The state pension is HOW MUCH???

[BeatieBourke]

Call me stupid (fair) but I've just realised how much the state pension is. £800 odd a month (£185.15pw).

As a non-means tested benefit. For EVERYONE.

I'm generally of the opinion that benefits are too low and too punitive. I usually advocate for universalism. I understand that people have worked their whole lives and paid in, and deserve a retirement. And that having pensioners in poverty does no favours to the economy or other welfare services.

But £800 a month / £9k a year for EVERYONE?? So a widower in rented accommodation with no other income or savings, £800pm. A wealthy 68 year old who's earned a 6 figure salary, has a huge property portfolio and investments coming out of their ears that pay a fortune out in dividends, £800pm. Seriously?

I understand that no party, least of all the Tories (because tory voters as a population are older) will ever go after pensions because it would be unpopular (and older people vote more generally). But in a time when the country is supposedly facing a financial "black hole" and everything else has already been cut to the bone for the last 12 years, why the hell are we paying out state benefits to millionaires?

Maybe if pensions were means tested (with a fairly high and tapering threshold) there'd be enough to pay pensions for women at 65, and more for people who haven't built up huge assets, can't afford to live, heat their homes or eat a hot meal every day in their later years. I can see the (cynical) political sense in it, but no economic sense whatsoever.

AIBU?

Trouble is, many women in their 50s and 60s DO have dependants, lumbered with the care of elderly parents in their 80s and/or adult DC at home with disabilities. You see it on here a great deal. Often they are caring for other relatives as well. It's a special circle of hell for women.

Their 'protection' is the NI credit for the state pension that comes with Carer's Allowance.

Some of those people who get the basic rate of UC are disabled. Not all will be able to work. (not all will be in the support group)

And those in the support group are paid basic UC for at least 3 months. I was paid what was then basic ESA for almost 5 months before a decision was made

Most single parents do get maintenance as well and most do work. This is the amount for those unemployed, and very few people are in that situation for long.
I agree it is too low. The government set it so low so no one wants to be in that situation.

Which is why so many remain in abusive relationships.

I agree benefits are too low.
But attacking another part of the welfare state does not change that. It simply attacks the welfare state and weakens it even more.

Well said, the state pension is a good thing. Don’t mess with it, diss it or complain about folk getting a benefit they paid for.

Clearly your outgoings are going to be higher, the younger you are. If you're at pension age, you possibly have a fully paid off house, you've a collection of fine china and you maybe have a husband supporting you (if you went for a younger man 😉).

I just feel that because OAPs vote, there is power in numbers and young people don't realise the power of voting.

I'd prefer my daughter to receive more than I receive.

When I got my first "proper" job at 22, I had a meeting with the HR person in charge of benefits and pension. She did try to explain the importance of paying into a pension but I was 22 and like hell did I care about when I was 64!

My private pension is forecast to give me about £1,000 a year, so don't assume a private pension=loads of dosh.

What has fine china got to do with anything?

The pensioners I know have to buy food, toiletries, clothes and shoes same as the rest of us. They also use tech (laptops, phones) to enable them to participate in the world. And they have to replace their toaster when it breaks just like the rest of us do. Housing costs are lower for pensioners who own their homes, but heating, lighting, council tax, water etc... are all the same.

Pensioners can live more cheaply to an extent, but lets not exaggerate the extent to which this is possible.

Most women are married to men older than them.
Your idea in your head is not reality. Pensioners live om average in the worst maintained housing in Britain. Because there are loads of elderly people in ordinary houses who can't afford to properly maintain it. Repairing roofs, dealing with damp etc are all expensive jobs and many elderly people are no longer capable of doing DIY.
Elderly people have higher outgoings. Higher heating bills, taxis because they can no longer walk long distances and may not be able to drive, etc.
You have a made up narrative in your head of how the average elderly person lives.

I'm not worried about that amount. You know that. Don't give extreme examples.

Good point - older people will have to use taxis etc more. And house maintenance can be very expensive

Plenty of people pay in (by way of NI contributions) for a lot more than the qualifying number of years. The higher earners also pay way more into the system than the lower earners because NI is deducted as a percentage of income.

