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?

State pension is not taxed at source.

HMRC only sends out a tax demand if the state pension is over the personal allowance and up until now it hasn't been.

So HMRC won't have been collecting tax on the income of those whose only income is the basic SP.

This is what I thought.

Young people today have VASTLY higher quality of living than did people who are now in the 60s/70s/upward at the same age. Vastly. They just don't know it because they've absorbed these delusions about how easy and pleasant life was for those growing up in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Somehow they never count the wars, the double-digit inflation, fewer benefits, more primitive health care, less accessibility to travel, far few retail goods/tech/gadgets, etc. that we all contended with. Not to mention the generally more modest consumer lifestyles that even well-off people led compared to what those today in their 20s-40s seem to expect as their due.

If you are earning the same as basic state pension then you wouldn’t pay tax either because it’s below the taxable level.I’m a pensioner on the higher rate state pension because I payed serps,which means because I have a small work pension I pay the same tax as a working person.Gaslighting is not a good look.

Well, no one earning only £12,500 is paying tax. It's the tax-free allowance.

And if your earn £15,000 then you're paying tax only on £2,500. As is a pensioner.

You really are thick. No working person earning less than £12500 is paying tax. Why do you think they are?

Only for a limited number of people, though. And I'm nowhere near pension age, but know of people with disabilities who have ended up in hospital through being afraid to turn their heating on.
I do feel sorry for the current generation of pensioners. Some grew up before any benefits were available, and had literally no money if they were out of work. I'm not saying the current system is perfect by any means, but at least when I was between jobs, I knew I could claim and that there was support available for my kids. Their generation is far more likely to have helped out with childcare, but far less likely to get support from family in their old age than previous ones.
And if they hadn't paid all the taxes they paid, and instead put all that money into offshore accounts, they'd probably be a lot richer now.

The change announced applies to pensioners who ONLY have a state pension. It seems to me that it would be daft for any government to give you a pension with one hand and tax it with another - if that is the only pension you have.

I have a state pension and a personal pension and pay tax as I'm above the threshold. I will continue to pay tax under the new rule.

When my mum was alive her annual state pension letter was the most confusing thing I've ever come across!

There were amounts added on for x reasons, and amounts taken off for y reasons.

All it meant was that, combined with the small private pension she took out as part of SERPS, it took her just above the cut off for Pension Credit.

So much for having some extra! Instead, someone with a few pounds less a month enjoyed the benefits of PC.

Shame you can't sue the government for misselling SERPS.

And it assumes “retired” people can’t work. Many pensioners can and do still work!

All the pensioners i know are far from rich. Im a younger person on a low income but I can still be happy for others especially when it doesn't effect me. Im not 2 im not going to have a tantrum because someone got something nice and I didn't

@Saz12
’many pensioners now will spend almost as long retired as employed’
Ummm - not anyone I know for sure. My friends and I started work at 16 and won’t get the state pension until 67 which means over 50 years of work.

These ageist threads sniping about about older people and money are really getting out of hand now……

I'm a pensioner and I didn't have that lifestyle at your age. I did without in order to pay my mortgage, because I wanted the security of owning my home. I did without holidays, meals out, new clothes, and, on occasions, food, so that my children could eat and I could pay for the roof over their heads.
Yes, I own my home, but by God, I've worked hard for it. And I still gave to maintain it and pay for heating and lighting and food. And the measly pension I've paid into for over 40 years doesn't cover those costs.
Because I paid into a private pension when I was finally able to earn a little more, I'm taxed on that.
I've never been on a cruise in my life.
But I know pensioners who haven't worked or paid into a private pension. They have more income than me because they can claim Pension Credit.
Don't lecture me on fairness.

You really need to calm the fuck down. Pensioners pay the same rate of tax as everybody else.
If you ask nicely one of us older ladies might explain it to you.

I grew up in the 70s. There were no more wars then than now, there were more benefits, health care was more accessible and I had a car at 17 as a student - although certainly not rich. No student loan to pay back.
My young people in their 30s - both graduates but not in highly paid jobs- are worse off then I was in my 30s and I had children. They can’t afford to have children and have a modest house, only because they had help with a deposit from their grandparents.

not for everybody. All pensioners will get it but those who are not entitled will pay it back via their 26/27 tax code

Pensioners already pay tax on income above the personal allowance.

@AutumnLeavesandKnittedJumpers . Pensioners pay the same tax as you. The lower limit is the same - anything earned over that is taxable. It's been like that for as long as I can recall. Nothing's changed today.

The basic state pension is not taxed as it falls below the tax threshold,the same tax threshold for working people.Those pensioners with a work or private pension have always paid tax at the same rate as working people.The op is either confusing this with the Isa allowance for over 65s or being deliberately obtuse..

I’m a spring chicken not a miserable meanie

So actually the benefit will be minute, and only for pensioners who have no other income. Who begrudges people living on less than £13,000 a year?

standards of living have improved form the 70s

I think they only started going backwards during austerity and are probably around the level they were in the 2000s which is vastly improved over the 1970a and 1980s. Just because you had a car or a holiday - that just shows you came from an unusually wealthy family - not that living standards were the same as they are now

pensioners pay income tax just like everyone else

almost tempted to alter MNHQ about deliberate misinformation although they might just conclude that OP is hard of understanding

They didn’t say it won’t be taxed. They said they won’t have to pay tax via simple assessment ie get a bill at the end of the tax year. The details haven’t been announced yet but it is likely they will either operate PAYE on the state pension, or come up with some sort of other way for people to pay, such as they have done for the high income child benefit charge.

This. But I think there's another reason. There have been rumblings for some time about how the freezing of the personal allowance could eventually produce a tax liability for people whose only income is the state pension. I suspect they want to avoid the backlash that this could generate.