Is living on the state pension really that bad?

[cateringday]

I mean, if you own your home then you’re getting around £250 a week just for bills and spends.
i have a tiny pension and DH has none. I am always worrying about this but then realised that we will have no rent or mortgage to pay.
im just wondering if it would be as awful as people make out? I hear stuff saying you need £300000 in pension pot to have a comfortable retirement, why would you need that much?

A shake-up of the care system is long overdue. The vast majority of care homes are dreadful, provide minimal care in dour surroundings, and it's easy to see where the money goes - straight into the pockets of the owners. Affordable care means care homes being a. part of a subscription model, where you pay throughout your life, similar to the state retirement pension and b. administered by the NHS. The vast amount of money that currently goes into the pockets of greedy owners, redirected into a ring-fenced national care budget would raise standards.

What happens if you rent as I don’t see any opportunity to buy and there will be many others renting too, it’s a big concern.

Do you mean some form of home assistance? Because only around 5% of older people actually need care homes.

We live in the middle of the country in an old stone house. We have just had to buy a new sewage treatment plant for the house. About £11K in all. The house needs constant heating most of the year. We had part of the roof replaced last year - around £20K, and this year our washing machine died and had to be replaced. Our microwave is on the way out and our modest TV is 12 years old so probably next. We don't go out in the evenings to the pub or restaurants. My husband is on the old state pension and I am on the new one. I have a tiny pension pot, thank God. We have decimated our savings paying for the unexpected expenses and are just managing to juggle our funds. However, if one of us dies, the survivor will not be able to afford to continue to live in our house. If we can't drive, any money saved on the car will have to be spent on taxis to get to the nearest town to appointments or shopping. We both have chronic health conditions so this will increase as we become more decrepit. It's all a bit of a worry now. I would urge everyone, if they are able, to put a lot of money into a pension while they can.

I'm curious - how much is your travel insurance for these long haul trips? I ask because a lot of younger people don't realise it's another thing that can increase massively once you're older. A friend with multiple health conditions is quoted more than £1000 - for a 10 day trip to Greece.

I don't know how old you are but you have no way of knowing what the pension situation will be when you actually retire. Full state pension isn't even £250 currently, it's £230 something and even when it goes up in April, it will be £241. If you were trying to live on it, you would see what a huge difference that £10 or £20 (or £20 or £40 for 2 of you) would make to your standard of living. Also bear in mind that not everyone receives the full amount for various reasons, and also, some people can top up with pension credit while others can't.
The most worrisome thing about living on a pension that is "just enough" is knowing that increasing your savings won't be possible, rather they'll dwindle as you dip into them here and there.

It's really not a great system when people who have barely worked or not lived here long,( I'm obviously not counting people who have been unable to work like disabled or carers) and therefore don't qualify for full state pension get topped up with pension credit and all the freebies that brings like all council tax paid, all rent paid, free dental and optical treatment, free TV license once 75. It's very unfair.

Rates of dementia have actually decreased over the last twenty years. The rise in dementia cases is because of the larger population size, not because rates of dementia are increasing in older people.

It is doable if you choose a frugal life…..and once there’s only one of you it’s even harder….maybe if you downsize you can free up some money to have as a fall back …and to do some fun stuff….my nhs pension is 1400 a month….i also have a lump sum plus savings….I’m 61 but still choose to work 2 days a week as I don’t feel I have enough to do the things I want now I hav e more time…namely travel

The recent political rebellions about winter fuel payments or decoupling state pension from triple lock:

what annoyed me was recipients complaining they couldn't have x or y if they had reduced pension. X or Y was some treat once a month or once a week. Or ability to run a car. Or some other thing that would be luxury to many working single people.

All I could think of was many families (in work or disabled adults, not smokers, not drinkers) with kids who never have x or y, or maybe once a year might have x or y (probably not both). They literally can't afford it. Meanwhile the pensioners were pulling their "Woe is me" about not having an extra £200/year for fun stuff. I know families where £200 would be the annual holiday budget for 2 adults, 6 kids, in a borrowed caravan 20 miles from home for a week.

I also know a lot of pensioners who can't get out, don't want to travel or can't go to the pub or a cafe. They do need good heating and a decent telly service, but that's it for most of their fun. They don't need a lot, either.

That doesn't make sense. Among people who live a "normal" lifespan. only around 10% actually need residential care before they die. It used to be around 5% when I last was doing work on it and it has now decreased. If you are saying "if you live long enough, you will end up needing care" well that's a kind of true, I mean you might need to wait until people reach 200 years old for it to be true though!! but the actual facts are that most people who live a normal life span do not ever go into residential care.
"Care home residents as a proportion of the population
Between 2011 and 2021, there was a 4.0% decline in the number of care home residents aged 65 years and over, while the total usual resident population in this age group rose by 20.0% over the same period. This means that the proportion of the older population residing in care homes has decreased over time, from 3.2% of the 65 years and over usual resident population in 2011 to 2.5% in 2021.
The biggest decrease in the proportion of the older population residing in care homes was among people aged 85 years and over, down from 13.7% in 2011 to 10.8% in 2021.
The proportion of the older population residing in care homes increases with age for both women and men. A slightly higher proportion of men aged 65 to 69 years and aged 70 to 74 years reside in care homes compared with the proportions of women in these age groups. In age groups from 75 years, higher proportions of women reside in care homes compared with men, with the differential increasing with age."

