£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 know of a couple of very old ladies that relied on their husband’s low income, just with a part time job for ‘pin money’. No pension of their own built up, live in social housing, noe rely on benefits. Scared stiff to spend the little they do have. But such people hide away. Look closely at the checkout. Cat food and cheap sausages, cheapest bread. Too proud to go to the food bank. It’s real.

My dad is poor as in he only lives on the state pension. That's his fault for never saving or paying into a private pension. He also owns his house outright and has some valuable belongings he sells when he needs extra.
The state pension isn't a lot, but it's enough to keep body and soul together. I can't imagine why we would be paying pensioners the equivalent of about £35k salary!

There are many pensioners still renting and at the mercy of landlords (as property owners call themselves).

I remember my statutory maternity pay being £117 per week and £123 a week a few years later.

£610 a week is close to what I earn full time after over two decades working in this sector. Wouldn't say no to that!

But as others have said, you can start a petition about anything. Doesn't mean anything will happen.

Not all older millionaires look like millionaires.

My grandmother talks likes she’s a poor pensioner struggling on state pension. She has literally hundreds of thousands of pounds sitting in the bank. She earns more in interest in a year than she gets in state pension but just refuses to touch it or spend it. It’s frustrating. She could afford whatever she wants (she’s not an extravagant woman) but acts like money is a struggle. She’s never been extravagant but was a bit more willing to live a bit in her 60s and into her 70s but once she hit about 75 got into this weird poor pensioner act.

Yes this sounds familiar. If they want to horde money, never touch capital and live as if they are paupers, crack on. But don't a) pretend that you're not comfortable; and b) have an entitlement to further help.

Yep they are the ones coining it in. People like a friend of mine who has a very small occupational pension which takes her just a couple quid over the limit, has to pay full rent and full council tax. She is late 60s and having to do cleaning jobs to survive. Ask her if she thinks she's loaded!!

Well the petition looks like a big nothingburger but I do think the discussion is interesting. My parents’ generation are the current pensioners and the ones I know are sitting pretty. If not over a million most are certainly sitting on several hundred thousands of assets. My own parents both grew up working class. They built a modest business from nothing so they deserve a comfortable old age, but they certainly have it easy now. It is a real contrast to their parents who did struggle as pensioners and left very little to inherit (nothing at all one one side and about £100k including the house on the other).

I think the image of the old age pensioner scraping by is largely outdated (although there will be exceptions).

I shall be pension age soon. Of course I’d love £610 a week! From the magic money tree, obviously. I shall qualify for pension credit, certainly not a millionaire pensioner here. But what I would support is a massive increase in benefits for people caring for their disabled children or partner, who are unable to work, yet are saving the taxpayer so much money.

Arf! Whoever started that is surely trolling the government. Anyway, fewer than 10,000 signatures = no response required.

That’s not always true, clearly you believe the shit the right wing spout! There are many pensioners living in poverty! The state pension for the poorest pensioners should be the equivalent of 37.5 hrs at the minimum wage! You do realise that the new state pension is equivalent to £6.42 based on a 37.5 hr week. It’s not down to government to continually increase the living wage, which is now starting to drive up unemployment, employers need to take responsibility particularly the multinational companies!

I expect because, if the living wage is considered the absolute minimum to live on, then shouldn't the pension be the same? If you can't live on less than the living wage, then can pensioners be expected to live on less?

But if you get Pension Credit, doesn't that mean that the basic Pension isn't high enough to live on?

48 hours is an unusual calculator though. 37.5 hours or 40 hours would be more usual?

They might like it but they won’t get it .

Which makes a change. I can remember the poverty of pensioners in the 70s.

Pensioners are the wealthiest demographic. That is not "right wing shit" it is indisputable and is backed by government statistics. Many pensioners do live in poverty, that much is true, but that is also true of children, young people, middle aged and so on.

The SP pays £12,547 p.a. and is currently triple locked on annual increases to either 2.5%, CPI or AEI, which ever is higher, i.e. the best of all worlds, pensioners are guaranteed to get the best deal each year. Free prescriptions, free bus travel etc are nice little perks too. I think that is a pretty decent deal.

There are many. Over a million pensioners are living in poverty afaik.

Great, another pensioner bashing thread.

And much later, the reason Gordon Brown brought in the winter fuel allowance. Heat or eat was the choice made by many elderly at the time and it was cheaper to bring the fuel allowance in than raise pensions as high as many other countries in the EU.

While people in the UK moan now at pensioners who are well off, there are many who are not. Those are the ones needing help and to begrudge the poor because there are some wealthy is crass.

Pensioners should theoretically have mortgage free properties to live in and private or company pensions to live on.
I realise many never bought property but those ones will have rent and council tax subsidised or fully paid if they are on state pension only, so they don't need a full time living wage to live on, since their housing costs are covered. Either that or they may rent but have private pensions again supplementing their income to closer to the living wage full time rate. If we assumed all pensioners need a full time living wage state pension we would have some very very wealthy pensioners indeed, at the expense of everyone else

Pension credit only take people up to the state pension level if they aren't entitled to full state pension because they didn't pay enough NI contributions. It also entitles to council tax subsidy.

Stop talking about a fucking "demographic" and extrapolating it to the the entire cohort. Statistics quoted in this way are completely meaningless and in your case, clearly ageist.

It's enough to get by, if you don't have a car, go on holiday or go out for meals. And many begrudge as that.

I don't think it is at all. The thread started as debate as to whether SP should be equivalent to weeks work plus overtime on the national living wage. Many posters, me included, are keen to point out that the wealthiest demographic, given the resources (or lack there of) in this country, get a pretty sweet deal, and the proposition is entirely unreasonable.

If you are thinned skinned enough to call a civil debate pensioner bashing, then perhaps this isn't the forum for you.