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?

The pension age is now the same for both men and women. Those now in their early sixties can claim their Station Pension at 66. The issue is that women weren't given enough notice to make proper provision for the age increase. When I was growing up it was 60 for women and then about 20 years ago, it was 62. All of a sudden it jumped to 66, so women have had their pension delayed by six years, whereas men of the same age have only had theirs delayed by a year. Definitely doesn't seem fair to me.

Pensioners receiving a state pension will have paid NI plus they will continue to pay income tax if over the tax free allowance. Millionaires will have and will continue to pay thousands in tax. Are you going to give up your right to a state pension when you are eligible? I think not 🤔You can always donate it back

1. you assume people on benefits were always on benefits
2. you assume those paying higher taxes were always in that bracket
3. you assume that wealthy people always worked for it and were born with 0p to their name.

😐

The Conservatives are essentially social democrats now anyway so you might as well vote for them.

Please define socialism.

thanks.

Pensions are not a benefit paid out to people in need, they are repayment of monies paid in throughout working life.So means testing is not right, basically you get if you paid in.
If you want to make things fairer, people who have pensions above a certain amount should, perhaps, pay National Insurance.

So if I stop getting my state pension that I’ve paid into do I stop getting to use the NHS and need to pay for private health care? The NHS would crumble pretty quick if that started to be means tested.

This thought actually makes me feel sick to the stomach... we should not be penalising people that have paid in all their lives propping up the system for everyone, but rather tax the companies who generate millions in profit and never pay tax here 😡

Guaranteed Pension Credit was stopped a few years ago, so only people who took their State Pension before that date now get it. Eventually, those people will no longer be with us, so there won't be any Guaranteed Pension Credit at all. Nowadays when you start claiming your pension, if that is your only income, you have to then claim Council Tax Benefit and Local Housing Allowance (if applicable) in order to top up your income.

Lots of people on MN can do without the 400 quid fuel support....but I bet they still accepted it....including the strange poster who said she would wipe her arse on £185🙄

😂😂😂😂😂

The lies Tories will tell these days to trick people into voting for them!

Whipping up another hateful , divisive discussion to try and make people resent paying the State pension which we have worked hard for .
This Government , I could weep.
It was ok to waste billions, and billions in Johnson's words "spaffing it" and Truss's "experimental" schoolgirl economics.
Where are all these pensioners going to live when their money has been stopped?

Where are pensioners getting £800 a month ? I dont get anywhere near that

The government doesn’t let me put more than £40k a year into my pension and caps the total pot to just north of £1m.

If they remove those caps, I’d happily forfeit the state pension in future.

I’m more gutted that we all pay variable amounts to get the same pay out. Might be able to lay more in to private pension then rather than everything in to a pot of nothing

Bit of maths for you
A person, working full time on minimum wage will earn £18,800/ yr and their target pension income would be around £13,500/ year
If they pay NI contributions for 50 years (a total of £125,000) and receive in exchange, a full state pension, they will receive £9,628/ year
If they paid the same contributions into a private pension, they would be expecting to receive in the region of £12,520
(all these figures are obviously not accounting for changes in £’s but you can get the gist)
Basically, a state pension is a shit return of the money you’ve paid in. If you earn more than the minimum wage, you will be paying in even more than the £125,000 and still receive the same £9,628)

TheNosehasit
it was in an article today that the UK has the second lowest in the western world.

National insurance funds current pensions not future i.e., whatever you paid went to service pensioners then, what I (and you if you're still working) pays for pensioners now.

The trouble is we have an aging population and increasing wealth inequality which means there might not be enough money in the pot to fund future pensioners.

Tbh if that comes to pass it's better/fitting that it happens to the boomer/Xer generations, seeing as they're the one's that fucked the world.

That they took decades of unprecedented peace and growth and failed to adequately prepare for thier later years is not my generation's burden to bear. We're too busy trying to unfuck the climate and environment they so kindly decimated for us.

I don't get £800 I get just over £500 I worked from 16yrs to 61 and was made redundant and couldn't get another job. My retirement age was put back from 60 to 66 with very little notice. I took 4 months off for both my children and worked full time, I do get a local gov pension I paid into and pay tax on. So will you work full time for 55years with only getting child benefit for 2 children? Get your facts right before making such statements.

Should be 45 years ..

@Flutterbybudget but NI is covering pensions, NHS and social care. Not just pensions so your maths is shite.

When you go out for a meal, do you expect your wealthier friends to pay more towards the bill?

No, of course you don't because it's not your money.

I'm always amazed by the sentiment that rich people somehow owe their money to the less wealthy even after having paid shitloads more tax into the system for decades. Just because they have more money than you doesn't mean they're not entitled to the pot they paid into with their own money.

Typo 45 years ....

I get child benefit, nothing else and if my wages would increase then nada.

"When you go out for a meal, do you expect your wealthier friends to pay more towards the bill?
No, of course you don't because it's not your money."

Yes, if they insist on ordering more expensive wine for the table and they often are happy to put in a bit more.