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.

Theres a difference between hand outs and your life savings being taxed when you pass them on to your kids.

The really wealthy will pass plenty on when they are alive

That’s the age old problem isn’t it. I would love to say cap inheritance, but that doesn’t help either does it. There is no solution and that’s why we have what we have.

I do think that we could tax some of it at a much higher rate but would need to find ways to protect people so that they didn’t lose their home etc.

There is no solution

I’m an OAP but don’t agree with this. It’s too simplistic. Anyone of any age could just spend the £100 on anything?

No that doesn't help either.

Maybe inheritance tax is just wrong, maybe money should be able to move from one generation to the next without tax.

Or have a really high threshold before it kicks in but again those affected would pass money on while alive.

Well, I'm in my 50s. Some of my friends are well past retirement age (in their 70s) and still know how to have a good night out.

'Pensioners' still know how to have fun. They were young in the 70s and 80s. They're the punk generation!

If they gave £100 to OAP’s and people on UC there would be an outcry.

You only have to look at the rantings that happen when the Xmas extra money is given to people on certain pension and benefits. And that’s £10.

(it’s a bit of a daft idea now the £10 - it was an extra weeks money when it first came in, to help with the extra costs of heating and the likes in winter, but it’s never changed since it was brought in).

yeah let’s let the rich stay rich…we are on opposites sides of this btw, and that is sarcasm

I actually would rather see all inheritance be lost than allow IHT to be removed. Though obviously neither of them are the solution.

I do agree with you. People need to take some accountability and stop expecting handouts for everything. The country is already in a mess.

I think the poorest are often sometimes the ones in work. My DH and I work FT but we do not have 100 spare at any time of the month. We don’t earn that much but qualify for no help. I’m not saying others are better, but I feel miffed when normal people are forgotten.

It is now…. when it was brought back after Rachel Reeves removed it, they set the threshold at £35k.

Honestly the reaction here to the government giving some basic advice about keeping some food in stock and cash available for an emergency has been mad. Threads about people not stockpiling correctly! And now this poster wants the emergency funds to come from the government?! We are so entitled compared to other countries. Finland have a huge number of reservists and actual bunkers. We need to get a grip as a country.

Exactly.
It's cash that needs to come from peoples banks. Or else it would be blown on every day living.

Bit like the batteries in the old smoke detectors people would take them out use them for other things and not replace them

Nobody is paid cash anymore, we established up thread its the very old 80+ who are more likely to have cash in their wallet never mind cash at home.
That's the generation who were used to life before cash machines.

I was in Madrid when they had the power outage. People (especially tourists) with no cash were totally stuck. At the time no-one knew how long it would last. Local stores immediately put their prices up. We were in a hotel with no stocks of food or water. Fortunately I decided too bring quite a bit of cash with me on a whim just because I’d walked past the foreign currency booth in Tesco and decided to buy more euros.

Thats exactly what the UK is trying to prepare the UK for.
I don't think we ever got a straight answer to the root cause of the power cut.

And yes its about having some access to physical hard cash, not relying on cash machines, cards or watches.

I was chatting to someone else who reckoned that low income people of all generations often work in hard cash because its easier to keep track off, ie if your food budget is £100 you lift £100 and you can see what you have left in your wallet after your shopping.
Rather than than tapping with a card.

Where do you get "no housing cost" from? My water bill has been increased from £50pm to £150pm, my electricity is £175 pm, food bills has more than doubled and only eat one meal a day. Then there's house insurance, tv licence, rates (our area just had an increase of +9% one of the highest in the country)! Try funding that on £921 a month. My mortgage might be paid off but I worked full time for 52 years to pay that along with all the other costs with bringing up a family etc. I have a very small company pension which is taxed because with my gov pension I'm over the threshold. Im not sure where the "bashing pensioners" started and I eould never have begrudge my parents their retirement because they worked hard. Pensioners are still being screwed for tax to help pay welfare, child benefit, etc etc etc yet we've done our bit. I even have to pay gor glasses and because if mybpresciption they cost a 1/3rd of my pension gor the month. We don't all have phones, fancy holidays, eat out several times a week yet folks still begrudge us having our own homes that we bloody worked, went wothout hols etc to pay for!! Go have s go at all the lazy so and so that have never worked a day, have multiple kids, free housing and expect everything for nothing. Oh yeh im helping to kerp them as well!

You’re rather spectacularly missing the point.

Nobody is suggesting that pensioners don’t have bills. Of course you pay for water, electricity, food, insurance and council tax. So does everyone else. The difference is that millions of working-age people pay all those things AND hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pounds every month in rent or mortgage payments.

Having your mortgage paid off is an enormous financial advantage. Acknowledging that isn’t pensioner bashing, it’s basic arithmetic.

You say you worked for 52 years to pay for your house. Lovely. Nobody is suggesting you didn’t. But you now own an asset outright and no longer have to make monthly mortgage payments. That’s precisely the advantage being discussed. Why you think having worked for it somehow means it doesn’t count is beyond me.

