£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?

Incorrect. Working-age benefits have remained remarkably static as a percentage of GDP since the 1970s, with only small fluctuations due to economic cycles, as is expected.

What has risen exponentially is the proportion of the welfare bill spent on over 65s, which has and continues to rise as a proportion of GDP year on year.

Again: per person on average they are extracting over £200k in real terms (accounting for inflation) from the state in services and welfare than they paid in tax. This is an evidenced fact, verified by numerous academic studies and economic institutions.

They have not remotely “paid their way” as a cohort and have left everyone else to pick up the tab.

“I’ve had one benefit in my entire life, child benefit”

So you don’t claim state pension welfare then?

Oh, and the real kicker that will no doubt enrage those who don’t like facts even more, is that the largest rise in PIP claimants over the last few years is from guess who? Over 55s who can’t yet claim their state pension welfare instead because the state pension ages have been raised.

Yet they rail against all of the allegedly lazy young people who apparently are claiming “all the benefits”.

This refusal to accept reality is intriguing from a psychological perspective, but not remotely interesting to anybody who actually understands economics in terms of how national policies should be shaped so that they actually benefit the country and the prosperity of its citizens overall and are fair across generational cohorts.

Indeed.

Some even appear to be schozophrenic and now (rightly) criticising themselves for their previous lack of common sense.

No. Too young. Are you skint?

Do you not know that quote marks are actually meant to quote?

How did they acquire their vast wealth then? What with 50% of them having incomes above the average wage and 25% of them being millionaires. Where did all that money come from?

What's schozophrenic?

@NotNowBernardNotEver Havent seen your evidence for the claims of "extracting £200k" which seems to be based on a book that a review states is not based on reliable information. My comment about young people getting more than pensioners did at the same age is based on a government study. Percentage of gdp may be the same but spread over fewer people so more per head.

From another review of Willets book "Yet, as he points out in the chapter Generation Crunch, “By 2009, 80% of first-time buyers under 30 were getting help from their parents.” This, as he recognises, is exactly the sort of generosity to the younger generation that his book argues the baby boomers have lamentably failed to provide."

It’s an insult. Come on, surely you’re accustomed to them by now? The thread’s awash with them.

It’s not an insult. It’s a medical condition. People are speculating on what could be driving such bizarre posts on a thread about economics and a serious mental illness/ medical cognitive decline would be one obvious possibility to explain it, as there is no explanation for a lot of what has been written were it to have been written by rational people who are compos mentis.

Talk about head in the sand....read the thread.

Can you link to it?

I didn’t say anything about whatsoever about the book you are referencing. You appear to be getting me confused with another poster.

The statistics and numbers I have provided, as I’ve stated repeatedly, are drawn from data/ conclusions in studies from the Government’s own accounts and internal analyses such as the Family Resources Survey, data and anayses from the ONS, IFS, OECD, IMF, NIESR, Institute for Social and Economic Research, Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Resolution Foundation, and others like Oxford Economics, Cambridge Econometrics, the Item Club, London Economics, Capital Economics, as well as the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE, INET at Oxford, CASE at the LSE, ESCoE at King’s and other reputable economic research centres who study this particular field of economics in detail.

Read? Pushing it.

Can I link to schizophrenia?

These requests are getting more and more strange.

No. The other thing you posted.

This isn’t a serious question is it?

The majority came from huge equity gains & better pension schemes in the private & public sector.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/sep/20/boomers-think-their-wealth-came-from-wise-choices-this-myth-needs-busting

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6pyk7e3w4o

I’ve opened the history of the comment you replied to and I’m afraid there is nothing in it that requires “linking” so it’s unclear what you are referring to by “it”.

Anyway, I’ve wasted quite enough time bashing my head on this wall for now so I’m off to get on with other more important and worthwhile activities.

No actually. I’m just about to retire, in my mid-40s. Won’t be claiming state pension welfare to do so, though, obviously.

Lazy!

Scozophrenia.