Pensions… again

[GoodnightAdeline]

https://amp.theguardian.com/money/2024/apr/08/uk-state-pensions-benefits-changes-april-triple-lock-rise

Another pension increase we can’t afford when working people are grappling with the cost of the country.

What will be the endgame in all this? Where will we be in 20 years?

Hope you’ve got a health private pension.

Personally, I think reversing the recent increase of the annual tax free pension allowance that allows the wealthy to put up to £60k per year in a pension without paying any income tax on it would be most disposable to me. Well off people can get by with paying tax on their ££££ tens of thousands extra pension savings per year more than pensioners can get by without £100/mo in a cost of living crisis.

I would have like to have seen it become means tested alongside the increase.

You can't start means testing pension provision because people have factored the state pension into their retirement planning. I'm mostly going that I'll be able to claim it and at 50ish my current other planning takes that into account. If you told me I'd have to save enough over the next 17 years to have a pot that gave me 12k a year more income I'd be in trouble. Even if you did that for those in their 20's (so giving more time). The unintended consequences would be a bunch of people investing in other stuff (housing) rather than a pension savings vehicle so that they can claim means tested when the time comes not to mention the amount of people who is were not compelled would not save for their future at all...Or maybe you're proposing a complex means testing that took into account all assets including housing? Good luck with that, the state has no capacity to administer that and telling people to sell their houses to fund retirement would be very unpopular.
The universal state pension is a social contract, much like having an army or education or roads . It's a socialised insurance scheme.... That's why every developed country has a similar approach.

For the final year I got my ‘free hours’ which aren’t actually free because you’ve paid over the rate for the 3 years beforehand to keep the system going.

Well I never got any childcare paid for so I do consider 30 hrs/week free a real bonus. I don't think it is based on what you have paid for previously but it's just the age of the child. So you could not pay any childcare and then when they reach 3 start working & get 30 hrs/week free. So I think that's a huge bonus for your generation. So the fact you paid £1200/month for first few years isn't relevant.

Sorry, delete the first privately. The 2m was all renting, private, social and sheltered.

I wouldn't call it a hell of a break - it was fairly normal at the time I had my daughter. There was no free nursery provision and the vast majority of children in my daughters class had stay at home mothers until they moved up to the juniors. During the time I was off work, my husband was still paying national insurance and tax which helped to fund the cost of education, university and college fees, and other benefits. I was not a burden on society during that time and I think 43 years of me working and paying tax and NI does give me some entitlement to the paltry amount of pension I'm now receiving. Could you manage to live on that amount OP?

How?

I too have worked full time since I was 16.
I've have paid my tax and NI in full.
I'm am utterly appalled by your post OP and your subsequent answers.
The money we have paid through taxes, NI etc is there, please do not say it isn't. We are a wealthy country.
State pension is not a benefit.
We have paid into it.
Women were told they could retire at 60 but the goal posts were moved time and time again.
What happened to the 6 years pension payments for them ???
Pensioners deserve an increase and more.

How what? If you’re sat in a 1million pound house with a private pension no way should you be claiming state.

So where are you cutting off? Is it based on property, savings, private pensions? Where is the money coming from to regulate it?

If you are saying anybody with a private pension shouldn’t get a state pension nobody will pay into a private pension. Pretty sure people would rather live a little when young and get the state pension.

You are aware there are multiple benefits that means tested right?

I personally think family help should go well before pension levels are changed. The significant funding given to families is very expensive. I would much prefer a system that provides 2 meals to all children at school and pays for all of their school books etc

If people are happy to milk the public purse to raise their children, then why are they surprised there is no money left when they retire?

Yep. I'm 46 and pay 40% of my salary into a private pension. DH and I sacrifice quite a lot for our pension pots. If I'm going to be means tested, damn right that 40% contribution stops and we'll have some nice holidays instead.

You are aware it costs a fortune to means test right?

Where are you cutting off? How much in a private pension and how much would a house be worth, how much equity? How much bio in savings?

How what? If you’re sat in a 1million pound house with a private pension no way should you be claiming state

So how does this work. If I'm living in a draughty 3 bed semi in London which just happens to be worth £1m because the property market is nuts, I shouldn't be allowed a state pension?

Yep I’ll be stopping paying into ours so we don’t need to scrimp whilst funding our dc’s uni fees because they get the minimum loans. Would rather be less poor now and get a state pension.

I’d like to see your sources for these claims.

And say you have a shed load to still pay on it. Many many people have mortgages that won’t be paid off by pension age.

Well if they don’t then it will be the fault of your generation, the pensioners of today will be long gone. Because as you said, it’s not a savings scheme, it’s not being kept in a vault for you. You’re 32 , unlike pensioners, you’ve got years ahead of you to make money, and if you can’t make enough money and pay enough tax in to the system to ensure your future in the welfare state, then work harder - and for longer. Simple.
Apparently.

A third of mortgages won’t be paid off by 65 and that’s only going to get worse.s

OP post is about pensioners right now. "They shouldn't have an increase because the country cannot afford it"
This is utter rubbish.
These pensioners have not had the free child care etc.
pensioners deserve the increase and more.

Yep.

If you’ve got mortgage outstanding then you don’t have £1million pound asset.