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?

Believe it or not the people who have spent their life working don’t want to keep being penalised for everything damn thing they do.

Yeah graft all your life and contribute the most to have it taken away from you by being means tested by some snivelling socialist

I'm 76 and my state pension per month is £641.88 per month - I worked for it and paid my National Insurance every week of my working life for it.
Everything is rising in price including food and energy I still have to pay for these things and I do not claim any benefits because I've saved what I can all my adult life.
My pension is not £800 a month because I'm older I don't get as much as a new pensioner.
My pension is much less than many other European countries, the UK pays far below other countries

As they keep increasing the age at which you can claim, doubt most under 40 will ever get it. Old cynic me!

👏🏻

I know zero about pensions !

I work for a local authority and hear the pensions are good - how good are they compared to £186/week ? And I’d it aswel as or instead of the £186 ??

There is an equivalent to a state pension in the us called « Social security ». It’s actually more than the uK but there are not the other benefits you get here like housing benefits etc.

You need to speak to your works’ pensions section who’ll give you a calculation. Yes you will get the SP too.

Do you think it’s generous OP? I think it’s appallingly low tbh.

Of course it isn't.
DH and I could have just relied on our state pensions but instead we saved bloody hard and put all we could into private pensions so that we wouldn't be a drain on our kids or society should we need care provision.
I am starting to think that we should just have blown it at Disney land and on expensive watches.

Good for you 🙄

I’ve paid into a private pension as well as paying NI. Why should I be penalised for this?

Just because they do not need the money, you can't penalise somebody on the grounds that they are rich when they have been paying into their State Pension all their life. The State Pension is not a Benefit, it's a pension scheme we pay into. Unfortunately, they don't save it and pay us from a big savings fund. They take the money from current Workers paying upfront for their pensions. It's a bit like Central Banking, I suppose. Only now the Bankers are changing things because they've spent all our money. But they're hoping we don't notice.
I live on my pension. It's hard, especially as EDF, having just promised to only take £250 a month for my electricity and gas, have just taken £382, and I was in credit before this month and am not using my central heating and probably won't be able to.
I know a millionaire who just puts his pension into his savings account each month and regards it as trifling money. He obviously could not understand that I had to live on that amount for everything. But if I let it upset me, it will only be me who suffers, so there is no point. He worked in a well-paid profession, as an Accountant, was sole inheritor of property in a very expensive area. He is a man who kept working and stopped his wife having a career, so "nobody else raised my son". She divorced him, he refused to pay for the son's keep at College because he had been out at work since leaving school. Men have had the upper hand for a long time. But I cannot change things now. Life treats everyone differently. I fear it will get worse with the new Central Bank Digital Currency Sunak is talking about.

I think that the whole system regarding what entitlements people have in older age should be revised to a fairer system. I'm especially thinking about free travel and winter fuel allowances. There are lots of comfortably off who really do not need it. PIL have just received £500 and have booked a weekend away 🙄 I don't agree that the means testing is too costly, they have put an income threshold on child benefits without too much bother. Main issue is that they don't want to upset their core voters

want your missing is that a single mum with children can work, and she has years to work, and build up her life. She will also get this... she will also be entitled to her NI contributions being paid in full until her youngest is 12 entitled her to the full state pension... I have been working for 37 years with 36 full contributions and 1 year half contributions. I still have 16 years to work. I believe I need 40 years to get the full pension? So the state will get another 12 years from me in contributions which will not benefit me personally but will contribute to society as a whole... and I will indirectly benefit as well.
As a 67 year old pensioner... I might be able to work! But as a nurse I expect I would struggle... but the point is as a pensioner in the main you are not able to work so have no ability to earn money and year on year your private pension will be worth less.
So as someone up thread said people would riot and I would be there with them... oh and you know what else... no state pension? You are going have a fuck of a lot of pensioners with a home and no income because private pensions are shit, I have had 6 different private pensions In the past 15 years 4 of them are worth less than £500 total! Because pay is so poor, pension contributions by employers negligible and having the to wait a qualifying period. I change jobs as it is the only way to get a pay rise. Loyalty is spat on.

Why is there an assumption that every pensioner has worked hard? It’s simply not true.

Men born before 1951 get £141 per week. Add even a small private pension and that precludes you from Pension Credit or benefits Plus the much hyped increase of 2.5% is on the £141 so the gap to the higher rate pension (£185) gets greater each year. Fuel poverty is if your fuel bills are greater than 10% of income. Mines been over 20% for the a last 2 years. No holiday for over 14 years and a 20 year old car that I have to service myself. So for all those complaining how well off pensioners are -- Just wait 'tll you retire.

sweet….they should be able to opt out of the ridiculously high NI they pay then and put that into their private pensions.

This

Main issue is that they don't want to upset their core voters

Main issue is that pensions are based on NI contributions and there’s a social contract.

Exactly this. Should people above a certain threshold never get any benefit of paying in for years ? Refoculous thought to think that the very people who basically work their while lives and pay for a huge proportion of people to afford never to work, must also do do in retirement. Crikey - what will everyone do if all the 100k plus people or even 60k plus leave the country ?

Universal benefits that everyone gets are generally a good thing. People dont resent them because everyone gets them. There is less pressure to reduce them for the same reason. No-one misses out due to admin or eligibility arguments and the admin costs are lower

National insurance funds it. Why should someone who has paid into it for their whole career not be entitled to it? If there is an opt out option, I suspect many higher earners would opt out, but the pot would be a lot smaller

No not everyone gets this --- many (most) get a lot lower less than £150 per week... they have paid tax (vat) over a lifetime, some have brought up children for a few years, most have worked and paid tax and national insurance over their working life and you just want to blame the most vulnerable -try blaming companies who have avoided tax, the very rich who manipulate the systems so they pay less tax than people who earn the minimum wage. let's also remember they all continue to pay indirect tax vat etc
& they will need their savings and homes to pay for their care and health conditions that the NHS doesn't cover for.
It's not a question of accuse one group over another it's the fact that the benefit system is screwed - blame the government