Pension credit only £3 less than State Pension

[SpanishBaguette]

Maybe it's been obvious to others but I've only just found out that Pension Credit will top you up to no less than £227 per week which is only £3 less than the state pension.

AIBU to be hacked off that I need to pay 35 years of contributions to end up with a near identical pension to someone who gets it for free. WTF?

OP I mean… yeah? But would you rather be a contributor to the country and know that you are not a net drain? I would. So what other people might get “for free” is none of my concern.
What’s the alternative? Euthanasia? … oh, wait….

Then you should also know that for most of that period part timers (overwhelmingly women) were excluded from private pensions schemes as were lower grades. Such schemes were also largely the preserve of big companies but most people then, as now, worked for smaller organisations. Private pensions were also a management perk even where they were offered - when you made grade X you were allowed to join the pension scheme. Even best DB private plans could not compare to the index linked final salary schemes in the public sector.

PP is correct, mandating access to private pension schemes for all employees is a very recent development

YANBU . Those on Pension credit end up better off on someone just on state pension as they get everything paid for . get even £1 of guaranteed pension credit and you get all rent paid, council tax paid, free optical and dental care, free TV license if above a certain age, free wet room when you need it, free boiler . the list is endless. Save into a small private pension and you get ziltch.
I massively resent working all my life when I see the amounts that some get and most have barely worked. I know it used to be the norm for women to barely work but boy does it grate when you are desperate to retire after 40+ ears of working including many years looking after small kids as well( I used to work night shifts for many years after looking after kids all day )and are just paying taxes for others who have never worked !.

Yep, I do think a lot of people bleating about this sort of thing want to be careful what they wish for. You have to be earning a fair bit more than average before you are, statistically speaking, a net contributor to the UK. So a lot of people looking to do down those on pension credit because they 'haven't contributed' may find their own lives getting worse if we carry on down that road.

If people have a genuinely tiny pension pot then pension freedoms now mean they can withdraw it as lump sum from 57 and spend it on something like paying off the mortgage or even a holiday in order to avoid the "tiny pension puts you above the benefits threshold" trap.

NB there will be tax to pay on sums over £30k I think.

She would have been in receipt of pension for 4 years by 71? £36k extra income?

I guess the difference is that is 1half of a couple has more income the person with less won't be able to.claim?

@Biskieboo prior to 1991 women especially when working part time have been excluded from pensions including the NHS. Not all companies offered pensions either. A lot of women were often not earning a great deal and felt that they couldn’t afford to pay into a private pension and married women were sometimes blindsided by husbands saying that they didn’t need to as their pension would be enough for them both. Then off they sail into the sunset with a new model. Finding out about pensions is now far easier due to the internet, but before then it was not so easy especially for some sectors of the population. Unlike now when it’s fairly easy for anyone to find a financial advisor, or to set up a pension, historically it has not been so easy. Even now women are falling into the trap of not making pension contributions when on maternity leave, stopping pension payments when they go part time after having children. A lot of self employed are not making pension contributions either.

So whilst I agree that pensions have been around for a long time, it has been more likely working men and especially those with a higher income who had access, or paid into one.

Exactly. I am 57 and have been contributing to a private pension for 40 years !

People can still qualify for Pension credit with large amounts of savings if they have a low state pension. So someone who for example has barely worked all their life so has a low state pension and then inherited 50k later in life could still get Pension credit. the first 10k of savings is completely disregarded then anything above that reduces pension credit by £2 per 1k above the threshold. I reglualrly in my job see people with significant savings getting pension credit. being in receipt of a disability benefit raises the pension credit threshold even higher in some circumstances.

I know someone who is not British (been in the UK for 20 years), gets full housing benefit and pension credit, free bus pass etc in spite of never having paid tax and national insurance.

Meanwhile as a self employed person, i have to save money to pay my tax and NI, and due to the cost of living, i cannot pay into a private pension.

I will have to work till I die.

I don’t get angry about it anymore. Wastes too much energy ( energy that I need to work, as many hours as I can physically manage!)

Exactly!
It's those who haven't either chosen, or been forced to be on benefits a lifetime, that don't have enough state pension and have to either seek pension top up credit, or not retire and remain working.

Anyone whose genuinely been on benefits a lifetime also has a full state pension and no entitlement to pension credits.

Agree re part-timers (not that I said anything to the contrary), mostly disagree with the big companies bit, totally disagree with the management perk bit. This very day I have been working on a scheme with over 5,000 members and which had sections for, inter alia, machinists and clerical workers. Average pension p.a. of about seven grand. They're not all rich managers are they? Still, this is just what I do for a job so what do I know.

I also agree that mandating access to workplace pension schemes for all employees is a relatively recent thing - though auto enrolment has been about for over a decade and stakeholder pensions (which were not needed for the smallest employers) came in in 2001. Again I didn't say different.

Yes this, why hasn't she claimed her entitled to.state pension ?

Very few people are actually net contributors.

But pension credit only goes to really poor people. Most people would have more than just state pension they’d have employer pension and savings too. So they get more over all

Believe me it really does not just go to really poor people ! There are lots of additional premiums that people get that really raise the threshold meaning people with pretty high incomes can still get it. I work in this area ( benefits for older people ) and it's a real eye opener.

My DF wasn’t a teacher or a civil servant, nor was he ever rich. He worked for private sector companies and paid into a pension that enabled him and DM to live quite comfortably after he retired.
A generous percentage of his pension continued to be paid to DM for many years after he died.

PPPs, opting out etc, were only made available in the UK in 1988 and for the majority of people they were a legal quagmire of "I have no fucking idea", and that often included the 'specialist advisors'

Automatic Enrolment has only been a thing for about 10 years

Todays pensioners have better private pensions because schemes were better. Do people realise how little auto enrolment contributes? And that you can still opt out?

Why I think it niggles more than earning money while other working-age people get free money is because:

A lot will be the same people who were on benefits/didn't work when working age.

Yes but the premiums are generally because people either have a disability or have caring responsibilities (or both) both groups who tend to be financially disadvantaged and have greater costs because of their situation.

everyone knows that some people pay tax and some don’t. My MIL gets a state pension, she was a “housewife” who hasn’t worked a day in her life. I have plenty of family members who worked part time or very little. I also know loads of self employed people who dodged tax beyond belief when it was easier and people enjoyed sticking it to “the man”

all pensioners now, your NI is paying for them.

True, the main issue is there aren't enough workers to support the pensioners.

People who become disabled after state pension age have not had their working lives restricted by disability? the amounts that some are getting especially couples on disability benefits and both claiming to be carers for each other are huge ! This is on top of the actual disability benefits themselves. No wonder the country is broke. Even the people themselves are shocked at how much they are getting and keep asking if it's correct !!

Yanbu are all op.
Of course working people should be better off than those who don’t work.
And no, I don’t want to hear how those who work have had the fantastic opportunity to grind themselves into the ground, forsaking time with their family, including grandchildren and elderly parents, whilst saving a bit of their hard earned money and be expected to save for their retirement.
Meanwhile the bone idle can spend time with family and get nicely rewards for it in the long run.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER you think that scheme still exists?