Parental income

[glassdarker]

So, context, just seen 10% pension increase.

At same time I've been talking about doing something jointly with my mum and dad. So as a result we talked about income. My parents worked in manual/ administrative roles, neither went to Uni, but worked hard all their lives. Retired ten years ago, own house and car. I appreciate that many pensioners won't be in that position.

They both have small final salary schemes (one less than 10k, one less than 20k). They both get full state pensions. After normal bills their disposable income is a 2k a month. 2k a month ! I am blown away !

But bloody hell we are both higher rate tax payers and we are counting every penny (though we have a lot of extra spend due to a disabled DC). But AIBU to be a bit shocked by the difference in how we are experiencing the cost of living crisis ? I am glad they are doing OK and we don't need money from them but I am still a bit jaw dropped by this... and fantasy spending even 1/4 of that monthly disposable income !

They are discussing this topic now on LBC

A huge amount of them have worked hard all
their lives and saved for many years.
Therefore it's not surprising a huge amount of the countries wealth lies there.

A huge amount of them have worked hard alltheir lives and saved for many years.

Are there statistics for this?

The statistics are the obscene amount of money it’s claimed we have. Unless you think the fairies delivered it.

Well ime it's because of more generous pension schemes & house price increases & salaries not deflating in real terms. I'm not sure what that has to do with hard work though?

I work just as hard as my two colleagues, one is older than me & has a more favourable pension scheme than me & I have a more favourable scheme than the colleague younger than me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

My inlaws house is worth more than 1 million, it cost 40k in the 80s. My house won't increase by the same % in value.

"Young people today are the first generation since the war who have seen a slower growth in their income in comparison to their parents"

from labourlist.org/2022/11/join-us-as-we-demand-progressive-policies-to-create-a-better-future/?amp

Is this due to a lack of hard work?

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/09/rising-asset-wealth-and-falling-real-wages-drive-inequality-in-britain

Is it really just about hard work?

Op my DPs worked non stop all their lives until 68, now in their 80s and they have a 9K per year private pension income, and the state pension bringing their income to around £17k per year....they are struggling, and l am beyond relieved they are getting the Triple lock protected inflation increase as their bills have gone up massively...

Gas tripled
Electric tripled (company went bust, put onto expensive supplier)
Petrol 20% more
Food 10% more.
etc

So the inflationary rise does not even cover all the increases but it helps..

A large proportion of the assets of retirees is made up of the astronomical capital growth on the property they own. That wasn't worked for.

I work just as hard as my two colleagues, one is older than me & has a more favourable pension scheme than me & I have a more favourable scheme than the colleague younger than me.

This is reflected in many organisations, and it's depressing.

People my age and younger haven't had the opportunity to access the benefits that older workers are getting. That's not because we work less hard, but because times are very different now.

I'm sorry that things are getting progressively worse for younger people. However much I worry for my generation (millenials), I worry even more for my kids generation. Its bloody terrifying.
And it really can't be right that people in receipt of pensions, for no reason other than their age, with no link to need, are just universally given a 10% payrise as well as all the other benefits, that younger people are having to pay for.
I'm sorry but I don't care that you've worked hard all your lives. The fact that its universal shows this is not true as not everyone has, AND, that's what we all have to do. It's called life.
By all means pay people a pension. I don't disagree with that, but surely the massive increase should be reserved only for those that actually need it. And NEED can be defined in the same way any other benefit is means tested.
The truth is when you're retired and there's only 2 of you (if you're that lucky) you just don't need a massive 4 bed house. You just don't. Families with kids need them and elderly people struggle to maintain them. So there should be incentives to downsize and tax penalties for those that won't.
Younger people won't get the same life time wealth, or pensions, or job security that you have enjoyed. Why should you just because of your age, get a payrise while the nurses / teachers / bus drivers don't?

@Pleasepleasepleaseno You certainly set yourself up as arbiter of what people "need" haven't you?

Bedrooms aren't just for sleeping; people have offices, libraries, hobbies, small businesses that take up space. Not all old people are sitting around watching Strictly.

