To give you the pensioners facts

[Moier]

So many threads about pensioners being well off.
I've just had my forecast.
I turn 66 in November .
Those born after September 23rd 1958 will not get the winter fuel allowance no matter what credits you are on.
Esa etc etc.
My forecast us £221 per week.
Also pensioners still have to pay rent.
Council house tenants will still pay bedroom tax.
Pensioners won't get council tax reduction.
Unless you have paid into a private pension .. pensioners will be the poorest they have ever been.
And we waited an extra 6 years for bugger all.
Stammer is the theif that has stolen all our golden hours.

Where on earth have l said l personally don't have private pension?
This post l put is for pensioners in general ( some of my peers mainly).
I personally don't need my pension and won't be claiming it .
If you have read any of my previous posts.
When l was younger an abusive ex threw me under a bus and left me for dead. I was in a coma and left severely disabled.
He got jailed and it took me 16 years to get justice and a big pay out..
I haven't had a relationship scince .
I don't have a vagina any more.. my pelvis got crushed.. my hips / jaw/ ribs/ skull got broken.
Well actually most of my body.
I was on DLA before my payout.. l don't need to claim anything.
Some say I'm lucky to have a few million.
Rather have my body and mental health back.
My post was for those born after 23rd of September.
Not me personally.
I will be still helping my family and friends who have been there for me financially.

@ExtraOnions Your example of you and your sister doesn't negate my post at all. Just because you both contributed to private pensions, doesn't make it 'the norm'. Many, many people did not and believed that the state pension would suffice. Women especially often had years of not working due to child-rearing responsibilities.

I have no skin in the game - I am nowhere near pension age - it just baffles me how some people deny the reality of how much life has changed over the last 50 years. What is 'the norm' now in terms of pension planning certainly wasn't for many people in the 50s or 60s. Indeed, it would probably shock many MN users how little many people save into their pensions now as they can't afford to or just don't plan that far ahead.

To be clear, there has never been a time in my lifetime- even in the 1970s, when a state pension provided a good lifestyle on its own in retirement and the need to save for retirement has been clear for the lifetime of anyone now retiring. I would have started the threshold for the removal of winter fuel benefits somewhat higher but there is a lot of wealth in the hands of people over 65 and the tripple lock favours this group more than any other. There is real poverty in working age people with families who are much less favourably treated.

@WeWillGetThereInTheEnd
It’s no use, expecting someone born in the 1920s, with little education to have the wherewithal and financial awareness they haven’t got!

This! Thank you! 👏🏻👏🏻

Have explained in my previous post

I was quoting someone else.

My actual post begins at the "oh to be so...." bit.

I go into lots of pensioners houses as part of my job.
Most have had the heating on all through summer.

I’ve yet to meet a pensioner that struggles to pay bills tbh.

It's not the facts though, it's your reality as an individual, and while I sympathise you're in the minority of pensioners.

The facts are 75% of pensioners are homeowners, only 6% private rent. You had access to the best pension schemes that will ever likely exist. This is the wealthiest generation of pensioners ever.

You say "Stammer is the theif (sic) that has stolen all our golden hours". Unless your Starmer is your ex, I don't see how you can claim he stole anything from you if you are not even planning to claim your private pension.
Don't say our and then backpedal saying this thread wasn't about you.

I have 2 disabled children so there’s little choice

im not sitting here smug because I’m “blessed with good health” I’m acutely aware that the lives of my children depend upon my good health

YABU
Someone posted the stats on the first page explaining statistically that pensioners are more likely to own their own houses so have less costs than private renters in work.

plus there are other financial perks for pensioners eg free prescription and travel which frees up income to spend on bills.

those in work do not have such perks and are more likely to be paying (uncontrolled, inflated) rent prices- so statistically could have less disposable income. If they are not entitled to help then the pensioners shouldn’t be either.

a separate issue should be that energy should be publicly owned to ensure nation security and affordability. The state can’t pay everything for everyone.

Yeah the endless copy and pasting saying pretty much the same thing is unnecessary

WFA should have been treated as taxable income, added to the State pension and taxed at people's marginal rate, to reflect their differing incomes. It wouldn't have been difficult to do.

