To be annoyed pensioners effectively now get a bigger personal allowance

[FlightBeforeXmas]

So because of the fiscal drag from not increasing personal allowances the chancellor has announced basic state pension will not be taxable.
So if you earn this amount you pay tax on it despite having the extra costs of working.
Pensioners are also much more like to own their homes.
How on earth does this make any sense?

YANBU. I feel that, in general, government policies seem to be giving to older people and taking away from younger people.

Pensioners are the largest demographic of voters. They will always be protected.

Yep, as simple as this unfortunately.

I suspect this may simply be because the amount of tax that it would generate would be less than the cost of setting up the deduction from the SRP, or introducing some sort of negative tax code on any private pensions or other income.

The basic state pension may not even be over the personal allowance, iirc it was forecast at £12,420-something for next year, so the gains would be small.

I'm not altogether clear on what they mean by "basic state pension". I get a small addition to my state pension because I'm in the age group that paid into SERPS, which was intended to guarantee a bigger pension for those who didn't have occupational pension schemes. It's only £6 or £7 a week, so the tax wouldn't be significant, but I'd like to know if that addition would be regarded as part of the "basic" pension, or if I'd have to pay tax on it.

I'll still only be a few quid better off after working for 53 years than my MIL who only worked a few years in her entire life, and gets pension credit, housing benefit and 100% reduction in her council tax.

No I have elderly grandparents I am delighted

Arguably, pensioners have no way of increasing their income. Even those of us who are relatively young and healthy don't have as much energy. Nor are employers queuing up to offer us work. Poorer circulation may mean we need a bit more heat. State Retirement Pension is pretty low and women who did part-time and or low paid work will have lower provision in terms of private pensions.

Worth remembering that we will all get old one dy. Unless we are specially unlucky.

I must have missed this, surely it would be headlines. Where does she say that the state pension will not be taxed?

I guarantee when we are pensioners, the tide will turn and we will get totally shafted

Same this is great news for many. What's not to be happy about

As a pensioner I'm glad.

State pension is already taxed though it’s paid tax free. The tax I pay on my private pension incomes is increased to cover it. So this is people who only have the basic state pension and not all pensioners. I think it’s something like 30% of pensioners but the numbers are dropping year by year as younger people retire with private pensions. For lower paid workers private pensions are a relatively new thing - auto enrolment was brought in 2012

Perhaps the fuss made about removal of the winter fuel allowance (Daily Express, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Farage, GB News etc went bananas) has made them very wary of reducing pensioner income.

It was reinstated. I have had mine.

Nobody wants to upset those most likely to vote, no doubt they'll finally see that you folk need more help once I'm finally pension age.

Isn’t it that the basic state pension is basically beneath the tax threshold

if you also have a private pension you would start paying tax straight away ?

Ie you don’t get a second tax feee allowance as a pensioner

so you are not being treated u fairly compared to pensioners / those on the state pension only pay no income tax because the level is too low ?

I just can’t find anything stat says what you are saying that pensioners will have a higher tax free allowance than ordinary folk

https://www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/news/national/uk-today/25652530.budget-mean-pensioners/

What does the budget mean for pensioners?
1 hr ago

"...For a start, only one in three (36%, or 4.7million) pensioners get the full new state pension.

"The reality is that pensioners receive not “the state pension” but a dizzying array of different payouts depending on when they reached state pension age, whether they had opted out of the old system, and whether they had accumulated enough National Insurance Contributions (35 years contributions if you retire after 6th April 2016), to name just a few of the variables.

"This means that millions of pensioners will not be receiving the estimated full new State Pension payout of about £12,540 in 2026/27 which is often portrayed as a headline rate. Generally speaking the older you are the more likely it is your state pension will be less than this, and sometimes substantially so."

I know and am glad you have it back. I was just pointing out the furore over that might have made the Chancellor pause further impact on pensioners.

I haven’t seen that. Next year it wouldn’t matter, as a full state pension will still be £23 under the tax threshold. But many - most? - of us pay income tax because we have additional state pension (which we paid extra for) or private pensions.

Are you sure you’re not mixing up exemption from income tax with her announcement about higher allowances for cash ISAs for over-65s? That’s sensible, as lots of us don’t want to risk the longer return period for stocks and shares ISAs in case we die.

Worth remembering we won't get to retire anywhere near as early as you have because they slept on that and should have had a later retirement age introduced a long time ago. Originally people would only survive a couple of years post retirement. Current workers are funding long retirement for you that we wont get the benefit of

Bitterness and spite may see some off earlier?

Because you can continue to work and grow earnings. Retired people can’t. Their income is by and large fixed even if supplented by private pensions.

Do you mean the SP won't be taxed even if you have additional income?

I can't see that in the article you've linked to. Have you misread it? The BBC would have a headline story if it were true and I can't see one.

If you think that working age people can all easily increase their incomes and that there are 'employers queuing up to offer work' for average workers then I think you live in quite a different economy to me. The argument about pensioners being on fixed income is always used, but it ignores the fact that many working people would see a fixed, guaranteed income as an absolute delight compared to the uncertainty of the job market!

When the standard state pension exceeds the tax threshold of £12,570, which is likely to be in April 2027, if your income is only the state pension, there will be a workaround that excuses your income tax on the amount above the threshold. But if you have an additional occupational pension, then income tax will be payable on everything over the threshold.