Pension credit getter than state pension

[Asosbabe]

£218.50 pension credit a week plus £300 winter fuel payment works out more than full state pension £221.20. AIBU to think it should be means tested properly if they're going to do it. Someone who has paid national insuance for 35 years will be worse off than someone who hasn't paid in at all

Nearly all already retired people get less pension than this. The old state pension is £8814 in 2024.

I don't understand....pension credit is means tested....

Not if your retirement plan exclusively involves the state pension no.

@WhatADifferenceACatMakes Would they not be entitled to pension credit?

You can get it if your income is less than £218.15 a week and your savings are under £10k.

This. I can’t imagine attempting to live on that amount of money.

And lots of older people have savings more than £10k, but not that large. It is sensible to have money for your funeral - about £3k to £4k.

What don't you understand?

I will be living on slightly more than that. Tbh I am used to not having that much money. Either that or like many people I will continue to work part time as long as I physically can.

@AvrielFinch I'm in the same boat, so yeah, I too CAN imagine living on such a small amount. Its similar to what I have to live on now!

But I think there's a lot of confusion on there (hands up - mine included!) because if you are paying rent (for example) then even if you get the standard state pension, you will probably qualify for support (provided your savings aren't over the threshold). And you don't just get given a lump sum on top of your pension income, its a sliding scale - even if you get a £1 week extra its worth it to get the other benefits.

As I said earlier, I don't see what the OP is driving at?

Sorry, both of you. That was a really tone deaf thing for me to say.

Labour's manifesto promise to make work pay, I suppose

They need to either increase state pension OR decrease pension credit or fuel allowance, so that state pension > pension credit + fuel allowance + other allowances / benefits in kind (tv licence, etc).

I thought one of the main ethos of Labour was that people should want to work?

Maybe people shouldn't have taken advice and paid any missing years of NI contributions, they are probably regretting it now

The free TV license has been history for some time.

It will be, announced by the government yesterday

This pretty much sums up everything about the broken welfare system in this country. If you take responsibility for yourself, you will be shafted.

If however, you choose the option to not do that, you will get everything handed to you.

No wonder the economy is broken. The number of net contributors is now less than 50%. People living off freebies better watch out. Those lying for them are in ever smaller numbers. The freebies are starting to run out.

I think they still give it to you if you're on pension credit rater than state pension

I may be totally wrong, but I thought pension credit east what people got if they had no private/occupational pension? So they will get the state, and then the credit on top if they have no other pensions?

MST the people eligible for pension credit retired before the state pension was significantly increased so their pension is lower than the amount someone retiring on a full state pension gets now.

Dream on.

If you have the audacity or sheer stupidity in todays climate to want to be self sufficient, you will be rinsed and shat upon.

If however, your existence is dependent on others, you will be lauded.

Does seem as if a cliff edge has been created here. They clearly should be doing more work on this. I agree with targeting winter fuel payments, but it seems that by trying to avoid specific direct means testing for this they have squeezed it down to too narrow a group of people. They should have listen more to Martin Lewis's suggestions here that seems much more reasonable.

If people have five figure sums in savings, they don't need help with the cost of putting the heating on. If they're just above the limit and some of that money is earmarked towards the cost of a funeral, they can always pay for their funeral, to reduce the amount they have in savings.

There's also a lot of older people who can afford to put the heating on, but won't, due to some misguided notion that they can't afford it, when they can, or 'it's a waste of money'. There's also apparently close to a million people who are entitled to pension credit, but haven't bothered to claim it, so perhaps this will be the incentive to do just that.

A direct cremation which I am having and DF had is about £1k-£1.5k, no need for that much to be spent when you are dead.

You have to be earning £40k to be a net contributor.
People earning less than that are hardly to blame for the shithole we are in.