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?

And it's the non feckless, vulnerable, hard working, who've paid tax all the way through too, left with very little at retirement age without that top up, that are being demonized alongside them, as some sort of one size fits all.

I wont be retiring. I simply can't afford to.

Yes. So they make SOME contributions through their younger years. Caring, low wage or high wage.

Those with severe needs looked after by family or nursing homes.

An interesting take. Where would you draw the line then?

No work = no food, so anyone who cannot work just simply starves to death, on the streets?

I mean yes it would be one way to make huge savings, but there are other considerations!

Yes, there needs to be a MUCH more substantial gap in net income between those earning it all themselves and those having govt subsidy.

I think the most unfair thing is that someone on Pension Credit could be better off than someone on just full State Pension once other benefits (cold weather payment, free TV licence etc) are taken into consideration.

That really needs to be looked at. You shouldn’t be better off on Pension Credit than on something you’ve contributed for 35 years to get.

<sigh> so you begrudge a pensioner like yourself who may have illness or a disability had low income OR unemployment £3 ?

Can you say why? Do you think you are more worthy?

People on pension credit aren’t allowed to have any savings, I believe. Others who dont qualify for it own their own house and / or have significant savings. So they are in a much better position that those on pension credit. I honestly can’t believe what I’m reading 🙄

I don't know (and nor do you) whether or not the OP believes she has paid into a pot, but I do know I don't think that, so can answer from my own perspective.

I am fully aware of how the system works, and IME so are the majority of people, and I find it maddening when someone sneeringly points it out, as though they are remarkably perceptive and others are not. All the same, we pay the pensions of others in the hope and expectation that when it's our turn we will have ours paid without it being begrudged. It is not the fault of those paying in (or those drawing a State Pension) that successive governments haven't grasped the nettle of demographics and asked for higher contributions, or that they haven't made it more advantageous to pay in rather than to take out (eg by making pensions contribution only, and restricting benefits to those who have paid in or who are genuinely unable to do so).

Whichever way you look at it, it is unfair that someone pays for decades into what is meant to be an insurance scheme, and then finds that those with no contributions gets more than they do. Means testing means that those with small private pensions are penalised, as they often get very little more than those on PC, yet have higher bills than someone getting theirs paid by the state. I know we can't have older people on the streets or in workhouses, and I'm in no way saying I'd like to see that happen, but it's no wonder people feel disenfranchised when nobody is interested in making those who work long hours (often in crappy jobs) and who fork out tax and NI from what are often low wages better off than those who aren't interested in working or paying into the system.

But they may have contributed just not enough contributions.

You can get pension credit if you own your house

Someone who only has State pension may well not have above the savings limit for Pension Credit either.

Anyone who is only living on basic state pension is hardly rich, yet they get less than people on pension credit.

People absolutely should be much better off working or having worked than relying all their lives on benefits. There needs to be a really clear incentive to work because most people actually don’t want to and many, many people never have careers, work is something we have to do to have money to spend. So if people get the same for not working the what’s the point in putting in any effort.

WHAT? Surely there's a cap on it though? (I can't find details online just that owning a house doesn't make you ineligible).

Not if you have equity surely?

People like my DM who has worked full time since 15 and unfortunately opted out of serps without really understanding it and ended up with half a state pension and a teeny tiny private pension.

Equity doesn’t come into it.

No, that's not true. Many, people didn't because they where not in receipt of carers allowance, and where never told they could still get NI contributions.
many women whose husbands put their child allowance in their name, received no NI protection either, especially if they worked.

Many people who have low pensions and would be eligible for pension credits have contributed to society in many ways, from caring work, to voluntary work, to being medical research patients, and organ donors, as an immediate few, but I believe you are here to be goady so I'm not going to bother going further.

The house you live in isn’t counted and you can have up to £10k in savings.

There is a cap on savings, don't think there is one on your house, in fact home owners on pension credit used to be able to get work done on their house by a grant or something like that. I don't think this is so now though.

Most people don’t want to work? Not in my experience. Most people do want to work.

and £10,000 savings

YANBU. Those disabled pensioners should be left to starve, or sent to a factory and turned into glue. 🙄

So how will these pensioners afford to pay their rent and buy their food? Would you be happy to see them homeless and on the streets? We do try and not let people starve in the UK. Or would you prefer to go down the route suggested by Brian Kilmeade, a Fox News host, who has recently apologised for stating on air that the homeless should be killed by an involuntary lethal injection?

I don’t think that is true. My parents have never qualified for PC and they only have one house for which the mortgage is paid off.