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?

Large outgoings? SSP is about £80/wk. Unless you live with your parents for free and contribute nothing to the household financially, so only have to pay your own personal expenses, your outgoings are definitely going to be more than that. You can't even rent a room for £80/wk. If you're on NMW and living hand to mouth with nothing spare to save, you end up in debt if you get ill.

Well they should be more sensible with money then?!

I have friends who have gone on holidays every year and bought expensive PCP cars that cost them a fortune each month. They have no pension at all. No savings.

They rent and their plan in retirement is to just live on state pension.

It kind of pisses me off to know they are just purposely not providing for themselves and are planning to just essentially live on a government benefit. I wonder how many pensioners in the future have the same attitude as this - then we are all up in arms on their behalf when its heating vs eating.

Plenty of current pensioners will have been the same. Also.lots of housewives who've never paid a penny in tax claiming tgey worked hard all their lives

Or supporting their hard working husband and helping to raise their family?

Sure. And there's nothing wrong with being a stay at home parent. I took 3 years at home when my kids were teeny because we couldn't afford the nursery fees. You haven't paid anything in though if thats been your life so how do you think your pension is funded?

I think sahps need to be savvy about making sure the earning parent is contributing to a pension for them.

How easy it is depends on whether you have any savings to fall back on. You can certainly manage the basics of life such as food and utility bills if you have two state pensions coming in. However, houses need maintaining and things need replacing. Would you be able to afford a roof repair or a new washing machine for example. I think it would be doable but a bit miserable,

I thought that's how it goes and in a divorce she can "take half of his pension"

Both parties pensions would be put in the pot with other finances for divorce and shared based on whatever factors need to be taken into account.

No it's not.

Pension on both sides form assets.
The settlement takes everything into account.
There is never an automatic 50-50 of a pension in a divorce.

Thanks for correcting me.

A perfectly reasonable attitude though. It has never been "a pension pot" - we are paying for contributory benefits - JSA, ESA, Maternity Allowance etc. Also funding the NHS as well as state pensions for current pensioners. The generations coming behind us will be paying for our state pension. It was never meant to be an only income in retirement. Certainly not for a luxury lifestyle.

It was never meant to be an only income in retirement.

It was for millions of people.

And still is.

Many people do not contribute to a private pension because either they don't work or never have, or their employer doesn't offer a contributory scheme.

It is possible to start your own private pension scheme even with a very small monthly amount ( the limit is just under £3k pa if you're not earning) and the government adds 20% to that. You can carry on with that till age 75. It's invested in a fund and on maturity can either be taken as a lump sum or an annual pension.

it certainly was back in the day. My grandparents in manual jobs had no private pensions! However all were dead within late 60’s so didn’t cost the state much after hard labour since they were 14/15 years old

I found it interesting to read a comment on this thread that suggested 18 years could be told no state pension would be available, giving them a whole working lifetime to plan- what a shame us women born in the 50’s weren’t given more time to plan…… and no I received no letter. But I’m not complaining so don’t jump on me!!!! I know the state pension is contentious, like the NHS it didn’t account for us all living longer.

I think they’re being all three!

Not sure how young adults would react to being told they will have no state pension while their taxes are going to support the aging population who are still entitled to it, at the same time as paying crippling student debts. With employment opportunities seemingly declining the government will have a big problem.

I’ve seen several posters commenting about relatives who only receive state pension, with no additional top ups from Pension Credit or Attendance Allowance, and no private pension, saying they manage to live quite comfortably.
Not all state pensions are equal.

My MIL born in 1942 gets £312 per week, my Step-Mum is slightly older and gets £320 per week.
I will get a maximum of £230 because I was born 30+ years later than them.

The state pension for some older pensioners is considerably more than what some people realise.
MIL was complaining to me recently that her state pension isn’t enough and she couldn’t grasp how mine will be nearly £100 a week less.

It's more complicated that you've explained.

You should be eligible for the full state pension of around £965 every 4 weeks, if you are up to the max contributions of NI.

£ 312 and £320 is possibly by receiving a 2nd pension, paid for when their husbands were working. It was an option men had for their non-working wives to contribute more as NI for their wives' pensions. It gives about another £70 a week. My Mum has that on top of the state pension, which is lower than the current rate.

£320 is nowhere close to normal for women who were born in the 1920 or 1930s.

agreed. It’s all a big issue for every generation in different ways
I think what that poster meant was they’d have 50 years to decide what sort of pension they’d want and to try and make provision - whilst paying taxes, repaying student debt etc etc

I have a small work pension and will get state pension. My concern is that I will be taxed on it and my friend who thinks she will be on pension credits will mean she is better off than me as I will be taxed but also have to pay council tax which is costly .
It worries me because I did make provisions but my friend has not worked for many years and she says she will be better off.
I feel like I need oheck what the tax levels etc will be .

There is a rumour the tax threshold will be set at £20,000 in the coming years. That would certainly help.

That does sound about right. My son's late grandma had a small private pension that took her about £20 a month or something above pension credit limit.

This meant she missed out on so many " extras"

Be nice wouldn't it. They haven't increased it in years

MIL worked for over 30 years and retired on state pension at 60. I’ve no idea if or what her husband might have paid in.

My point was that there are other posters assuming there is a maximum old-style state pension and declaring their relatives live very comfortably on it, but said relative could actually be receiving a fair bit more whilst technically still only getting state pension.