To feel our quality of life in the UK gets lower every year?

[Playingvideogames]

Off the back of another thread where I mentioned my childhood homes being bought by my parents for under 300k in the late 90s/early 2000s, and are now all selling for 700k+.

I feel like our quality of life just dwindles every year. Everything becomes more expensive. Housing is low quality, small and extortionate. The weather is awful 70% of the time. Everything feels so overcrowded with fewer green spaces and natural beauty as more housing estates go up. The roads are awful, choked with traffic and potholed. Constant roadworks here yet nothing ever seems to get solved. Customer service is a bit rubbish, nothing really works as intended. More and more rules about what you can and can’t do. People just seem stifled and stressed.

I’m sure people will rush along to say how wonderful the NHS is and similar, but I sometimes feel really envious of people living in places where (although not perfect) they have something reliable to enjoy - great weather, a nice big house, just more space and less overcrowding.

I don’t think I’m being unreasonable but I wonder if you do!

Free bus travel, free prescriptions. The state pension itself

True

I think in the long run do something where people get paid back the NI they have paid etc

yes, they do this in lots of European countries, what you pay in determines what you get. We have a flat system which doesn’t work now.

Basic pension is pretty much that anyway. No one on just the state pension is living the high life.

It doesn’t change the fact that the majority will not have paid enough tax to support years of a state pension and free healthcare. The maths doesn’t add up.

Better off pensioners wouldn't use the bus pass. Everyone get free prescriptions in Wales, and people who get the state pension have paid tax/NI for 35 plus years. The UK state pension isn't that generous. 1K a month, pensioners are hardly rolling in it.

Damn, those pesky pensioners living too long after retirement!

@UserFront242 its to do with birth rates and demographics…,

Good grief. I’m always shocked when people like this actually exist

I think the state pension will be phased out when it's been 45 years since they introduced compulsory pension contributions. That system was introduced in 2012, so 2057 would be my guess for new retirees.

I'm not sure how they'll deal with people that deliberately opted out of the system. They really should get nothing and be forced to live with the consequences of their decisions, but they'll inevitably end up getting a state pension of some kind.

That's kinda how it should be.

Makes me wonder why people didn't save privately when they worked.

Looking at the data, it tells me pensioner warfare is the largest component of welfare expenditure. The triple lock is unsustainable and pensioners on average are quite wealthy.

and people who get the state pension have paid tax/NI for 35 plus years.

It wasn’t always 35 years and the fact remains the majority haven’t paid enough tax for it. Just think logically about it eg what the pension is, how long people are living, healthcare costs and average salaries.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought £300k -> £700k in 25-30 years isn’t quite the amazing ROI the OP has painted it as.

The triple lock is unsustainable and pensioners on average are quite wealthy.

Every politician knows it’s not sustainable but they won’t act yet.

It is ok, I kind of understand. You see posts saying pensioners have "paid in" all their lives. No, not all of them have. Both my grandmothers only worked full time before they got married, and they married in their late teen. That was the normal then. Women got married and quit work.
Disabled people that do not work get benefits and get a stamp for NI, and still get pension at retirement age.

That would be my 100th year. Imagine living to 100 and being told, you can't have your pension any more. What job would I do?

Some people reaching retirement age are disabled and not had the chance to save. Or people on low wage, because not everyone is capable of climbing a career ladder, or is even in a job that has a ladder to begin with.

"For new retirees"

They obviously couldn't remove it from people that have already retired.

OnlyGrans?

The conservatives talked of a quadruple lock.

Imagine telling a young person that they need to work longer and pay more tax for something they won’t see.

desperation

Well it ain’t France, of that I’m sure.

Germany, er, no

Poland. Yes, Poland!

It is ok, I kind of understand. You see posts saying pensioners have "paid in" all their lives. No, not all of them have

Of course they haven’t & it didn’t matter when you had pyramid demographics eg in the 60s there were 5 workers to 1 worker but we are not far off a ratio of 2:1. We already have more over 65s than under 15s, people have their head in the sand.

Where is this fact coming from, it feels vastly underestimated.

I fully support disability benefits and don't think they should be cut. They aren't even enough at times.

The low wage stuff, I'll have to disagree there and say there should be an element of personal responsibility. Also isn't there automatic pension enrollment now as well.