What is the point of paying NI for 35 years to get a full State Pension, when people who have never worked receive Pension Credit anyway?

[Blondiebeachbabe]

I just cannot get my head around this. You have to pay National Insurance for 35 years, in order to receive a State Pension of £241 per week. However, if you have never worked (like my cousin), you will receive Pension Credit of £238 per week. So basically, having contributed for 35 years, means that you get an extra £3 a week. Woop de fucking doo.

Moreover, why did some people who didn't have the full 35 years, pay extra to top themselves up, when Pension Credit would have bumped them up to £238 anyway?

Not only this, but people on Pension Credit have access to things that people receiving the SP do not, such as :

Housing Benefit: Often covers 100% of your rent.
Council Tax: You may pay nothing at all.
Heating: Free Winter Fuel Payments and Warm Home Discounts.
Health: Free dental treatment and eye tests.
TV Licence: Free for those aged 75 or over.

Make it make sense!

Calculations and evidence of this would be useful.

PIP isn't means tested, you could earn 200k a year and get PIP. You can work on PIP, it's not an unemployment benefit.

In the real world, I was made redundant last year. My redundancy payment meant we weren't eligible for any UC. JSA would have been less than £500/mth.

We get DLA for DS and DH gets CA, and earns about £5k a year self employed.

We could have really been raking it in and living the high life! Instead I was offered a part-time job that I took as £1200 a month is better than less than £500 and rapidly running our savings down until we could get UC.

By comparison, an economically inactive claimant on Universal Credit (UC) for ill health with the average housing benefit and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) would receive an income of around £25,000, rising to £27,500 for those awarded PIP’s highest rate.

That is only one highly specific scenario.

Aside from the fact that PIP is not an out of work benefit, which so many posters of a certain political bent conveniently like to forget, not everyone with an ill health claim is eligible for PIP. Not all claimants on UC claim for ill health. You can't extrapolate from this - however much you want to.

Well obviously NI doesn’t just cover pension benefit (and it is a benefit, one which comprises most of the welfare bill). Most of us acknowledge that such a benefit will be gone by the time we reach pension age, so I don’t really worry who is getting it currently.

I would advise you OP to not spend your time worrying about what others may receive or who has worked harder, because I imagine many people have contributed significantly more than you have.

Jeremy Vine show were describing it as an out of work benefit last week. These absolute hypocrites were some of the first to moan about misinformation during Covid.

It is was what it is! Someone who didn’t work, lived on benefits most of their lives with multiple children, now receives basic state pension £104.00 per week + pension credits = £238.00 per week (not exact figures, but not to far out) + housing and council tax benefit + attendance allowance, £300+ per month.

My DH, full SP + £1500 private pension per month + owns home mortgage free + £3,000 work severance pay per month + private assets + health and quality of life.

Which one would you rather be? We are all going to get old, those that can make the choice, don’t live as of tomorrow never comes.

I hate to tell you this but 35 years of NI does not give you a full pension! I have 39 years and only get about £180 a week as, as a teacher we were contracted out .

What hyperbolic shite.
I can screenshot my UC statement if you want. It just over £800pm. On what planet is that £200k?

I think it pays to be lazy OP!

Did you just work for your pension? I work for the salary I live on - the pension is an additional perk
I guess the 35 years of a better standard of living having a salary is the bigger gap you are looking for

Better let my DS know - he gets higher rate PIP and works. Sometimes I think the UK is a nation of people who love nothing more than to kick down at those less fortunate than they are.

My gran only worked before she was married. Spent her time raising children, then caring for my disabled grandad.
She was on PC.
Can we please stop and think that not everyone on PC spent their life fucking about and being "lazy".

You won’t get rich as a single childless person on benefits (if you are). But a few kids, if one is claiming DLA or you claim PIP and it’s quids in - far better off than working NMW, and better off than people earning more than that.

Sorry but that is lazy. There must’ve been a 20 year gap between the child duties ending and the husband care starting. The majority of mums I know work AND care for their DC, and some have conditions themselves.

I don't have kids, but if I did, I would be wishing I did not need to claim DLA for them.

Nice way to dodge the whole point which is the public purse

He’s in a minority. 5 out of 6 people claiming PIP do not work.

The idea that there are a huge number of people who have "never worked" then getting PC is extremely inaccurate. A good number might have been working in low wage jobs and not able to sustain a long term career due to circumstances, often beyond their control. I will be in that number. I have worked on and off, including running a small business for 7 years which collapsed two years ago for complex reasons.

Before that, I spent time in different part time jobs, at one point three at once, and have worked round child rearing, caring for a disabled ex husband and then a succession of frail elderly parents.

These threads boil my piss. Some people never catch a break, and we suck it up, and are genuinely grateful for the safety net we wish we didn't need and often get trapped in. We live frugally, feeling anxiety and uncertainty about our housing, our heating, everything really, and in our 50s, despite being finally "free", are unattractive to employers because we cost more than under 25s, can't afford to retrain, and our skills are being replaced by AI. And once you've been out of the workforce for a few months, it's bloody hard to get back in.

We could all of course tell our families where to get off when cancer,or dementia , or any number of curve balls come calling, but that would be pretty bleak, and most of us don't have a swinging brick where our hearts should be.

The world economy is heading for the every 80ish years crash - it's a cycle that has been historically observed, and the rise of technology, AI and automation is an unprecedented factor, nothing like previous industrial progress.

Trying to boul everythong down to carping about the "unfairness" of state "wealth" (ha) distribution belies total ignorance of a big picture that is going to change everything beyond recognition far more quickly than can be adjusted to, economically and psychologically. If you think things are bad now, just wait a few more years, then you'll truly see "unfairness" as more and more people fall into complete financial insecurity.

My gran was from an era where women were "encouraged" to leave work once they got married, and I put that in quotes as it was sometimes not a choice. Which she did. My grandad was disabled early on in his life. Not once did they have carers visit. She did it all herself.
DFOD to call her lazy. She gave up her life to care for him.

There will be people entering retirement age now and in the same situation. They are on PC because they were carers.

You're not 'paying in' to anything though. It's not a savings pot. If the birth rate keeps falling then state pensions might get further and further away.

You're better off with a private pension by the looks of it.

You crack on and do as you suggest..... stop working, enjoy a life of no work and then take your SP at 67 knowing that despite all the things you have missed out on in the intervening years, you have beaten the system.👍

Meantime, I have worked hard, paid my tax & NI and have been enjoying my early retirement (finished at 57) funded by my company pension (which I made over-payments into for many years). I look forward to receiving my SP at 67 but in the meantime I am living my best life doing what I want, when I want, where I want...... NOW.😁

If he was disabled early on then why have many children? Surely his limited earning potential, and her absolute lack of earning potential, was clear at that point?

You made the bizarre comment about it not being worth working unless you earn £200k, and you may as well claim benefits.

Go on, go on benefits. Then please report back.

Another one here who is in receipt of PIP and works, albeit reduced hours/flexibly to match my capabilities following a stroke on top of other long-term conditions - the benefit of being freelance.

Please can we stop with the bashing of people who are sick and doing the best they can within their limits. It's getting beyond relentless and tiresome now.

No because all that will happen is the state pension becomes means tested. So once again those not working handed the money, those who worked will get nothing.