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.

Then they should have found better jobs, forgone their daily daily mail and 10 pack of Marlboro, and had less fondu parties in order to save for their retirement. (God it feels good to give out ridiculous financial advice to boomers instead of receiving it from them)

Yanbu OP it's the boomer party looking after boomer voters at the expense of everyone else. Pretty much to be expected now seeing as they've only cared about their own back pockets for the past several decades.

meh, you say this - both of my grandmothers who have both been in receipt of their pensions for at least 20 years already (and inherited my late grandfathers' private ones) barely worked at all - they got married in their early 20s and that was it. I think one did a few dinner lady type jobs for a few hours a week for a very short time. Similarly, although my grandfathers did work full time, they both retired in their early fifties! All very working class. I obviously don't begrudge by grandmothers anything but they absolutely are taking far more out of the system than a) they ever put in and b) I have already put in!

I can see the OPs point - it's all very well saying working age people can increase their earnings, but realistically the only viable way of doing this is to either take a second job (so it's okay for a 59 year old to work a full time job AND a part time job but not for a 65 year old to do one part time job?) or to get a better paid job - and if everyone actually did this (ignoring the fact it's impossible), there would be any care workers, nurses, etc around to provide the care (a lot of) pensioners need!

As much as everyone hates the idea of pension age rises, there is a huge difference between a 65 year old pensioner and an 85 year old one....someone who is very elderly might not be able to take on any work, someone who is otherwise well and healthy and can manage babysitting grandchildren or travelling on multiple cruises actually probably could do 10 hours on a till or in a basic admin job if needed - or at least it isn't so inconceivable to expect this given that it's apparently doable for someone 20 years younger to work five times as many hours while also being more likely to have young children to care for etc.

RockingMyFiftiesNot But they have made significant NI contributions over their working decades.
do you have statistics for that?
It's not rocket science: you have to have contributed usually 30 years of NI to qualify for the full pension .

The other 3/5 of the costs are incurred by under 65s, including babies, children, teenagers who don't yet contribute.

How can you separate the two as surely the over 65s were also born & were children & had children?
And since have paid decades of NI

i can't imagine older people begrudging having subsidised the healthcare of younger people

Well they can't unless they were never young which is unlikely..^
And you'll never be old, right?^

You do realise you will all be pensioners one day?

Do you think free prescriptions for over 60s will still exist in a few years? Or NHS will remain in its current form? Or that state pension age won't move out again?
No idea, I don't have a crystal ball. But vote the best way I can to try and protect the less well off in this country. And it's not the party people on this thread say I would vote for (being an old well-off person)

You don’t understand how NI works do you?

When Comrade Starmer takes power he should track down every single Truss voter in the party that voted her in and take the state pension off them, pour encourager les autres😁

You don’t understand how NI works do you?

Please explain

But will there be a state pension at all by then?
Stagnant wages, sky high house prices, aging population, declining birth rates. What will be left to fund my retirement? Public services are already suffering, we can't keep increasing taxation on working people for little return. We can't let pensioners starve, so the money will come out of education, or top up benefits and the next generations will have even less to fall back on in retirement.
I absolutely don't begrudge pensioners their uplift, but they shouldn't be ONLY ones getting it. It's unsustainable.
Of course pensioners themselves, aren't the problem. It's the governments they voted for, that have continued to allow big business to bleed us all dry.

The clue about who this post was talking about is in the first 2 words - working people.

You do realise that's not how the state pension works right?

It's not rocket science: you have to have contributed usually 30 years of NI to qualify for the full pension .

Why do you think it changed to 35?

No idea, I don't have a crystal ball

But the point is todays young are unlikely to see the same benefits. They certainly don't have access to the same private pension schemes or equity gains.

You do realise that pensioners have already funded their own pensions?

well that explains a lot 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Stagnant wages, sky high house prices, aging population, declining birth rates. What will be left to fund my retirement? Public services are already suffering, we can't keep increasing taxation on working people for little return. We can't let pensioners starve, so the money will come out of education, or top up benefits and the next generations will have even less to fall back on in retirement.

And that's the crux of the matter but it's easier to accuse you of ageism or say you should have made better choices or not had a mobile phone.

I was born in the 50s as were my sisters. We all went to state nursery from the age of 1.

Steve Baker, of the party that’s been in power the most for the last 50 years, which permanently scalped £100bn off our GDP with Brexit is now warning that we need growth because otherwise in 20yrs the UK will default on state pensions. You just can not make this shit up.

@Soontobe60 I don't think it counts cause Ofsted didn't inspect it!

Well SAHM are doing an important job and there can't be many who never worked. I say that as a mum who always worked outside the home but who respects what SAHMs do.

So if they get 10% that'll be an extra £18.50 a week. It might cover the increase in the standing charge on their heating bills and part of the increase in food bills. It won't cover much more.

I can't get too excited about this.

A windfall tax on fuel companies is much more relevant.

Steve Baker, of the party that’s been in power the most for the last 50 years, which permanently scalped £100bn off our GDP with Brexit is now warning that we need growth because otherwise in 20yrs the UK will default on state pensions. You just can not make this shit up.

You really can't

Why should pensioners be protected more than the kids of people who rely on benefits? Or all of us who rely on public services? Ideally we wouldn't be making these choices at all, but since apparently we are going to, surely the pain needs to be shared a bit more equitably. If anything is going to be sacrosanct, it should be the living standards of our poorest children.

If pensioners see SAHM as an important job why do they call mums who claim UC because nursery is extortionate ‘dole dossers’ and say they ‘shouldn’t have had children they couldn’t afford’?

It only seemed to be ‘valued’ back then, now it makes you a work shy benefits claimant who should get a job.

True dat!

The total cost is about 10bn a year so it's something worth getting excited about needs paying for somehow.

I think PiP should be triple locked.

They were rapidly closing after increasing during WW2, by the 70s it was hard to get a place, well it was in my city.

As a pensioner I will get the increase, if it happens. I also support striking workers who are trying to get a fair increase, I also think all benefits should increase at the same rate as pensions.

Let's aim to raise the bar, divide and rule works well if we fall for it but I hope we can work towards the best for all groups.

This