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*households with more than £12,000 a year from private pensions, work, or investments have 50p of SP withdrawn for every £1 above that level, up to the value of the pension itself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?

Why dont we just take 500 per person as a down payment on your right to live in the uk - so 2k per family of 4 that would also save 30 billion

I think one thing they could do is make people actually claim state pension instead of being automatically sent it. Very rich people might not bother. This wouldn't save nearly as much though.

I don’t think we should squeeze young people and young families even more. They’ve suffered enough income tax raises via fiscal drag.

You have to apply for the State Pension. It is not paid automatically.

So you expect people to pay into state pension but then to only get x% back - nah, think I'll pass on that.

what about the people in work now who don't want to see their future state pension reduced? They vote too!

It’s not the “15% wealthiest” pensioners when you are literally calling elderly couples and singles in households with no dependents wealthy when on the IFS UK income comparison chart, they’d actually be in the 20% poorest.

https://ifs.org.uk/toolsandresources/wheredoyoufitin

Especially since the elderly have a higher cost of living as age decreases ability to do DIY, cleaning, self care, etc

It’s swings and roundabouts. If you have state pension and a £12000 pa
private pension you’ll be paying at least £2400 in tax so if you reduce state pension you reduce tax revenue. Plus less money would be spent in the economy. Most of the pension paid to pensions is spent in this country unlike money from tax avoidance schemes used by the elites

I would also make pensioners with high incomes still pay NI. Also, once you earn over a certain amount you stop having NI deducted (not many people know that) as you are deemed to have paid your stamp. I'd change that.

How about decreasing the pension for people who haven't paid into the system, illness excluded.
There is generations of work shy people.
Two parent families onbenefits living in poverty, there are cultures that never paid tax.
Open it new old age retirement homes like work housing, bread and water, soup on the weekend joking.
It's crazy that you want to hit the people who kept the money moving while topping up people who rarely worked.
Some families know the how to use the benefit system inside and out.

Very selective responses to queries/points made - OP why arent you replying to every post ? Is it because you have no answer ?

I agree that something does need to be done here. The couple across the road from us retired on final salary pensions at 60 and are enjoying luxury holidays every couple of months along with constant building work and brand new cars. It’s somewhat galling to think that in a couple of years’ time they’ll be getting an additional 25k a year paid to them by the government when there are families out there starving.

But I think you need to revisit your proposed figures - 12K is nothing.

No, it’s because I’m unable to keep up and I’m not a robot.

No. It's removes incentive to work. Like so many benefits. If you can sit on your arse all your life and get the same as anyone else, why not. Why work hard, pay all your dues, and then get nothing, whilst sofa slob gets the lot.

Anyway mute point. They couldn't even get the WFP off wealthy retirees, so no hope at all for your proposal.

Ok, I thought it was just sent to you when you reach that age.

those rich people already pay income tax. They hide much of thier income in wealth. UK is weak on wealth taxes.

? Visas already cost more than this per year. This would cover the annual NHS surcharge per person only.

Running a means-tested benefit is NOT a one-off cost.

let us know how you get on when you give up your jobs and "go on benefits" then?

Hahaha. Op go and look at what has actually happened with adding vat onto private school fees and how those rich people who were going to fund billions in the state sector by just paying more did and then see if your ChatGPT calcs would survive lots of people changing their behaviour and not putting into a private pension because their state one would then be means tested. It only works if you take off the people who didn’t know this was coming and can’t change their behaviour to make a difference. If you want to give more money to children I believe you can give money voluntarily to hmrc, but I imagine you want to spend other people’s money and not your own.

You’re coming at this from a position of privilege, assuming that by retirement age everyone will own their own home outright and so won’t need much money to live on.

That’s not the case now and certainly won’t be the case for a lot of my generation (Millennials) and the younger generations who are unable to buy due to high rents and income that doesn’t keep up with the cost of living.

I pay into a workplace pension with the hope that it will pay for my rent when I retire. My rent is £1150 in 2025, that’s £13,800 per year. Would you like to have a guess how much it will be in 30+ years? And no, I don’t live in a lovely 3 bed semi, I live in a flat. And I can’t move up north as I already live there!

Yeah the wording too easily misread. I meant 12k private income, NOT including SP. Most people would actually be unaffected by this proposal. It seems most people have read the 12k as total income.

Household as well is a HUGE issue. Our household will get that because DH has an amazing pension - I am now freelance so don’t.

so basically my state pension would be reduced because of his - now for me that isn’t an issue (at least not currently) but it could be. and I suspect I am far from unique

and what happens when he dies - private pensions are necessarily transferable and if they are often at a proportion do I get my pension back then?

and as a freelancer I have been paying my NI contributions specifically to get my state pension- if you ever go onto HMRC you can see what contributions you need to make to get it so that feeds into the notion of paying in for an individual pension

Chat GPT is talking rubbish about this being a vote winner the poll already shows that

And actually putting in the systems to do would cost quite a bit too.

It makes no sense that teachers and doctors would be minimally affected. I’d like to see your calculations on that. The approach you propose would have its biggest impact (in terms of number of pensioners) on pensioners with an income between £12k and £38k per annum. That will be primarily those on final salary or career average pensions. That’s teachers, nurses, doctors, civil servants, council workers and the like.

Anyone with a DC scheme is in complete control of how much pension they receive, and so will just defer drawing it until a more economically literate government is in power, and live on savings / ISAs in the meantime :)