to reassure the nation that the triple lock was being back in place, as per the manifesto.

Great. My friend will get £15 more per month. That's really going to make a huge difference . NOT. I'm glad they're reinstated it, but don't be under any illusion it's a grand amount.

obviously you DO resent pensioners getting it, or you wouldn't have started the thread this way.

contrary to all the ranting on here, many pensioners are not loading around in 5 bedroom houses with the heating in max, many are just ordinary people, who have PAID INTO the pension pot all their lives. Who did over time, worked alternate hours to the husband & wives to pay the bills, brought up families in the 70's.

I agree OP, if pensions rise in line with inflation and we're arguing for benefits to rise in line with inflation, how on earth can they argue that workers should get below-inflation wage rises? I understand there's a crisis but work should pay. I've recently got a promotion and have pretty much maxed out on how high I can go in my organisation without a huge leap in responsibility (which incidentally wouldn't come with a huge leap in salary...). I now pay lots more in tax, NI and pension (went into a higher contributions bracket too). Take home pay hardly went up at all.

Some have, some havn't. You don't need to have worked hard all your life to qualify for state pension. You don't need to have worked at all if you've qualified for NIC "credits" due to being on certain benefits, home responsibilities exemption, or earning between the NIC thresholds where you qualify for "credits" but don't pay NIC. i.e. mostly part time working.

@doris9034 I definitely agree with you and I am a pensioner!
However, don't believe everything you hear about pensions. I worked for 44 years and many of these years at 40% tax rate. I retired early as I had more than enough years in. Had to wait 7 years to get my pension which is less than £160 PW because hardly anyone gets the new full flat rate introduced in 2016. I am really penalised - so is everyone else - for being prudent and having 2 not huge private pensions. You only get the full flat rate if you have no private pensions or sat on your arse all your life, (disabled/disability excluded of course.)
Nothing really for people who work hard these days.☹️ (My husband earned similar to me, retired at exactly the same age as me but he falls into the old rate and receives over £200 more than me yet still holds 3 private pensions. Things definitely getting worse!)

The state pension is within the sole control of the Government. Hence the Chancellor makes the decision about what will be paid.

The government also makes decisions about pay for state employees on a sector by sector basis.

The government also sets the level of the minimum wage.

The government also sets the level of Universal Credit and other benefits topups for families with those entitlements.

For those of us employed in the private sector, not on minimum wage and not in receipt of benefits, then it's between us and our employers. Just at the moment, it's an extremely tight employment market, so now is the time to haggle or move: next year may be trickier.

£200 more than me per month that should read.

@FistFullOfRegrets No, I really don't resent it - and i'm sure there are loads of pensioners who either will massively benefit, or will be in much the same position as your friend and see it as just a token gesture that makes bugger all difference in the grand scheme of things.

My point is really about the fuss the government make around it being such a help to society and aren't they bloody marvellous, when in actual fact it helps a very small minority of people and the reality is that the vast majority of people who the government believe are "able to increase their earnings through work" really, really arent!

The inflation element of the triple lock should be replaced by a wage inflation link instead - so it matches real salary increases.

Oh goody, another I fucking hate old people thread.

@TugboatAnnie this is not about "old people", this is about Government policy.

@Cuppasoupmonster

Silver voters. You mean those older people who have paid into the pension pot for decades?

Rip off you mean collect the pension they were promised she. They paid into the pension pot?

Find then even more. Seriously. Have a look at the pension & have a wee think whether you could live on that?!

lots of pensioners are renting their homes.

Speaking as someone who would benefit.

Years ago it was true that the majority of pensioners were poor.
I think it's different now. Age is no more an indication of wealth when you are over 65 or under.
DH is 73 and I am 64 so I'm not yet a pensioner. We are not poor.
I would far rather my DC got a tax cut.
Raise the personal allowance. Scrap national insurance and merge it with tax so everyone pays not just the working age.
It would be perfectly simple to help the least well off pensioners by uplifting pension credits.
I fear it's a cop out because it would be unpopular, just as reforming the NHS would be too unpopular.

EXACTLY!!