To be glad triple lock going and hope they means test it too

[Randomamsi]

I have a multi millionaire senior relative who receives £1,400 from the state pension each month, in addition to 6k private pension.

He's not means tested and he's received that for 30 years. Yes, he paid into the system but he does not need it!!! He also had free uni, dirt cheap first house back in the 60s and retired aged 59.

Meanwhile the younger generation:

• thousands in student loan debt
• asset poor as can't get on the housing ladder
• means tested for child benefit, tax free childcare etc
• working until late 60s/ 70s

Why do pensioners have it easy while younger ones pay the price?

For vulnerable pensioners at risk of poverty, there should obviously be provision to help them, I'm not suggesting we let people starve. But multimillionaire pensioners or very asset rich pensioners do NOT need the state pension. It's about time things changed.

They are better off now obviously but why do people like you think they had it easy as young people starting out?
Many women had to resign from jobs when they became pregnant . No generous paid maternity leave, no free childcare, no UC top ups, if you struggled with bills you had to take a second job. Little in the way of sick pay. Some folk had to rely on charities for help.
No double glazing, no central heating, freezing cold in the winter. Only the middle classes could afford one car, let alone two.
It was the bus or walk. On leaving school youngsters had to get a job and give over much of their pay to help the household.
No buying a car for your newly driving teenagers. University was free but only top performing pupils would be offered a place.
So if you really think people didnt struggle "back then" you are sadly mistaken

A paid off house is an asset built up over 25-40 years of saving.

Why on earth would you expect a 25 year old to have that asset when they've only been working a few years? You need to earn it!

And before you say that house ownership is out of reach for young people, that's absolutely not true. Most of my 20s relatives on very ordinary salaries outside London have managed to buy a house.

London is the exception- because it's a global city. And the UK is getting steadily poorer on a world index.

But not to worry, Labour are trying very hard to destroy London, so that might not be the case for much longer. London property prices are already down 15-20% in real terms over the last decade.

Pay more into your pension to avoid this.

Bar worker and barista is pretty low for barrier to entry. Adult dc often get a first job in hospitality roles. Thankfully, they need to work.

Read it again.

Because of housing costs.

A couple working FT on NMW would bring home about 45k. It's totally liveable if housing is accessible. So benefits should be drastically reduced and the money should be directed in social housebuilding instead.

If the left want to make pensions, to which people have contibuted, means tested maybe the next step is to tax the savings they have been able to rack up through having worked and been 'prudent', how dare they enjoy a better stadard of living that those who choose to be idle!

Yes - people are now realising their state pension will be lower than expecting so are deciding to stay in the workplace longer to boost their private pension. Makes perfect sense to me.

I have no idea about the working practices of an Evri delivery driver, but there seems to be quite a few bobbing around my area every day.
Don't people realise that you can't just walk into a job, you need to either have skills or be prepared to learn some?
There's a a job going for a trainee Quickfit Fitter so you can't say there's no training available.
The NW is a "deprived area" yet there are plenty of jobs on offer especially in the hospitality industry.
Our local pub can't get bar staff. It's on an estate, a bus route and they offer training but no takers. It isn't a dump either so goodness knows what the problem is apart from idle people not wanting to work.
SMH.

You are paying your own pension lol.

Not necessarily. Many people are poor through no fault of their own.

What about other benefits?
Nobody checked the assets of a friend of ours, who when he died left over £1m cash and 2 houses paid off - when he needed modifications to his house, e.g. grab rails and a raised toilet seat, etc.
He was asked to pay half the cost only.

Not to mention the fact that he stockpiled literally dozens of free prescription items, so that more than once at least 60 items were just thrown away.

He was very tight with money, so I know that if he’d had to pay even £2 per item for prescriptions, he’d never have taken so many that he didn’t need.

Many of my friends children did p/t work in school holidays cleaning out the chalets at holiday camps.
So now they have something to put on their CVs.

Why?

Carer worker? Bar? Fruitpicker? cleaner? you possibly wouldn't want to do these jobs, but qualify?

You are being totally unreasonable. All pensioners are not rich. I worked and paid tax for 50 years minus a few years for raising children.
My pension is £620 monthly. As others have pointed out, we have the lowest pension in Europe.

Yabu to hope they means test it. I’ve paid 33 full years of national insurance contributions and I get a pension forecast from that. To take that away, for any reason, is theft/fraud imo. Some of the years, I’ve paid from my own pocket - eg when I worked as a student, the contribution wasn’t enough for a full year - so a few years later when I had a graduate job, I voluntarily topped those years up with money I’d earned. When I was caring for my mum in the lead up to her death, I voluntarily contributed those years as well.

There’s a fine line between societal fairness and robbing strivers. And I think this crosses it.

I couldn't agree more. This is a simple truth which many younger people do not seem able to grasp.

I believe that part of the problem is that many (most?) people don't really start to think about pensions until they are in their 50s and it starts to appear over the horizon. Consequently, many younger people have no concept whatsoever of how much money you would need to have accumulated in a DC pension in order to replace just the annual value of the state pension - which is definitely not enough for anyone to live a life of luxury. In order to have a comfortable existence for 20-30 years of retirement, you would need a pot of hundreds of thousands of pounds. If you have no idea, I invite you to google it - there are plenty of annuity calculators on line to give you an indication of how much is needed.

This lack of understanding also explains why SOME younger people are angry that their retired parents have "hundreds of thousands" in savings and, "selfishly", are not passing it on. If they have recently retired, those savings, either in pensions or otherwise, will need to last a long time, may well be needed for private health treatment (as the NHS appears to be failing) and/or care costs. And remember, most retired people do not have the option of returning to work if they hit upon hard times.

On top of that, why shouldn't we take off and see the world? The nasty vitriol about pensioners going on holidays from SOME younger people who appear to have several holidays and short breaks abroad every year, is hypocrisy at its highest. I never went abroad with my parents, and they went abroad for the first time on their 25th wedding anniversary because my sibling and I saved up our meagre earnings and paid for the entire holiday. I didn't get on a plane until I was 20 years old and, when our children were small, cold wet holidays in the UK were all we could afford. DH and I intend to get in some long haul holidays now, whilst we still are in good health.

Having said all that, I do agree that times are hard for SOME youngsters (but probably not the OP), and we need to be looking at how younger people can access affordable housing and be able to have a family, if that is what they want.

PS - DH and I are financially supporting our children (and an elderly parent), as are most of our friends of a similar age.

In many cases it’s not a matter of planning - some people simply don’t have the means.

The 'spikes' thing is interesting - I wonder how different it would be if the formula was 'average inflation over the last 3 years, average pay rise over the last three years'?

Fruit picker. Do tell me where I go and pick fruit of a day Once more my point was that the list of jobs posted would require applicants to have specific qualifications. Quite interesting to see that you seem to think I have no skills or qualifications

If you have a job already that list won’t apply to you. It does to young people who are yet to have experience. So yes those without experience already do get jobs on that list.

HMRC knows you have a raise because you are PAYE. If you were self employed it wouldn’t. That’s why there’s so much tax evasion. As for everything is online nowadays….apart from half the country’s pensioners that is.

No they would not. You would need specific qualifications to be a support worker in a prison for example

Yes, the UK is indeed far, far more socialist and redistributive than Australia when it comes to state pension.

Is that what you were surprised about?

I had the impression that you thought the tiny amount of pension we were promised - in return for superannuation-level amounts of contribution towards pension throughout our working lives - should be further means tested.