Concerned that Labour govt might fleece me in upcoming budget?

[RightOh9oo]

Aibu to be concerned that Labour government might fleece myself/family in the next budget?

If they remove the right to UK pension for all, by making it means tested....I think I'll stop working this year. I'm early 50s, does anyone else feel like this?

I'm going without so much to save in my private pension, so no holidays to speak of.

Does anyone know what is in store in the upcoming budget?

My God Op! I spit my wine out when I read your post! Scared the shit out of me. Please don’t post stuff like this which is clearly fake news. They could thinknabot doing that for those who for example are under 25 and can opt out of paying national insurance if they wish, because why would they pay in if they might not benefit from getting it? But those of us over 40 - not a chance in hell would they move the goal posts when we’ve paid into it for years. They wouldn’t dare…..

Not true. Both employers and employees are required to pay into a person’s ‘superannuation’ account.

Super = pension in Australia.

And for those amazed at the amount of a full Aussie Age Pension, please bear in mind that the cost of living is higher in Australia. A quick google tells me that the average rental is $570ish nationwide. If you live in Sydney or Melbourne, add a couple of hundred dollars to that.

@Livelovebehappy
Wine you say, spendthrift!
Be like the OP and live like scrooge to shovel into a pension.
OP is in another world, millions cannot afford to ever save £300,000 & if you do you certainly don't need state pension

And we should be afraid, very afraid, of the upcoming budget. Reeves is already laying the seeds that we are to expect brutal decisions are going to be made. They’ve got to find someone to penalise for the inflation busting pay rises given to the doctors and train drivers (and assuming similar will be coming for other public sector employees), so I’m afraid we’re all lambs to the slaughter.

I assume salaries are also higher in Oz?

We have really shit wages here, yrs of stagnation.

The part of this I struggle with I paid full National Insurance Stamp for 15 years, which when i got my Pension at 60. took me nicely over the State Pension rate. Not of course, being at £14,500 a year and not £12,500 (approximately) they have requested £118 interest on the "over payment"? So thank you, take my full Stamp money, and now 19 years later penalize me for having too much money to live on.
But that was a "deal" back then. i have it on every piece of Pension correspondence, "this is not subject to tax" or this is not taxable. Now the Pensioners who have no other means of "making up the money" as they are too old to work, are being targeted?
iInever thought i would see the day? Yes of course I get that the £500 fuel allowance was a wonderful surprise, but if it was a contributing factor in causing this for all Pensions, it wasn't the wiser idea?

The idea "they can't do that" I afraid is wishful thinking, they can do whatever they like. They even had a vote not to target the Pensioners, we lost? So its a question of back to the rationing days, when we heated one room only, that is how I got through the last two Winters. A small caravan fan heater, just put on when the room has got too cold. We are a sitting target now this has happened and no-one threw their hands up in horror and the Prime Minister.

The idea behind this, let the children take care of their parents, families with both mother and father working, two cars in the driveway, pop round to granny and give her a bunch of money to heat her home, stop relying on us to keep shelling out. i many cases, children earning a good salary don't pick up any slack, if they even visit their 80 yr old mum or dad. So that message is about your parents provided for you, now its time for you to provide for them.

kelly51 Would have been cup of tea if selfish dh hadn’t used the last bit of milk on his cereal tonight, so bottle of wine it is……

CS Pensions are a 'plague' on working people and one of the least deserved benefits paid for by the tax payer, The whole pay, T&Cs and structure of the CS needs reform before any reforms to the NHS.

Employer contributions for teachers is 28.6%
I think it’s 30% for police
NHS is 23% ish.

Is it just civil servants you have an issue with?

The average rent in England is £1300, That’s 2543 AUD.

The part of this I struggle with I paid full National Insurance Stamp for 15 years, which when i got my Pension at 60. took me nicely over the State Pension rate

You have to pay 35 yrs now…

The idea behind this, let the children take care of their parents, families with both mother and father working, two cars in the driveway, pop round to granny and give her a bunch of money to heat her home, stop relying on us to keep shelling out. i many cases, children earning a good salary don't pick up any slack, if they even visit their 80 yr old mum or dad. So that message is about your parents provided for you, now its time for you to provide for them.

Is that really the plan? Working families don’t really have the excess to support their parents heating bills.

Yes but Australian's superannuation isn't means tested. The means tested age pension is only for people that don't have sufficient funds in their own superannuation.

My crystal ball is charging right now so I will have to check in a while. Whilst it's charging I may as well add some additional fear mongering to cause unnecessary panic.

• Schools are going to add an additional 4 weeks on to summer holidays. On top of that annual leave allowance for every full time working adult will be slashed to 10 days per year.
• mimum wage will be reduced by 20% and tax increased by 40%
• NHS will charge £10 per hour for their service including time spent waiting in a&e
• Kier Stammer is standing down and Donald Trump is his direct replacement.

😂

With all due respect, what does it matter how Australia are dealing with Pensioners. We live here, and this is where the misery is being dished out? We have no voice, so best not to involve other countries and their ideas good or bad on how to treat their Pensioners.
i have often hear people say, they make all these promises, but when they get voted for, keep none of them.
Never hear the PM saying a word about getting the Pensioners to give up their well earned retirement money. Yes there were a lot of people I know that saved the Fuel Allowance to go to France and buy cheap wine for Xmas. I used it to buy my lovely grandchildren and daughters Xmas and Birthday presents. My daughter was born in December and her daughter was as well. My son in law's birthday is 1 January, so to save on postage, two presents there to pay for. Doesn't take long and suddenly the normal Fuel Allowance has dwindled down to less that £20. I am talking pre Putin. Now all bets are off regarding electricity prices. its a stacked deck people.

The means testing also seems quite generous - I found a calculator online and you’d qualify for a pension up to really quite high income levels unless you have significant assets.

😂

It’s highly unlikely but if it were to happen at least people should get back what they paid in.

I paid full National Insurance Stamp for 15 years, which when i got my Pension at 60. took me nicely over the State Pension rate.

I have paid the full NI stamp for well over 15 years already and am nowhere near retirement age, which is currently 68 for me. I think you are very lucky to get so much for paying in so little.

@Mharte88 people are responding about the Australian system because some posters were implying that because it's mean tested then the UK's could also be mean tested. So just pointing out they are completely different systems.

So do I. I paid in for more than three times longer than that. Where did I go wrong?

Apologies, I wasn’t clear. It is $570 PER WEEK.

So rents in Oz are about the same as they are here.

Well, it's what happens in Ohio apparently.

Correct. There are not that many people that would qualify for the full age pension. But for those that do, it isn’t really that much to live on.

Just wanted to point that out for those people who think that Aussie pensioners are living the life of Riley.

The minimum wage is $24.10 an hour or $915.90 a week based on a 38 hour week.