Instead, we have Labour cutting it with no warning whatsoever shortly before the onset of winter, for all pensioners except those living on the absolute bones of their arse, in order to pay for a pay increase for the train drivers. This, moreover, with no mention of it whatsoever in their recent manifesto, and totally contrary to their previous stance on this issue. Of course people are angry. Pensioners are among those who spend most time in their homes and are most vulnerable to the cold.

Watch the seasonal bed blocking in hospitals rise this winter, and give thanks for Labour and their joined up thinking.

Lots of pensioners do. My MIL does. She didn't work anywhere that offered a private pension.

I am a pensioner. Not wealthy but comfortable. I have s small private pension as well as my state pension.
I will lose my winter fuel allowance but I support the policy change. Pensioners on pension credit will still get it. And people are being encouraged to apply for it as many eligible pensioners don't.
I have had higher annual percentage increases than my children have and I get free bus travel which I'm extremely grateful for. And free prescriptions and free eye tests. They have to pay for theirs.
I feel that my children who also have children have much higher outgoings than I do and they need support more than I do. If there is s limit (and actually is rather taxes were raised to pay for public services). I would rather funding was directed to young families.

Yes, this!

Having to be pension age before the September cut off isn't new.

If you were born on 30/09/1958 and are on Pension Credit next year you'll get WFA.

Quite. I remember little outcry about tuition fees, lots of lm alright Jack, as they had either already been or didn’t / couldn’t go

The Tories shielded pensioners way too much for the last decade or so, as a big proportion of their voters. This isn’t the case now. The countries finances are poor and no one can be shielded from it

A lot of people are saying pensioners should have paid into a private pension. In the 1970s I briefly worked for a major company with a pension scheme but this was refunded when I left to have a baby. It was extremely rare to return to those type of jobs for women back then.
I joined the NHS part time in the 80s when my DC were small but was not allowed to join the pension scheme as a part timer. I did join in the 90s when I went full time once my DC were in school. Most mums of young children did not work full time then. Many jobs did not offer a pension scheme. My late DH did not work anywhere with a pension scheme either, so I have no widows pension.
I do have a private pension but paid in for around 20 years and was in a low paid job so it is not huge. My story is fairly common for older women. The average single pensioner has a total income of around £280 per week, which hardly makes us rich.

The fact is that they were never personally informed. Granted, it was all over the news at the time and in the media over the following years BUT nonetheless some people were not paying as much attention as others and they genuinely didn't know that the pension age was changing.

Although the initial change (to 65) was announced in about 1996 (and I was aware of it) it wasn't until after 2011, when it was increased to 66 and therefore also affected men, that the DWP decided to write to me to let me know. My DH received a letter at the same time.

Older people have often worked from 16, 14 in some cases. They expected when old and sick they would at least be able to eat and keep warm, You have to pay for things you did yourself when younger.

State pension under the old system was about £170 a week. People who have an additional pension may only have enough to take them up to and 50p - £1 a week over the pension credit level. So they get no benefit from their private pension.

Houses require maintenance you often cant do yourself when older and sicker. You also cant always shop for and cook cheap meals, you may have to have them prepared for you. Although more old people own homes they are not necessarily well maintained or well insulated or have high value. Grants for boilers or insulation are not available unless you are on benefits.

Labour are taking money from some of the poorest people in the country.

Personally we donated our fuel allowance to the local food bank, wont be doing that now.

I Can't beleive you've waited until now to get a pension forecast. Ive been thinkibg about my pension since ny early twenties and planning accordingly, including every time rules have changed. The bedroom tax has no impact on your pension.

Nobody pays so-called bedroom tax. But if you live in a house that's bigger than you need, then the taxpayer will not subsidise you - which is entirely reasonable.

over 18% of the population are pensioners. Do you really think you can generalise one fifth of the UK to say they are poor, rich or anything at all other than over the age of 66. Some pensioners are poor, some are mind blowingly rich. Rich beyond our wildest imaginations. And before means testing, those people who could wipe their bums with £50 notes and not care, were recieving a winter fuel payment while children slept on the floor of A&E and went to school without food in their bellies.

Decisions have to be made about where money goes and it shouldn't be done on the basis of how old you are, but by what your needs are.

Exactly. The OP makes it sound as if anyone born after that date will never be able to get the winter fuel allowance,no matter what their financial circumstances might be.