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?

You cannot have savings (well £10k but if retired that’s not much for the rest of your life) and you cannot have extra income. It’s in place where circumstances mean you haven’t been able to get credits for a state pension, remember in the past many women did not get credits, those women are mostly retired. Perhaps their ex spouse ran off with the money even

No, I feel the same. A private pension of £200-300 a month and modest savings leaves you worse off.

You are right. As a part time worker I couldn’t join my company pension scheme until I went full time in the 80s. As a woman born before 1950, I needed 39 years of NI contributions for a full state pension of less than £180 pw. I get nowhere near that amount due to some years of being a SAHM (before there were any NI credits, they came in later), and some years of intermittent, low paid work, where I paid the reduced rate of NI, also known as ‘The Married Women’s Stamp’.

But hey ho, I have a small occupational pension from later years of working full time. DH gets the full, old rate pension, with a bit of graduated pension. Less than £200 a week. He has no private pension. We don’t qualify for pension credit. We both worked part time after state retirement age.

A generous pension is worth saving for, a small one can put you just over the pension credit threshold.

It's Scrooge's comment when he is asked for a Christmas contribution to help the poor of the parish 🙂

It's a Dickens quotation from Scrooge.

It's irrelevant though. @SpanishBaguette is not being unreasonable here.
The tax and benefit system in this country, and others, needs total reform. It disincentivises behaviour that should be encouraged eg working for a living, providing useful services, setting up a business, etc, and incentivises entirely the wrong things.

Ah sorry. Went over my head!

Has she checked to see if she's eligible for housing benefit?

True, and pension credit claimants still get the winter fuel allowance (approx £300), which SRP pensioners don't.

My MIL has only worked for 10 years in her life, she gets pension credit, housing benefit of £145 pw (social housing) and 100% council tax reduction.

I'm retiring at the end of the month, and will have SRP plus an occupational pension of £251 a month after tax. I doubt if I'd be entitled to anything off my council tax (£153 a month) and I have some savings which would disqualify me if I did.

I should have just stayed at home and had kids instead of working continuously for 53 years.

My mum has a friend who has never worked and has always mocked people who did. He was very outspoken that he thought working people were idiots. I used to do shift work sometimes starting at 6am (getting up at 4am) sometimes finishing at midnight and getting home at 1am. He openly scorned me for doing this. He lived off an inheritance that he has now burned through.

He gets pension credit now as no other income. My mum gets the state pension and doesn't have any private pensions.

So they are both getting a very similar amount of money in each month. Except he has his rent and council tax paid as benefits of being on pension credit. My mum doesn't have rent but pays council tax so he is actually better off and has more disposable income than she does.

I understand we can't leave vulnerable people with no income but it's unfair when they get more than people who worked hard all their lives end up with.

So they are both getting a very similar amount of money in each month. Except he has his rent and council tax paid as benefits of being on pension credit. My mum doesn't have rent but pays council tax so he is actually better off and has more disposable income than she does.

That's the same for workers who rent vs have a mortgage.

It's a quote from A Christmas Carol, by Scrooge, when he is asked to donate to the poor. Edit: other posters have already answered, sorry I need to RTHT in future

How have we reached a point where people are told they’re ’massively privileged’ to be able to work for 35 years? As compared to others who do sweet bugger all.

Absolutely ludicrous 🤣

Some of us cant do sweet bugger all as you put it as we have disabilities that have stopped us working.

You can’t tell those out working for a living that they’re massively privileged though. Come on, let’s get real.

No but being able to work is a privilege in itself.

But, presumably, those people then also have worked 35 years of their life. Why should they have no state pension if they've made the same NI contributions as someone else? To me it's the same issue in a different wrapper - are you saying someone who's got a private pension and made the same or more NI contributions should not take the state pension? Very few people put in as much as they get out - indeed, 35 years of NI at a salary of 35k (above the national average) only costs the employee approx 108K. That's about 9 years of pension at the current payment. The reason the government takes NI is because the average person won't save that money and then you have a society full of people self funding retirement or not (as is evidenced by this thread and people saying they couldn't save anything for a private pension). NI is, in effect, a mandatory retirement plan.

Bollocks is being able to work a privilege.

It's a choice.

Many many people have chronic illnesses and disabilities and yet get out there and work - maybe not many hours, probably not well paid, but they do what they can. They are often in pain, often struggling, but they do it because they think it is right and honest

Others absolutely maximise their symptoms (which are almost always self reported), do as little as possible to manage their conditions and whilst not being able to do any work at all are rather adept at gathering evidence, understanding complex benefit systems and spending lots of time online.

It really doesn't matter.

What matters is that we cannot afford the level of welfare that we have. Our economy is stagnant because of poor productivity and we are spending too much money on debt repayments.

We are going to have to toughen up and life is going to have to get harder for people - those on benefits are going to have to share the pain as are those on pension credits.

It is a privilege to be fit and healthy enough to work or to not have any caring responsibilities which means working is limited or not possible at all.

Some people have caring responsibilities that mean they cant work.

I’m not sure. Yes having health and circumstances to sustain working is privileged in that some don’t have that however, working should be a base line expectation for anyone able to do so. We simply can’t afford to pay people to sit at home across the life course.

Some people have caring responsibilities, chronic illnesses AND they work.

Others............. don't.

Because everyone has different circumstances and just because it might sometimes be possible, it doesn't mean that it always is.

I had a job until my son became disabled and then they couldn't get rid of me quick enough.

it is not always through choice. No one chooses to be disabled or be looking after someone that is disabled.

Agree. Really sick of it. People need to stop buying into the rhetoric they're being fed and do some critical thinking. The UK is becoming unkind and inward looking. I know times are tough but I detest this move towards self-centered thinking. It frightens me.

I have an autoimmune disorder and work. I am exhausted most, if not all of the time. Most likely I am shortening my life span , but I would rather work than receive handouts.