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/ageing/articles/olderpeoplelivingincarehomesin2021andchangessince2011/2023-10-09

When you consider you'll most likely have paid off the mortgage and be down to one car between you, life might not be too bad at all. My wife and her sister will inherit a pretty nice house worth a fair amount, and a fair bit of money between them eventually.

all of this depends on where you live, what kind of home you have, and what your needs are. I am talking about needs, not wants.

I’m going to Canada for 3 weeks soon with DP …we are both early 60s …he has no medical history…li had cancer 6 years ago….NED now ….my insurance for 3 weeks is £250 for the 2 of us….and I definitely shop around for best deals.
pits a lot cheaper for Europe….but 6 days in NY last year was 100…..and 7 weeks in Australia and Indonesia was 300 quid ….it’s a hefty add on to holidays

We downsized to start with, so that was less council tax and smaller fuel bills. But then, fuel price rises, food price rises and an increase in council tax have wiped that out.

We have private pensions, although DH’s was decimated when the pension provider went bust. He’s never been able to recoup that. I don’t get full state pension and I think there’s been a miscalculation somewhere.

We have one car. We have a self catering holiday every two or three years. We sometimes have a coffee in a cafe, but rarely eat out. A takeaway maybe two or three times a year.

Neither of us could live here on our own.

We decided to give up the car. The savings added up: insurance, 'road tax', fuel, servicing, maintenance, tyres etc. etc. We don't have a TV so £175-ish saved there a year on the TV licence alone. No Sky subscription - some of my friends are paying £70+ per month. No foreign holidays, we hated the stress of foreign travel, especially airport security queues.. We can look at it as doing our bit for the planet! We holiday in the UK. Bus travel is free in Scotland once you reach 60 or are under 22. Neither of us drink or smoke. We both enjoy walking or swimming in the sea. No debt at all. We seem happier than those around us, which has brought us to the conclusion that you can be happy with less.

That’s presuming the state pension is that much when you get to it and I would think the age of receipt will push up to the 70s soon - so as long as your happy working till then!!

One post and the OP disappears.

It’s very expensive! Hence my comments about extras coming out of other pensions/inheritance , wouldn’t be able to visit on a state pension.
For the two us ( with a few older age type minor health issues) we paid £400 travel insurance for both of us to go to the far east for 2 weeks last year to visit one adult child and family.
Its just something we have to use savings for.
Having said that long haul fancy trips weren’t something we could afford to do when we were younger, with a mortgage and children!

Sorry for offending anyone with my comment but this thread explains why the UK is in such crisis in many ways. If you expect people to plan and save for themselves you’re seen as cruel and oblivious to poverty. Everyone is entitled to a great life with some luxuries even if you’ve never saved a penny towards it. People encouraged to stop saving so they’ll be entitled to pension credit and all the benefits that come with. In 10-15 years it’s going to become even clearer the state cannot afford the benefits, pension, SEND, social care bills despite all of these people needing this support as there just won’t be enough tax payers paying in enough tax to support this. Is they then means test the state pension of make the tax burden higher more and more tax payers will move to places they feel are fairer and the issues with compound and compound. I don’t know what the solution is but criticising anyone who says it’s completely unsustainable certainly isn’t helping.

have you got an emergency fund? Are you still able to treat your kids/GC …go on holidays days out with them….go theatre or whatever with your friends? ….this is my bar for whether I can afford reftirement or not…I’m 61 …retired and returned on 2 days nhs ….got good savings ( I think!) and an nhs pension of 1400 a month …but I couldn’t do the above on that money….I take my 3 GC to festivals ….for days out….trips to London…I go on holiday with my kids and GC once a year ….I go theatre and meal every month with friends….I would rather continue to work 2 days a week than give all that up….or run my savings down doing it

@Kookykoala Would your food and bills really only be £800 a month?

We're mortgage free and our food bill is easily £100+ a week and that's without wine ( we don't drink) or anything extravagent.

Our council tax will be around £80 a week and I've not even started to include gas/ electric, water rates, (house insurance £700 a year) and other things like running a car.

That brings it to over £250 a week for basics.

I think you've not done the maths. Even on 2 state pensions there won't be much wriggle room.

They say the minimum amount needed for a reasonable but not flash retirement is £30K a year.

Several people have mentioned downsizing, but sometimes it's not realistic i.e going from a two bedroom house to a one bed flat which means that some bills would be less but you'd have ground rent and service charges to pay for so you may not be financially better off. Also fees and stamp duty to factor in.

I am living on my state pension and a proportion of my late husband's private pension

That's not living on a state pension though - although op said she will have a tiny pension of her own. Depends how much or little the private pension is, I suppose.

Obviously everyone's food and council tax are going to be different. Some will shop at Aldi, some will do their food shop at M&S. Some will have low council tax and some extortionate. It doesn't take much working out that some people can live more cheaply than others surely ?