An extra hubdred for OAPS?

[RaggedRocks]

The government wants us to keep cash at home for emergencies. Many pensioners are struggling to pay their bills and don't have a spare 100 quid.

AIBU to think that they should add an extra hundred onto the WFA in the budget, so oldies can have some spare cash to keep for the coming emergency. Also consider an extra hundred for UC recipients.

Evil bastards won't move to a rabbit hutch to "free up" houses for poor struggling millennials (set to be richest generation in history if you take the same logic that is applied to pensioners).

Also evil bastards downsized to small homes and now get the tax bung intended for the poor younger buyers...who bought their mini mansions.

😂Reminds me of a poster who was berating pensioners who had to audacity to refuse to move into retirement flats 'especially built for them' that they neither wanted or asked for. They should be turfed out to make way for the ever-suffering young families, even though they can't afford to buy a house anyway, evidently

I'm coming up to 61 and I don't remember the last time I used cash for anything.

Ok so thats a few saying my 55- figure is too low your making me think its probably 70- are predominantly card

70-80 the transaction era

80+ cash or at least some cash

Does that sound about right thinking about the people around you?

I would say locality has a lot to do with it. In rural areas I know people of all ages who keep some cash in the house - connectivity is often spotty, especially with winter power cuts and banks are few and far between.

In towns connectivity is more consistent on the whole and its less of a drive/journey to the nearest bank.

You aren’t ’older people’! You are sixty.!

8% is "few" surely? That means 92% don't.

Tbh I don’t know one hard up pensioner atm. They are a bit of a golden generation with pensions and job security, pension credits are pretty generous too.

You need to get out more. I know several.

💯 even those who were working class all their lives are still mostly ok, the future generations on the other hand…well anyone on a low income is going to be completely screwed, and those on middle incomes better have made good choices.

Yes but those that don’t could still have many hundreds of thousands in a sipp they just only draw down the maximum amount to stay under the threshold. That means a 2 pensioner household could have an annual income of 100k and still not be paying any higher rate tax on it. 🤷‍♀️

How?

You are going to have to use more words than that 🤷‍♀️ how what?

It’s OK. I worked it out. A bit like those earning over £100k stuffing their pensions.

Read the post she replied too, i was trying to work out what age groups use card vs cash.

The point is its working age people and just retired who seem to deal in cards old people 80+ seem to keep cash.

The government is telling people to have £100 cash in case of emergency, ie banks or Internet going down

@blossomtoes
I’m assuming you’re asking how someone could have hundreds of thousands in a SIPP and still avoid paying higher-rate income tax?

Because you don’t pay income tax on the money sitting in your SIPP, only on the taxable income you withdraw from it.

A couple could each have hundreds of thousands invested in their pensions and simply limit their annual withdrawals to keep their individual taxable incomes below the higher-rate threshold.

For example, they could each receive £50k in taxable pension income annually, giving them a combined household income of £100k, without either paying higher-rate tax.

It’s their taxable income that determines their tax band, not how much pension wealth they actually have.

Not all people on pensions have an endowment that pays a fixed amount to them every month for life, many of them have a ‘pot’ of money (a SIPP) which holds all of their pension, they then draw down on that pension as and when they want. So they may look like they have a low/average income, but could have millions to draw down on as and when they wish.

Yeah sorry cross post, but yes exactly. People who earn over 100k may choose to push large sums into the pension to avoid the tax at the higher rate.

agree. speaking as one.

Of course the drawback with that is that any unused pension pot will now be liable for inheritance tax.

But it should be.

In theory, you pay into your pension through your working life, your pension pays to keep you going to death. In the ideal world everyone would use their entire pension over their lifetime. The money then cycles through correctly.

Instead what happens is pensioners have money left over, and their children who did nothing to earn it benefit. There ends up being a hole where those who were born into wealth get to stay wealthy even without doing anything for it. Conversely the person born to a poorer family didn’t get the same support with house deposits etc, and also doesn’t get an inheritance.

I’ve built up a decent enough level of wealth that (touch wood) will mean my son inherits 2 properties as an only child…how is that fair to anyone, I earned those, not him. But their worth will be low enough that the IHT threshold for me and my husband will mean nothing is taken from the estate. Meanwhile his girlfriend who comes from a council estate will inherit nothing. It’s all birth lottery and inheritance beyond a certain amount is just unfair.

You didn’t need to type all that. I agree it should be.

Yes inheritance is a lottery.

Then throw in the care home fees if required.

And in the two people on same money one spends lots on latest tech, big holidays. Gives big weeding gifts to kids, and house deposits. Big gifts just because...Spent his money very little left to be inherited.

The other saves, keeps money for retirement, but never gets to retire, and money gets whacked for tax when moving from him to next generation

Their has to be a fairer way to do things but how?

One of the reasons the country’s finances are in such a shocking state is that so many people feel entitled to hand outs of free money from the government. 🙄

Sorry, haven’t read all the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I think it would be fairer to use it to add to Pension Credit and Winter Fuel Payments. HMRC levy an income tax charge equal to the full value of any Winter Fuel Payment you receive if your total income is over £35,000 a year, so it would benefit those on lower pensions, benefits or incomes.

That’s an original and incisive argument. I’m sure you’ve given us all a lot to think about there. 🙄