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?

No you’re being fucking ridiculous. my Nan didn’t have a washing machine, fridge or a Hoover, she would’ve considered you lived the life of absolute luxury and she was grateful 🤣🤣

Dear God.

Jesus wept. You are so determined that pensioners are well off that your head has completely disappeared up your . . . . . . . .

My stepfather gets a state pension and a private pension. His state pension is about £840 a month. His private pension is a whopping £64 a month. After paying towards his care home fees hes left with around £24 a week for clothes, gifts, any little luxuries he might want such as chiropodist or a hair cut or a bit of chocolate.

After paying towards his care home fees hes left with around £24 a week for clothes, gifts, any little luxuries he might want such as chiropodist or a hair cut or a bit of chocolate

That is terrible, he should be allowed to keep more than that. We really do treat older people like rubbish but, as evidenced by this threads, many in the rest of society see them as slightly subhuman and not entitled to any sort of life other than a frugal one.

To be honest I am a well off pensioner or soon will be. husband and I have worked 80 hour weeks between us for 40 years. we have paid much much more into the NI pot than we will ever get back and saved hard. so forgive me if i want to chill a bit now and use my pension to go on holiday or the theatre or a nice bottle of wine. and dont want to subsidise someone who could have worked and saved but just did minimum hours/no work at all.

I can't begin to imagine how dim one must be to think that, in retirement £185 would not be a significant amount or st least be sufficiently emotionally intelligent to undersyand how important it is to have regular secure income.
I think most people also understand that most of the recipients have paid taxes for over 50 years to fund it.

I struggle to think someone can be so shortsighted that they can't see that giving people approaching old age a pension, that might allow theatre trips, gym membership, a car, walking holidays and other activities an investment. It is vital that people are able to socialise, that they can afford food, that they remain active to reduce the increased burden poverty places on health and social care services. A living pension, like well fed and educated children benefits all of society.

@CaronPoivre along with everything else that you didn’t have back in your day did you not have reading comprehension textbooks 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

The reason other benefits are squeezed before pensions is that the Tory view is that working age people have an alternative way to improve their income - work more.

Pensioners by contrast are considered beyond the age where working more is feasible.

fullfact.org/online/pensions-countries-comparisons/

Firstly! The source of these numbers isn’t clear
The closest match we found in the past was this table from a Which? article published in 2013

fullfact.org/europe/pensioners-eu-uk/
The EU collects data on social security in 32 countries, including information on pension systems and payments. As of January 2018, it reported that Spain had a minimum means-tested pension, which works out at around £155 a week for a single person, while the maximum possible is around £535 a week.

The minimum French pension is £130 a week and the maximum is around £340 a week.

In Germany, most workers’ pension insurance payments are compulsory but there is no statutory minimum, maximum or full pension.

The full state pension in the UK is now between £125 and £165 a week, depending on when you were born and your national insurance contributions. This doesn’t include any additional state pension, pension credit, or other benefits a pensioner might be eligible for.

No no no. You must spend your days sitting in front of a two bar electric fire wearing fingerless gloves and eating Kit-e-Kat straight out of the tin. Anything more luxurious is just selfish Boomer behaviour.

It’s £185. I know this because that’s what goes into my bank account. Fullfact appears to be out of date.

Actual branded kit-e-kat! @ClaudineClare how fancy, surely all that should be expected is a savers/value range!

@ClaudineClare kit-e-kat, we dream of kit-e-kat, bit of lidls own brand is all we get.

An electric fire @ClaudineClare? Don’t you know how much electricity costs, you profligate hussy!

the dates are in there - the numbers that @Jaxhog quoted are fror 2013
and the other figures are from 2018

@Blossomtoes Absolutely. We couldn’t afford Childcare, like you say there was no tax credits or funded hours. I didn’t go back to work full time, I took evening work as a barmaid because dh was home to take care of the kids after he’d finished work. When they started school I took a second job as a dinner lady at the school my kids went to.
I got Child Allowance as it was called then and milk tokens.

Things improved when DH got a better well paid job, offshore, two on two off, good wage but higher tax and NI.

Exactly! And because I was aware that I was paying reduced NI for over 20 years, I increased my contributions to my teachers pension in order to compensate. I was fortunate to have excellent union advice on pensions so took action to make up the shortfall. Not everyone can afford to do that though.

£185 would be a significant amount to the vast majority of pensioners. The whole tone of some comments is ageist and unpleasant. “Old Doris” Older people aren’t calling you “Young Kayleigh”. Also many of the posts are incorrect. e.g. Attendance allowance for being old- you need to need personal care with washing, toileting etc to claim, not just help with errands. I’m well aware that life is very difficult for people with children just now but having a go at pensioners isn’t the solution. I think some people on MN know pensioners who aren’t representative of the average. (Newly retired couples in good health who have had well paid careers.).

DH pension is less than 185.00 a week, 173.00. So it must vary.

Did he start claiming it before 2016? That’s when it changed.

As many have said you pay into it and for those who bother to save into a private pension they get taxed on it. Dont see why it’s unfair

I agree, the fact that people resent pensions is a depressing sign of what our society has turned into.

I think its too low, especially now. If you work from 16-67 with a decent comfortable wage then your never getting your national insurance back. I know it goes to other things too but still 9k a year.

Im a big believer for lowering pension age to 60 for both men and women and forcing the younger able people who choose a life of benefits to work. In comparison a young abled single person gets much more than 9k a year on benefits and sit happy. Just because the pensioners get 9k a year dosent mean they are well off.

I personally couldn't live on 9k in 6 months never mind a year. The world is so expensive these days and we should be looking after the golden oldies.

it would be unfair to take away state pension when people have planned around it and paid NI for it. And younger people can get jobs to come off benefits, older people without big private pensions, not so much