You also repeatedly refer to surviving on £921 a month, while admitting that you receive a company pension on top. So £921 isn’t actually your total income, is it?

And then there’s your extraordinary claim that you’re being taxed to fund everyone else’s benefits.

You say your income is tiny, yet you’re apparently personally keeping all these supposedly lazy people and their multiple children housed and fed. Which is it?

The first £12,570 of annual income is tax-free. If your total pension income is only slightly above that, your income tax contribution will be correspondingly tiny. You’re certainly not single-handedly financing the welfare state.

In fact, your own State Pension is being funded by today’s taxpayers and National Insurance contributors. The contributions you made during your working life helped fund the pensioners of that time. That’s how the system works. It isn’t a personal savings account containing the money you paid in over 52 years.

And those working-age people you’re so keen to dismiss? They’re paying taxes, National Insurance, mortgages, rent, childcare, food, utilities and everything else, while also funding the pensions being paid today.

Child Benefit isn’t some exclusive reward for people who have never worked, either. Working families receive it too. And many people receiving other benefits are employed, disabled, caring for relatives or temporarily unable to work.

You seem to want recognition for having worked hard and raised a family, while simultaneously showing utter contempt for people who are doing exactly that today.

Nobody begrudges you your home. Nobody is suggesting you shouldn’t receive your pension. Nobody is denying that some pensioners struggle financially. But you cannot seriously argue that having no mortgage or rent (housing costs) provides no financial advantage simply because you still have to buy food and pay the electricity bill.

And perhaps, before accusing other people of expecting everything for nothing, consider that the pension you receive is itself part of the welfare system you’re so enthusiastically attacking.

Also as an aside, your water bill is excessive and far above the national average, you should question that.

I did question my water bill especially as my water usage is low. But again I live in an area where they picked the price up to the maximum % they were allowed along with not dealing with the problems (sewage in river, persistent leaks etc etc). Im not bashing anyone just sick of strong comments re pensioners supposedly being well off. Yes I have a company pension but even with that, once the tax is taken off it means I can just about cover my monthly outgoings. I sold my last terraced house and moved into a flat so that I had some money to make sure I gould cover everything. I have to pay community fees which is another monthly expense. So yes no mortgage, lucky me, but still not a shit ton of money to throw around. I said up for holidays because I intend to try and nake the mist of whatever time I have left (cheap flights low cost accomodation). You nention hard working parents bringing up kids etc, I've done that and gone without so they had stuff. No generation should slag each other off and us "boomers" didnt all have it easy. My EC first house was a 3 bed detached mine was a small semi with no furniture for nearly 12 months because we couldn't afford it. Each generation has problems and financially the only "weakth" I have is my flat which, if things keep hoing the way they are I will have to remortgage to pay for stuff. Everyone is having a hard time at the moment and unfortunately with our government its not going to improve any time soon. Went through nearly losing our home in the 80s and getting into debt to keep it. Just fed up of pensioner bashing, we are not all rich or on 35k a year.

There is an assumption that pensioners all own their properties.

I know a few people who have admitted they can't afford to retire. They divorced late in life, don't have enough to buy even a small house outright and too old to get a mortgage.

So people hitting retirement, and having the issue of renting isn't just a London issue thats an everywhere issue.

nobody said you were though. It’s just that the general pensioner household is in a better financial position than the general pensioner household will be when millennials and the future generations retire.

It’s not pensioner bashing to state facts, it really isn’t. Pensioners have lower poverty rates than the working families, that’s a fact, and so suggestions that pensioners need to be given more is not really the right approach.

I find the whole idea that we just give to a group of people to be unrealistic. Look at the £100 in the budget, it is being given to everyone in A-D bands, I don’t need it, barely anyone I know who is in those bands (I would suspect everyone) needs it. It costs money that could be better spent on a targeted approach. I’ll be donating mine to a local food bank or similar so that I know it actually helps someone who needs it.

Side note: could you get a water meter fitted? Mine was sooooo much cheaper with one. And as a family of 3 we pay £40 a month

4/5 pensioners own their own homes. When millenials retire that is estimated to be a little over 3/5

OAP are not an economically homogenous group. Many are poor, but many are not. My In laws, both "working class" have much more disposable income that we do despite both working senior professional jobs, because they hung on to their then very cheap house, and benefit from various final salary pensions.

Rather than complaining about their "then cheap houses", have you ever looked at the past interest rates? Early 90s? Asked how many people lost their homes?

I'm not complaining. I am explaining why they have a lot of money now - they live mortgage free on very generous final salary pensions. Part of the reason they live mortgage free is becuase their house was, origianlly, very cheap. They definited had years where they struggled for money (they were not high earners) which I am not commenting one, I am commenting on their finances NOW.

Or should they have £100 for being poor 35 years ago?

Our council tax went up 10%. 3 years running, last year only 9%. So that's 39% in four years. We're in a small bungalow band F So rates this year £3700. Our water rates metered increased 27% this year.