State Pension Increases

[Vic]

Not bothered with house insurance for over 10 years, which I admit is a bit silly of me and a false economy given its only about £120 a year.

I do indeed have walking boots, waterproof coats, soft shell jackets that are well over 10 years old, 20 years old in some cases and they work fine and are better quality than the shite that's available today. I maybe buy 1 pair of casual trainers a year at about £30-£40 out of my £600 spare money.

You've proved you're another of the financially feckless idiots if you seem to think that £50 per week will only buy you a loaf and two fish, you have my sympathy.

Actually, if you do want to cut costs, fish is off the menu unless you catch your own (or strike lucky on the clearance aisle - I got 4 packs of smoked salmon once at 9p each - the only real mistake was the reduced jellied eels).

 

[Grassland Blue]

Because I get a private pension any state pension increase gets taxed at 20% anyway. Some will be paying 40%. I have no issue with this, as I think income tax should be paid on - er - your income. I just wish it was set up so (say) everyone on £30k, no matter where it comes from pays the same tax. In other words, there should be no way of fiddling it.

As to the state pension in general, I think the issue is we (as a people) have never been willing to pay in enough to make it a decent amount, it is a bare survival sum if that is all you have. The long-term solution (I'll be long gone by then) is for everyone to pay more in their working days to either a state or private pension or both. You really need to start when you are 18, by the way, not 35.

Ideally, the state pension should be some proportion of 40 hours on minimum wage. (You can argue as to the proportion.) It would then go up as the minimum wage went up, and there would be no haggling about 'fairness'.

BTW, for anyone who hasn't cottoned on yet, life isn't fair. It never has been and never will be. You could make me Lord Protector for life with unlimited arbitrary power and I still could not change that. Someone will always be shit on. The best we can do is keep the shitting on to a practical limit.

I had a plan to move to somewhere in the E.U. where it is cheaper to live and the weather is generally better.
Sadly brexit put a stop to that!

 

[Vic]

Under capitalism, unemployment is (in part) a tool to keep wages (and inflation) down. At a more extreme level, it is a tool to keep the workers 'in their place' and suitably grateful.

This is why capitalism needs to be regulated and controlled. It is there to serve us, not for us to serve it. A concept many RW people do not understand,

Capitalism is there to serve people with capital.

 

[paulchapo]

I had a plan to move to somewhere in the E.U. where it is cheaper to live and the weather is generally better.
Sadly brexit put a stop to that!

The weather might be better but in a lot of these countries the cost of living has also risen dramatically.

 

[BrianW]

I suppose at age 67 everyone could become a Carthusian Monk (or nun equivalent). I dare say that would work out pretty cheap.

 

[Grassland Blue]

They didn't earn the state pension. Paying your NI entitles you to the pension, but the state pension is largely being paid out of current taxation. (It used to be ten taxpayers paying for your pension, now it's four, and in the future it may be as few as two working people paying for your pension - so choose your two carefully.)

So the state pension should be 2 and 1/2 times more then?

 

[denislawsbackheel]

Downsize. If there's no financial incentive to downsize, older people stay in houses that they find increasingly difficult to manage, and it creates a shortage of family size homes - which suits the people in bigger houses as that scarcity (and nimbyism against new housing) keeps their house price up.

I could downsize easily.
But until they abolish stamp duty on my downsizing I won’t.

 

[Vic]

Sorry but they and I did earn it. I paid the minimum 35 years NI contributions needed to draw a full state pension. I don't care how it's funded or the small print. The deal was pay that money for 35 years and when you retire you get this amount of money per month. Earned, every penny.

I may not have been clear.

You're not paying into a state pension pot. Your NI is paying for the pensions of people who've stopped paying NI. The "small print" is that our sovereign UK parliament could stop paying pensions.

The first pensions were paid out of general taxation, National Insurance was to fund health and unemployment benefit and contribute to pensions (but will rely on future contributions from other people to fund yours).

This is out of date and I've no idea of the current situation, but this gives some clue:

How is the state pension funded and what if the cash runs out?

Cash reserves have plunged in the past few years and could come up short as soon as next year, forcing the Government to dip into money from general tax, says a report.

www.thisismoney.co.uk

 

[jacko74]

For the life you must lead you have my sympathy

Please do educate me on why my quality of life is so poor and why I should go back out working and earning to improve it rather than being retired at 48.

Presumably your life is much better than mine, can you give a few examples of how that's so...

 

[pride in battle]

I get this all the time now, 54 and retired, you look to young to be retired, people think you should have a zimmer frame and colostomy bag to be retired, it’s plain wrong.

To be fair mate your very very lucky to be retired at your age...