I’ve easily found £30bn of savings, so why can’t the government do this?

[OwnGravityField]

How about this state pension adjustment proposal?

Currently, the state pension system pays the same to everyone, even to households with very large private pensions and investment incomes. Much of this money ends up funding luxuries.

The proposal is simple:
*full SP for everyone who depends on it (60% of pensioners)
*households with more than £12,000 a year from private pensions, work, or investments have 50p of SP withdrawn for every £1 above that level, up to the value of the pension itself
*A quarter of pensioners would only have a modest reduction, and only the wealthiest 15% would no longer receive a publicly funded pension they do not need.

I used chatGPT to do the calculations.

Savings? THIRTY BILLION A YEAR

That’s 1% of GDP

List of things that could improve?

restored trust between generations so young taxpayers see their money spent on genuine need, not luxury.

national renewal: homes, NHS, lower childcare costs, investment in schools, training, the police force. It could be used to help families who are struggling with mortgage costs.

re-directing spending from low-value consumption (luxuries, imports) to investment (homes, healthcare, infrastructure) improves living standards

Positive effect on the bond markets, sterling value, credit-rating agencies, inflation trends, reduction in government debt - the UK really really needs this right now

I’d absolutely get up off my bum and vote for a party that proposed this. Would you?

This. MN absolutely hates pensioners we know, but the garbage some posters use to try to support that view with beggars belief sometimes.

and it’s unsustainable.

Oension should be means tested. As should disability benefits. If you’ve got the means to live you shouldn’t be getting free money.

I'm 65. I'm dreading being 85 and being the recipient of the levels of unkindness afforded the elderly on this thread. It seems as if some younger people would like us stripped of our assets and put into compounds. That happened to a group of people the prevailing political party didn't like in Germany in the 1930s. Some of the comments on this thread are terrifying.

How about looking at the completely unaffordable public sector pensions? Future debts way in excess of our total GDP.

This is incorrect. NI does drop from 8% to 2% on earnings over £50K (actually £967 a week) but there is no upper limit above which NI is not paid.

What tosh. How about sorting the NHS out, they waste billions a year.

It's ChatGPT. "Sorry, when you said pensions, I looked at the sales of M&S trifles instead. My bad!"

Jesus wept

But ive paid NI contributions for 20 years based on entitlement to state pension.

You can't take that away from people who've paid in on the basis they are entitled to something. Ive also saved my private pension on the basis it will be topped up by state, its not fair to do this to people twenty or thirty years into their working life.

Yep, at 65, I've paid 46 years (and only need 35). Yet some people on this thread think I don't deserve the state pension on which I will pay tax.

Work hard, save for your retirement and then have it all taken from you to give to people who choose not to work.

That’s about full time at minimum wage. No family is expected to live off one minimum wage salary and they would certainly be receiving UC if this was all of their income.

I would only agree to something like this if it were tapered in to allow people who have contributed already to receive an amount representing their contributions.

You have to also expect that people will look to plan to keep their private pension low (and save in other ways) to maximise entitlement to state pension.

Ah, OK, thank you. I think it used to drop to zero years ago.

Me too to make sure I will get full state pension when I am 67. When the government make major changes they have to phase it in over 10 years or so to give those nearing state pension age time to adjust their savings. You are assuming all people would carry on paying exactly the same pension contribution which is extremely naive.

“Yadda, yadda, yadda… …I’d absolutely get up off my bum and vote for a party that proposed this. Would you?”

One vote ain’t gonna crack it hun.

You need to get up off your bum and JOIN THAT PARTY AND WORK ON IT. The ChatGPT party presumably???

They need big thinkers like you.

Maybe OP is just shit posting

Especially with ChatGPT, some people treat it like a new toy.

Where is the fairness in spending money we don't have?
Working class people struggling to put food on the table, paying extortionate rent and energy bills whilst well off pensioners sit at home with extra money on top of triple lock pensions.
Meanwhile the debt keeps increasing. But it's OK I'll youngsters will pay it all back on top of there university fees

Then you’ll be delighted to know that most asylum seekers are granted citizenship. Those who aren’t will be deported.

So, your taxes will be spent on UK citizens. And theirs on you.

Outside of the rights and wrongs of removing state pension from people who have private pensions and other sources of income, I do believe that this will be a reality by the time I retire simply because the maths can't work of paying the state pension to a large, long living cohort of pensioners from taxpayers who can't afford the basics of living. So I'm working off the assumption I'll need to fund my own retirement.

The demographics don't add up anymore though.

And if you were facing losing the lot which I would with your proposal I bet you’d think differently. Easy to think this is ok if you’re only going to lose a few hundred. I’m ok Jack

my private pension won’t be massive. Maybe 17-19k a year. But the state pension on top will make all the difference between turning the heating on or not.

You do understand that those pensioners were often young, struggling families too?

ChatGpt told me that the average temp in May for a town in France i'm hoping to visit, is 1820'C

I'll pack some factor 50.

Your plans are full of holes, would have a host of unintended consequences, they aren't really worthy of consideration.

And I didn't get my state pension until 65 and 5 months instead of 60. So, waited longer and got less.

So you think that the 44.2% of people, who are net contributors to the economy, many of who have paid all of their NI years up to receive a full pension and are still paying, should now also be penalised further. Screw that. No I will not be voting for such a stupid policy.