£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?

It must be awful to be envious of pensioners.

Especially when women of working age in the 1960s are mostly dead.

Exactly. Awful way to live begrudging people a pittance.

You do understand that a state pension is not a government handout, don't you? It's funded by NI contributions, so people have worked all their lives in order to PAY to get that pension. The amount that's apparently being called for in the OP is our of line, yes, but as an entity, it's not a free handout! My father worked full time from the age of 14, tii he retired at 66, then he capped on working part time because his pension wasn't enough to live on. Then he died aged 77 so he only got 11 years pension, that left a LOT of his own money in the pot that he never got back. My mother died BEFORE she retired, and she had worked full time all her life too. She never received ANY of her pension. That's just two people, is many that I knew that died before receiving their pension, or hardly any of their pension. That money just stays there for others that haven't worked as long, or haven't contributed as much. But it's still not a handout. It's the same with unemployment benefits. They're not free handouts and people have got to stop looking at them as if they are!

You should have been born earlier then. See how easy it is to pick your own birthday?

Could you work without a washing machine, a dishwasher, a hoover, central heating, a computer, an inside toilet, childcare, a bank account, a car, a freezer, a big fridge, constant hot water, a shower etc?

You do understand that a state pension is not a government handout, don't you? It's funded by NI contributions, so people have worked all their lives in order to PAY to get that pension

Not this again. NI contributions do not fund pensions. The state pension is unfunded. NI contributions are considered and spent as part of general taxation.

You also don’t have to pay NI to be entitled to a pension. You can get credits through receipt of various benefits which counts towards the qualifying years for the state pension.

Oh, the old envious card. Boring and strange considering that almost everyone on this thread will have elderly people in their lives that they like and in lots of cases love.

If we could give the elderly amazing pensions and fund everything else without leaving the next generation with a crippling debt to repay then of course I would want this. But we actually live in the real world. Hard decisions need to be made and priorities need to be agreed. We also need to be realistic about the consequences of our decisions. Give pensioners a boost now and make young people pay for it over the next decades when they themselves will have far worse pensions.

I was responding to a specific post about someone's mum who paid tax in the 1960s. She made a factual error regarding tax rates during the decade and I corrected her. So your post is irrelevant and shows you haven't followed the thread.

What is your point? Nobody can choose when they're born. That doesn't mean we saddle future generations with loads of debt to fund today's living costs.

50% of women did. Pensioners are now the richest they have ever been and the wealthiest demographic in our society. Obviously lots of them found a way to do all their household chores, keep themselves alive and be financially secure. Pretending it was impossible is ridiculous

Washing machines have been available since the 1920s and were commonplace from the 1950s.

Dishwashers from the 1940s and fairly common from the 1950s. But many of those working now grew up without one or still do not have one. They are hardly essential to be able to work.

Hoovers have been available since 1919 and manufactured en masse in the UK since 1932. Most houses had them from the 1950s onwards.

Computers weren’t necessary for work until they became widespread and have no impact on household chores or whether people could go to work.

Indoor toilets have been commonplace since the 1950s-1960s and regardless, even if it was unpleasant or cold, I can’t see how an extra 20 seconds to walk to the loo outside prevented anybody paying tax or saving for a pension.

Childcare was far easier as people tended to live near to family and wider family groups actually helped with this far more than these days (as various social research has verified). Not to mention the fact that housing costs were so much lower as a proportion of salaries so parents could afford to split working and childcare between them often with one parent barely working/ not working at all and still have a higher proportion of their combined earnings left over after housing costs to save between them, than two parents now both working full time to pay extortionate mortgages or rents and paying childcare will have left to split between them to save once those essential bills are paid (as well as having less free time outside work/ with children).

Women have had the right to open bank accounts, take out a mortgage or open a savings account or pension account independently protected by law in the UK since 1975.

Freezers were available to buy in the UK easily by the early 1960s and by the late 1970s the majority of households owned a freezer.

Fridges were available to buy from the 1920s, the majority of households had one during the late 1960s and they were almost universal by the early 1970s.

Hot water systems began being installed in UK houses in the 1860s. By the 1900s a significant proportion of households had them and from the 1950s onwards they were standard in new builds (in all the post-war building). By the 1970s almost every household had modern central heating and hot water systems.

How old are you exactly? Because unless you are in your late 80s or older these complaints and excuses are ludicrous because they did not impact the vast majority of your adult life.

Well both my parents did as did most people. Why do you need these things to work with the exception of a bank account these days

It’s just the latest version of the “Four Yorkshireman” sketch: another desperate attempt to piggyback on the hardships the generation before them endured which by the time they were in their 20s had pretty much vanished, anyway. Unless you made zero effort during the most prosperous time in modern history to improve your life in any way.

It’s just “woe is me”, ironically the very “snowflake victim mentality” of which they accuse the young people whose futures they have impoverished and seem to feel entitled to continue to impoverish with their incessant demands for an ever larger share of tax revenue when they didn’t bother to save a penny during far more prosperous times and ran the country’s economy and infrastructure into the ground for their own enrichment.

Quite shameful, really. I feel so very sad for the young adults now.

🤣. No clue. You’re just jealous of £12.5k a year. Sad really.

Their house must have been minging.

Lol my mother was a clean freak. Why would the house be ringing?

It's really not too difficult to understand. BTW what's your end goal to this? Carry on posting endlessly on forums or actually do something specific?

Honestly what's sad is that you think that this furthers your argument. Most people moved past this stage in primary school where you accuse anyone that disagreed with you of being jealous.

Mumsnet is a discussion forum. Do you think everyone on here needs an end goal?

I joined this thread pretty late and have mostly responded to people that have quoted me. Your idea of endlessly posting is interesting. Strange you don't accuse @Differentforgirls of this....

That's rather childish. @Differentforgirls isn't continually complaining about the SPs that pensioners get, you are. So what's your end goal? Lobbying? Making your wants known more publicly? Otherwise you're just on repeat, pissing in the wind. Chatting on forums will change nothing.

Try reading it and see how many times I’ve posted on it. If you’re using 1960s women of working age as evidence it’s entirely relevant to point out that most of them are dead.

What? Most 1960s women are dead? Where did you get that (wrong) statistic from?

I’m 62 nosy. I’m talking about my mothers generation.

Goodness - if they wanted more money they should have got off their lazy arses and worked harder when they could. But they didn’t. We’re not to blame for their unfathomable total and utter lack of forward planning. If a pensioner is totally skint they’ll have to rely on family, friends, charity or social services. Embarrassing for them but hey, you make your bed, you lie in it. Pensioners are after housing costs the richest demographic in UK society so some managed to figure out that you can live off air in retirement!