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!

Why do you need to know?
They are both dead. They are costing you fuck all.

I’m not bashing sick people. This is a financial, not a moral, issue.

Because you brought them up, not me.

Comparison is the thief of joy.
I couldn’t care less what someone else earns, gets in benefits or is going to get when they retire.
To say it’s not fair makes you sound like a child.
Why do you care? Do you work out what everyone is getting in benefits? Would you not apply for any benefits if you were entitled? How much would you like them to receive?

Oh come off it, you're casting aspersions on people being quids in on PIP (and other benefits), to be getting those they are sick and/or disabled!

He became unwell when she was still looking after their kids. Not predictable, and could happen to anyone.

Do you understand even very basic economics?

I haven’t been ‘broke all my life’ I have travelled the globe, Seen Everest, take several holidays a year, raised a family, bought a house. Will live on a state pension and my equity. I’m off to Florida, Croatia, Thailand and diving in Egypt…. No very far from broke

So what happened then? He wasn’t working, nor was she?

I think far too many people get far too much in benefits, yes.

He was working, but he was no longer able to. She was not working because back then, married women were forced out of the workplace, and she was raising children.

Can you provide a basic timeline of all this? It doesn’t make sense.

Just the same as the residential care scenario where if you have a house its sold to provide you the ability to pay 2k a week for your care and the person in the next bed pays nothing, never has, never will. Same care, same facility.

Well, good job I slogged my guts out working for 25 years before my stroke then, isn't it?

Yes as most claiming PIP have not! Of course people don’t mean you.

No, because they are both dead and it is irrelevant. They are costing you nothing.
I do not owe you a break down of their lives. You are not asking in good faith.
You are just trying to make some point that anyone on PC must have been lazy all of their life.
I do not have the patience or the crayons to explain to you how people can become disabled at any age, and their spouse or parents end up being carers until either one of them dies.

Will that make you feel better ?
Knowing that some elderly people will be struggling?
Get a grip.

My tenant was not eligible for SRP because he worked out of the UK for all his working life.

I feel like the only people you think are ‘posting in good faith’ are those who agree with you. It’s an easy dodge. You brought them up, not me. You can’t now act all offended at some gentle questioning

You could do, and you would then get a reduced amount of state pension plus a top up of pension credit (with the other perks). However, if you quit work just so you can get pension credit you’d also be depriving yourself of a work income before you reach pension age, so I guess you’d have to claim working age benefits.
Being on benefits is really not as amazing as many people think, the impact it has on self-worth (and obviously lifestyle) is huge.

Yes I studied it.
I still don’t concern myself with my neighbours or relatives income.

And even after the 35 years of paying NI: you still need to keep paying it. I started working and paying NI on my 16th birthday. I’ve paid it ever since except a 2 month gap last year when I was made redundant and recieved a pitiful £93 a week jobseekers.

at the age of 51 I’ll have paid NI for 35 years so will be entitled to full state pension. But I STILL will be paying NI for another 16 years until my state retirement age of 67

You are not entitled to another poster's family history.

And perhaps you should have the intelligence to understand that accident, disability and illness can happen to literally anyone.

It surprises me how people get full pension credit after having worked abroad for years on end and not having paid into the system. I guess as others have said though if they insist on coming back to the Uk at state pension age we can't just leave them to starve. I work in benefits advice for the elderly and it's surprising how often this happens.

I brought them up because these threads are always full of assumptions about PC claimants... things like they were lazy and feckless.

You questioning is not gentle. It is intrusive. And I get the feeling that whatever I say, you will not say you understand. You will just continue to put the boot in.
Go get your kicks elsewhere.