£610 a week pension demand is insane

[Thisismyfinesthour]

Just read that there is an online petition doing the rounds for a £610 a WEEK pension demand to the government.
WTAF? Is the heat melting some peoples brains? It seems over 5000 have signed it.
Where do they think the money is coming from?

I wrote underneath immediately, after that post, that in Italy it is £530.

Yes, and im sure they were good hardworking folk. But still more able than a lot of people at the time. And really 15, in those days, wasn't young to leave school.
But we're getting off the point I think.

I'm still waiting for this bright spark to fully explain these claims. There's always one on these SP threads who come on to tell the oldies that they've ruined every generation below them but they never say how. At least not in their own words. Disney couldn't have written a better Dumbo!

🤣. Agree!

And me. All we’ve done is live our lives.

• 1

Urgh, mumsnet sucks sometimes. This is one of those posts that stinks to the heavens. A sensationalist hook in, and then a load of granny bashing 🤣 I know about 50-50 council tenants / private homeowners. Everyone I know in London is born here in council/ social housing. Outside of London, they own their own homes. Believe it or not, real Londoners actually live in a lot of poverty - council estates/ high rises. You have a scheme called London weighting, where a little extra cost is added to to hourly rate/salary. Not many companies honour it. Life’s very expensive in any inner city. A few charities helping like food banks etc. People have this really dumb mindset that all Londoners must be rich. A bit like this post, where people think (and cringey ly say) the cheek of pensioners living a life of Riley, to demand more ‘oh the entitlement’. Just shut up. You don’t know jack. If your parents are rich, then direct your anger to them. Do not start a hate campaign against the only people here who truly should have an opinion on where the money they paid in, actually goes.

A pension pot needs to be worth 20x your required income. Let's say £10k/year to give with SP an income of £23k (after tax).

So thats 200k minimum, x2 (for a couple) so £400k, plus a £500k house - not unreasonable after 45 years of paying a mortgage. Thats not far off a million and they're not exactly rolling in it by the time theyve paid council tax, running a car, general repairs, and general household bills.

Yet another statistic that cheats by talking about households not individuals.

This is a very ignorant and naive response

Is it though? If we weren’t paying debt interest, hadn’t printed £900bn for quantitative easing, gifted to financial markets, bailed out banks in 2008, signed up to HS2 or paid Brexit penalty etc etc this is affordable. UK has one of lowest pensions in Western world, unless you’re in public sector. Make no mistake, budgets and funding are all choices and successive governments in recent years haven’t prioritised hard working people.

UK debt interest (depending on which source you believe) is c.£110bn, that alone would give state pensioners an extra £160 a week. Currently new state pension around £240.
That’s above pension credit thresholds so those on pension credit tend to be old state pension, newer to country or not paid enough NI etc. Anyways, if government’s hadn’t mismanaged national accounts without any extra expense all state pensioners could be getting £400 a week atm.

Probably from people who have worked all their lives paid all their contributions and taxes and would like a pension on a par with European countries who treat their older people with dignity and respect, rather than shivering all winter because they cannot afford heating bills.

So fed up with the mean, spiteful, resentful and childish reaction to this post.

My Mum and Dad worked all their lives, paid all their taxes and saved to buy anything they needed. When Mum and Dad bought their first house it was more for the mortgage than my Dad earned. As kids we NEVER went to a cafe, visited theme parks, and holidays we camped coz that is all they could afford.

Why the hell shouldn't they go on holiday now they are retired? Its the deal they signed up for and worked all their lives for.

I am a pensioner and I am embarrassed that I live so comfortably. I can’t change the system though. I did work hard.

Don't be embarrassed unless your wealth came from ill gotten gains or on the backs of others who worked to make your family wealthy or you inherited a handsome sum. Give some away to your kids, help others less fortunate. Then you won't be so embarrassed. Problem solved.

So many myths around pensions. The majority of pensioners are not wealthy only those with huge salaries and bonuses and have been able to stash extra into their pensions (not knocking them). Many rely on just the state pension or pension credit. I wish younger people would stop bashing pensioners we have one of the lowest state pensions in Europe. If you look at the 'how much you need to retire on' it's actually more than the state pension. Minimum retirement standards is £13,900 moderate £32,700. State pension is £12,547. At a minimum it should match the the minimum retirement standard of just under 14k

Out of interest was she able to continue teaching after marriage/ kids?

She married in 1922 when she was 30 and I assume worked until then but stopped working while her four children were young (the last was born in 1927).

I don’t know when she went back to work, but she was definitely working again when my father was doing his A levels (not called that in those days). She didn’t work in a school, but taught/tutored sick children at hospital and at home. He told me she sometimes used to ask him for help if she had pupils who were particularly interested in science, because her own scientific knowledge was pretty rudimentary and he was studying maths, physics and chemistry.

She was 69 when I was born and had retired by then, so I don’t ever remember her working myself.

I’m a pensioner. I can’t have holidays, eat out or go to the pub. You can’t lump everyone into a catergory of being better off than someone else and be bitter about it! Sick of the whingers who think all pensioners have a good time at their expense.

The point is it’s usually the pensioners that are doing the whinging.

Anyway I have a friend who is a pensioner and she only lives off her OAP and she manages to go out sometimes and has the odd trip away. Maybe you should take the advice that’s always given to young people and stop spending money on getting takeaway coffees.

I’m sick of so many pensioners not recognising that a lot of pensioners (most?) are very well off even if they aren’t. Imagine having to bring up children on not much more than you have?

I don’t need to imagine it because it isn’t happening. Nobody is bringing up children on £241 a week.

As someone who volunteers at the food bank they really should just come down. It’s not a huge deal and eating cat food is ridiculous. We’re non judgemental and there’s all kinds who visit. Mostly families with lots of kiddies around but a fair few pensioners too.

Pride is something that should be overcome. It’s not a good thing.

What’s that got to do with pensioners? Are you getting paid below minimum wage?

I know a couple of widowed pensioners living the high life but its due to generous life insurance payouts after their husbands died.

UC and child benefit for a single parent with a child is £195 a week