To think we shouldn’t have to contribute to soch if we don’t intend to use it?

[slozenger]

For example, I don’t want a state pension - so I should surely be able to opt out of soch based contributions percentage. And just pay a lesser amount to cover anything I do take advantage of.

Well I’ve had a really shit day and can’t sleep. This thread was exactly what I needed and gave me a right giggle. Thanks everyone, even the OP for the pure batshit unreasonableness

Good luck explaining that to the government.

Curious OP…are you aware that you come across as spiky and rude? If that’s your intention, crack on. If it’s not, you might want to consider how you make your points…if you are in real life as you are on here I’d imagine that you struggle with social interaction.

When I started in the workforce as a graduate (nearly 40 years ago, God help me), it was in an old-fashioned company with a final salary pension scheme which accrued 60ths for each year of contribution, meaning that the maximum 40 years would give you 2/3 final salary.

I remember looking at the state pension and thinking that, compared to my occupational pension, it would be be a bit of pocket change.

But life didn’t go as I thought it would. I changed career, to something more vocational but less well paid, and then needed to finish early because of the pressure it placed on my mental health. I now find that the state pension, once I get it, will make up about 40% of my income.

Sorry, meant to say: jolly glad it’s there, hope they don’t get rid of it - and twenty-something me who thought it was basically irrelevant to her was dead wrong. As is OP.

Every year of your working life?
Without taking advantage of tax rebates for pension contributions?
I doubt it.

So, since you can't have contributed to a personal pension, and are not going to be using the state pension, or the NHS, and are 4 years off SP age...

...how are you planning on exiting society?

Are you opting for the Dignitas route (we call it oof around here), Or just your bog standard suish/jump off a bridge style.

Personally, I think people here are giving you a hard time. Not at all unreasonable to ask for a refund when you get that terminal diagnosis.

Society?
Like op writing pench for pension.
I assume

You didn't pay into your own personal pension pot because it doesn't exist. You paid to have some more ticks put against your name for the "has paid NI contributions" form that someone in officialdom holds on you. Get enough ticks and you get a full state pension when you retire, not means tested, no questions asked and all you have to do is 1) be the right age and 2) claim it.

Without paying for those extra ticks you'd have presumably not got enough for a full state pension. So would only have had partial state pension, plus any means tested benefits you were entitled to. For which you'd have to jump through a pile of hoops proving you don't have a pot to piss in, which is undignified, stressful and about as much fun as walking through fire whilst naked.

Where does it end? If I don't drive do I get my contribution toward tarmacing the roads back? I don't have children, how is it fair that I pay for child stuff? None of my nieces and nephews use the NHS or state schools, how is it fair that their parents have to pay towards things they don't use? Much to my dismay I've never been rescued from a burning building by a truck full of extremely handsome firemen... where's my discount?

The answer is that you're misunderstanding how these things work. We're not paying for our own share of everything individually, we're paying into a pot in accordance with our means, which is then used to keep our society running.

So you don’t want to contribute to the things you don’t personally intend to use, but you want the rest of us to contribute to the things you do ?

I’m sure people start these ridiculous threads as a way of other people giving them ideas for a school or uni essay, instead of researching it properly for themselves.

👶👐🧸🪆🪇🍼
🤣💀
(Where's a baby in a pram emoji when you need one?)

Your ‘basic math’ is way off if you think earning over £17k makes you a net contributor.

So this niche bit of slang belongs to a demographic consisting solely of ...your nan?! who is older than everyone else's nan, so NER 🤪
🤣🤣🤣

I get what you mean OP.

But what happens if your neighbour refuses a pension and NHS help, and then causes you massive problems by being mentally unwell and living in awful poverty (stealing from you to make end meet, for example.)

I think that by making basic help available to everyone, we also save ourselves a bit of bother having to cope with our neighbour's problems ourselves.

The thing I worry about is that in old age it gets hard to refuse medical help and to just request to die peacefully. I think the NHS spends a huge amount of money keeping people alive, when they are not with-it enough to say whether they want that. It is very hard in the NHS to say "actually I'm done now", please stop prolonging my life, thank you very much. I think if we could do that, then the taxes would probably be a lot lower.

52. Never heard of it. OP has to be on a wind up surely.

So if you have a heart failure, the clone(? that you made of yourself, somehow, without medical help (and trained from a book or something?)) is going to harvest (without any hospital or equipment or assistance?) the heart from the other clone(?) you made of yourself and perform a transplant all by yourself, on yourself????

Can I film it for YouTube please 💀

This is clearly someone trying to be funny due to the Pench thread but in a weirdly aggressive way.

I have one leg. Do I get a.quarter off?

Unfortunately it is nse.

I didn't arrive in the UK until 2002 so I, for one, had never heard of SOCH.

There are people on Mumsnet who weren't even born when it was called SOCH.

So if you need A&E, emergency care, Intensive Care etc, you will refuse? If you need an air ambulance? If you are in a traffic accident and are seriously injured, you would die rather than have anyone help you?

We pay for everything privately, I never whinge about it. You’ll find the bigger the tax payers the fewer welfare services they use. So where would it end???

That would be all of us since the OP has made it up.

very annoyingly, because so many people have now said it on this thread, AI now recognises it as a UK term for social security citing this thread alone.

Oh the gags just get better.