Extra 10% might be going to medication, savings for future care, helping other relatives, or just plain everyday spending. But that is irrelevant -- the point is that the NI is set up a certain way, and changing the rules on people who faithfully paid into it, for 40 or 50 years, would be wrong.

Things are different today -- mainly because we have several billion people more on the planet than just a couple of decades ago, climate change, a global economy, resources becoming more scarce and human labour a commodity that is easily replaced. Workers will never have the leverage they once did to demand better wages because there are 8 billion people on the planet, and plenty willing to work for less as an alternative to starvation. It's too bad everyone scoffed at those Zero Population Growth advocates back in the 1970s.

Today's workers need to adjust expectations downward. Home ownership is no longer a given, nor are progressively higher salaries or the ability to support multiple offspring. But leave the retirees alone -- they played fair according to the rules of the time. Blaming them for today's problems is absurd.

So workers have to adjust their life expectations but leave the retired alone? Why? How is it fair that kids live in poverty while their grandparents hoard all the money? And actually NEED is what matters here.
The retirees might need their money for care. That IS fair enough but the rest is bollocks. They don't pay for their medication anyway and the rest is just a nice to have. Just like it is for the rest of us!

And I'm not blaming them actually. I don't think it's their fault per se. I just want to see it adjusted out and made fairer for everyone.

Plus, I would prefer to stay in a mixed age community, not a geriatric ghetto. We shall move, and probably to a smaller house in another area closer to any family -- or overseas for better weather. In the next five years or so.

We've just completed this cycle with my late mother-in-law. They moved in their early 70s to a detached chalet bungalow and lived there quite happily until FIL died 15 years ago. After that, money wasn't a problem but distance was, as she was 300 miles away. While she was fit to drive and before she developed a dementia, it was okay but CoVID coincided with a brief spell in respite and after six months in residential care it was clear that she couldn't live alone safely so we had to sell her house to fund permanent care, at the best part of a £1000 per week. Two years on, she had spent a large part of the equity released from the house. HMRC won't be balancing the books on her estate.

But that is irrelevant -- the point is that the NI is set up a certain way, and changing the rules on people who faithfully paid into it, for 40 or 50 years, would be wrong.

And this will have to happen at some point btw. Just not to your cohort, eh?

You've got more than £100,000 coming in and you begrudge your elderly parents an extra £18.53 a month each!

Wow. Just wow!

No, "need" is not the point. Maybe you should look into the history of the NI scheme before critiquing it. It is not means-tested or needs-tested.

I would also point out that those reaping the higher retiree payouts are those who PAID IN more due to their earning levels, over decades of their working lives.

Wishing that this were a means-tested, needs-based program does not make it so. There are definitely many citizens in need but you can't just go looking around for people you envy, point at them and say "they have too much and they need to give it up!" That's not the way the world works.

• a week

Today's workers need to adjust expectations downwards? So why the fuck shouldn't pensioners. It's so easy to tell us we should give up everything your generation was (relatively) handed on a plate.
Today's young didn't create current circumstances, we simply haven't been alive long enough. YOUR generation failed to plan ahead and WE are paying the price.

I would also point out that those reaping the higher retiree payouts are those who PAID IN more due to their earning levels, over decades of their working lives.

Are you talking about NI? It's wasn't hard to earn enough to make contributions. I started paying at 17 & continued throughout uni just due to my weekend/holiday job.

Today's workers need to adjust expectations downward

Why only workers though? After all the tax increases are partly to fund the ageing population.

Today's young didn't create current circumstances

Nor did today’s pensioners.

YOUR generation failed to plan ahead and WE are paying the price.

That’s true. Neither our generation nor our parents’ generation of politicians planned for us getting old. But individually we have planned, that’s why we’ve got the pensions and paid off mortgages you’re so envious of. But we didn’t have paid off mortgages in our 40s - I was less than three years into mine when I was 40.

I’m bloody glad I wasn’t so bitter about my parents’ house that they bought for £3.5k or their two occupational and two state pensions when my mortgage was literally 20 times the price of their house.

Nor did today’s pensioners.

Well Brexit hasn't helped...