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?

Also many people, if not most people, getting pension credit will have contributed through work or caring responsibilities. Pension credit is a top up benefit generally, so tops up someone's state pension to their appropriate minimum guarantee. Can we please stop this notion that someone getting pension credit hasn't contributed!

That is because you didn’t pay into that private pension consistently and at a decent rate though isn’t it? There is no other explanation for it being so little really.

I dont really know who is eligible for pension credit.

Would you prefer people who couldn't make up the 35 years for various reasons to be living in poverty? being able to work all these years is a massive privilege.

Can we please stop this notion that someone getting pension credit hasn't contributed!

But many haven't. I work in a community role and see generations of people who have never seen a days graft in their lives. Lived in a council house on benefits and have not contributed a penny to the system, one area is absolutely full of them - I have worked with them for over 20 years. It is those feckless lazy folk op is referring to.

This. I have only had access to decent pension in the last five years which will give me nine years worth after fifty years if working. It is different now but this was the reality for most people retiring now and in the next few years.

The positives for you:

You will have the freedom to be allowed to earn more than £5 per week if you want to top up your pension, or your Dc's want to pay you to look after your DGC's..

You will not be being potentially reported and investigated to make sure you aren't doing anything wrong for the rest of your life.

You will not have to prove you are doing volunteer work not paid for the rest of your life.

You will not have anyone who dislikes you able to have your income source cut off while you are investigated, for the rest of your life.

You will not have to live with having broken your back a lifetime, not claimed disability benefits for most of it despite being born disabled, or carers when you full time cared and worked, and lived in poverty, and have been cheated out of your private pension and half of your state pension, by ever changing rules allowing others to take advantage, but have everyone assume you just didn't work hard enough and where a feckless lazy arse, so you'll also be keeping yourself to yourself for the remains of your life.

Indeed! Well said.

Would people be happier if pensioners who need help just starve to death? FFS I doubt they’re all going on cruises.

im so sick of this nasty rhetoric around punishing vulnerable and or disabled people.

It is unfair, there has to be an incentive, take full advantage of a private pension while you can. If it is tax free contributions

My private pension will be little too. I have significant caring responsibilities and care for 2 people with high needs alongside working a part time job. I don't get any reward for the extra care I do (as I earn above the threshold for CA) but I am punished by the system both by only able to earn a low wage and thus, I can only pay in very little inti a private pension. I know many women in a similar boat. Its not fair and it's not my fault but it is what it is. Not everyone can pay in loads into a private pension.

@Deepbluesea1 I would prefer that those who contributed see more of a difference in their spending power compared to those who haven't. That seems only fair.

Explain how any of us could have started a private pension back in the late 70s, early 80s

Tell us how Contracting Out etc worked

Tell us how, if we don't work in public services we had meaningful access to personal pension advice prior to about 2010

It's been c10 years since mandatory workplace pensions were put in place and for some it is all they have known. That doesn't mean it is the reality for many of us who are now nearing or at pensionable age who didn't have access to advice or spare cash!

The vast majority have contributed. I used to work in welfare rights and know this for a fact. I don't think a life on benefits is an easy option either.

If everyone did this, then what?

Pension credit needs to be removed. No contributions then no pension. Future governments will address this. Huge savings to be made.

As I said circumstances.
I worked 4 part time jobs to work round my family and a unwell dh who didn't qualify for any benefits for the 15 years leading up to getting his pension. Nmw jobs mostly and paying all family expenses including mortgage leaving nothing to pay into a pension.

No!

We have a benefit system for a reason. It is needed. It is currently and overblown gargantuan with no perceivable boundaries - but all that takes is a political will and a dose of reality for us all!

Much as it is a source of annoyance sometimes, we cannot leave any cohort without social support

My sister will more than likely get pension credit when the time comes. She’s always worked in minimum wage caring jobs. She never earned enough so there was money left over to pay into a pension before it was mandatory.

Her DH unfortunately got early onset dementia when he was in his forties and he, sadly, died when he was 57. She had to take time out of the workforce to care for him.

She’s back working now, in a caring role.with pennies going into a pension but it’s not going to be enough to stop her needing a top up. I don’t think she should be begrudged.

Not everybody who needs help has never worked. My nan was widowed at 47, she worked all her life but she still needed help when she was old.

You’re talking shite. Because since 2010 at least, people have had work coaches who stop people’s benefits if they aren’t proving that they are actively seeking a job whilst claiming.

You must live in a very strange area if you know three generations of a family who have never worked. Pretty sure the conservative government tried to say this back in the day. But eventually they had to admit there was no evidence for it.

Anyone legally resident in the UK who is of pension age and has sufficiently low income
https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit

the difference is that you can have private pensions on top and those on pension credits cannot . Pension and pension credits is supposed to be a bare minimum for people to live from

Riiight... so we let old people starve then? Or send them off to the poor house?

If you are a carer you get autimstuc NI contributions towards the state pension, which is good.

What contributions have pension credit claimants made to society?

The main issue is that most people’s wages are too low to cover the cost of basic living. Not that there are generations of people who don’t work.

Because many thousands of people who face never ‘lifted a finger’ have in fact been doing an awful lot that just hasn’t involved getting paid.

Your argument is that your sister deserves pension credit, which sounds fair enough.
My argument is that state pension should be significantly more than pension credit.