To think we can't afford the triple lock

[paddleboardingmum]

Things seem very weighted against young people right now in terms of tax, student loans, and then there's the cost of mortgages and childcare. I know there are some older people struggling and I do feel sorry for them. But plenty are not and I think we just can't afford the triple lock at the moment. AIBU

Nails / tattoos / haircuts / fags / booze / pubs / cafes / takeaways / Netflix Disney sky.. These areas all areas to save. I really don’t believe people have cut out all of the above and then have nothing to save.

No, nobody would be better off but it would change where people's money was coming from and going to so the rhetoric around middle class people 'paying for scroungers' could be done away with.

No one is, they just want to temper the rate of increase.

Yet if I suggested you cut back your readers digest subscription, and stop spending money on scones and ornaments you'd be screeching "ageist!"

I don't have a clue what you're on about.

So how do you sort that out so that the ones who need it, get it?

Banking crisis and Covid didn’t help.

It’s not sustainable. The Western model is bust!

Can I just point out that MOST people born in the 60s are NOT state pensioners but are still of working age.

I don’t know anyone who spends money on all that. I’ve never had my nails done, never smoked, don’t drink alcohol, never buy takeaways, don’t have any of those Tv channels. I get my hair cut maybe once a year, and go into a cafe at most once a year.

Feck off. Put the Daily Fail down Damien. Seriously.

Of course it is! Most have the full state pension. If they don't that's down to the appalling way women were treated, not personal failings

I'll say one thing about this generation, they are the whiniest of all time. Calimeros.

Cutting foreign aid does not touch the sides. The pensioner spend is over 10 times the overseas aid spend, and if you include health spend (most of which goes on pensioners) and long term care it’s even higher. And it’s getting worse as pensioners live longer and the working population is not growing. It’s a huge issue which all the political parties know about but none are completely honest about.

see the figures here https://ifs.org.uk/taxlab/taxlab-key-questions/what-does-government-spend-money

Which should be made before you have them.

That would be a drop in the ocean compared to the expenditure on pensions and related benefits.

The new state pension that you will receive at 66 is at a much higher rate than the old state pension you would have received at 60 (£230.25 per week versus £176.45). Given average life expectancy over your lifetime you will receive more in total than the £55,000 you missed by the delayed pension.

You are!

No need to be rude, I think that was an excellent post. Scrapping the triple lock does not mean scrapping or even reducing the state pension. It's so frustrating that at the first suggestion of it everyone goes off on one. It should be possible to have a sensible conversation. It could be that changing the way state pension increases are determined and increasing tax thresholds for all would mean people in work keep more of their money and state pensioners are kept out of tax, pension credit rules could be changed to help poorer pensioners get more than they do now.

I'm not bashing boomers, I'm in my late 50s and I will need the state pension because my private pension savings are not going to be enough. My 91yo dad relies on the state pension but he agrees the triple lock is unsustainable.

Thank you for this.

Have you any idea how offensive that is Eva? Readers digest (does it still exist? You clearly know better than me), ornaments and scones?

THAT is ageist.

let's cull them then?

However lots of pensioners do not claim Pension credit even though they are eligible or other extras

www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2l8v7l0djqo

No where on this thread, or any other do I suggest that the state pension should be reduced. I do suggest that an indefinite triple lock is un-affordable and unfair. I suggest a single metric be established, probably CPI. I also feel that the personal income tax allowance should not be manipulated for the state pension, it should have no special terms for the state pension from April 2027 when the new state pension will exceed the personal allowance. Raise the allowance for all, or not at all.

Now stop pretending us triple-lock opponents want to take anything away, we just want fairness in how the increases are calculated.

Exactly. And then some people wonder why the vulnerable are afraid of the prospect of an assisted dying bill. So much resentment, I honestly think some people do think the elderly should just do the decent thing and die. 😡

If we stopped funding everyone else who waltzes into the country with their hands out, £billions a year, then we could all benefit much more from our own taxes.

On one hand, you're critical of an "unfair income escalator" which has, presumably, in your opinion, made the state pension unacceptably higher than it should be ("it cannot carry on"). But on the other hand, you say the tax threshold is now "so low" that the basic state pension will soon be taxed, which seems to acknowledge that the basic state pension is low yet you seem to want this objectively meagre income eroded further by removing the triple lock. HTH.