All individuals however get the same basic state pension but someone of pension age with a higher overall income (including other income from investments/continuing to work beyond retirement age or additional private pensions) may well have to pay tax on their state pension whereas pensioners with income less than about £12,000 won't.

Some of us will have contributed way more to the state pension pot than others and in doing so provided funds to ensure ALL of us get a basic state pension. Means testing at pension age and denying us a state pension would be a policy based on envy.

I've been a single Mum and if you came in with an expert on how to drill a hole in a wall who stood with me while I tried to drill a hole in a wall, I simply couldn't do it. Maybe that's just me though. Other people are more resourceful.

In general they get free transport.

When I started paying NI, my retirement age was expected to be 60, it is now 67

Same here - except I’ve already retired at 57 because I couldn’t hack it any more,
Plus, when I started work I joined (no choice) the company’s final salary pension scheme, which was based on 1/60 of final salary for each year of contribution, so if you contributed for 40 years you would get 40/60 of your final salary, MINUS the state pension. SP was baked into the calculation.

Given my salary and career expectations at the time, I fully expected my private pension to be the bulk of my income and the SP just a little top up - a nice to have.

But that was 36 years ago, I left that scheme (have a deferred pension from there), have a personal pension pot as well a partial deferred pension from a different occupational scheme. And now the SP will be a very significant and important chunk of my income. I could get by without it, but life would be a lot greyer.

And that’s the point, really. Plans were made, and revisited over the years, on the assumption of the SP being there.

I never thought that I would retire at 60, tbh. As a staunch feminist I viewed the equalisation of pension ages as a matter of justice. Not too keen on the subsequent raising of SP age, but I understand why it’s necessary. Perhaps the answer is a further raising of SP age, coupled with a more generous benefit regime for those whose health precludes or limits their ability to work full time.

I know loads of people in their late fifties and sixties, and some in their seventies, who are working part time while also taking part of a pension. In some cases it’s financial necessity, but in others it’s because they enjoy work but haven’t got the energy for full time any more.

That option is always going to be more accessible to the people who were able to contribute to private pensions and savings than those who couldn’t. Maybe the SP/benefit system could be altered to support people without the private means to do the same sort of thing? Something like: full state pension age is 70, but you can take x% of pension any time after 60, in return for pushing back the date at which you can get full pension, in proportion to how big x is and how early you take it.

They get free bus passes. If you live rurally, this is useless

It took 11 months for my claim for single parent benefit to come through. It was back-paid and I bought my first car with the back payment.

Prior to that, I lived on a single person's benefit with my newborn baby. From that, I paid for everything for myself and my baby but it meant that I couldn't afford paracetamol for myself for example - it was that dire. I couldn't get to Mum and Baby groups. I couldn't buy a pram. I couldn't buy clothes for the baby. Luckily, my relatives helped with things like a cot, a pram, a car-seat, clothes and the basics of starting from scratch such as a toaster as someone mentioned.

The mental strain of that has had long-lasting effects on me.

I'd absolutely agree that the claiming process should be easier and more streamlined if you're disabled and unable to work. I genuinely don't understand how they can say that you're too disabled to work but not in need of extra support? is this where PIP is supposed to kick in? I've never had to claim DLA/ PIP but the whole process sounds like a nightmare from start to finish.

I wasn't being 'mean'. Just making the point that the pension is a current universal benefit paid for like all other benefits. No one has been investing your NI contributions like a private pension company does. I believe it should be higher and made the point because linking it to contributions is another opportunity to create a divide between the deserving and undeserving.

But the point is that the average working age adult is physically capable of doing some DIY if needed. They might need to watch an instructional YouTube video etc, but it is physically possible for them.

The average 75 or 80 year old isn’t physically able to do it. It's not a matter of choice for them.

This is a brilliant film that some of you should watch.

www.imdb.com/title/tt5168192/

It's called "I, Daniel Blake".

It's about both an older man who gets injured and can't work and a young single Mum.

And no, they don't get married. He's a neighbour and he helps the young mother out a bit. It is very true to life though and I don't think that some people realise the dire straits that some people are in.