State Pension Increases

[paulchapo]

I think Vic was agreeing with you!

Not judging by his earlier post unless I've got him mixed up, age you know lol.

 

[dave_blue12]

This government are siphoning taxpayers £ off into the private sector at an astonishing rate effectively moving wealth to the richest people.

Anyone believing that this country cannot afford decent pension increases along with pay for the public sector is falling for their lies.

 

[TonyColemansbagofapples]

Fair enough...

Council Tax - £1, 050
Electric - £800 (no gas)
Water - £450
Internet/Phone - £180
Car - £20 VED, £90 Insurance, Service and MOT £130. petrol £10 per month
Weekly shop - £50

Without adding it up precisely I think that comes to around £5,400 by my estimate, leaving me £600 per year for unexpected bills or frivolous purchases.

I spend my time walking, cycling (got a decent enough mountain bike and an ebike) bit of kite surfing, gardening, walking my mates dog. In the winter can quite happily spend all day reading or internetting in really shit weather.

I'm sorry if you only regard that as "existing" and you consider that I don't "have a life" because I have no interest in spending a fortnight sat in a bar in Ibiza or sat by the pool in some all inclusive hotel, or spend every opportunity traipsing around the Trafford Centre buying pointless shit I don't need, or showing off my PCP'd white Audi on my driveway.

Please do tell me what I'm doing wrong in my life or where my expenditure is inaccurate?

No house insurance, contents insurance, a new pair of shoes every five years, maybe a new shirt every year, never buy any presents (must remember to have no friends or family). I must try to use the same brands as you as obviously everything you buy is everlasting. Food shop must be a loaf and two fish.
£600 for unexpected bills and frivolous purchases? I give in, you managed it. No opposition. You are officially the Dickhead of the Year.

 

[Kirkstall Blue]

You do realise that the current generation of pensioners are the wealthiest age group in society and the wealthiest pensioners to have ever existed?

Some of them are depending on the yardstick you’re using.
They will probably be the last generation if they own their own home and increased their state pension pot.
The next generation will not be so lucky the increase in state pension age will see many over sixties die before enjoying a state pension.

The focus should be on all poor people not rich pensioners but those people who are living in squalid conditions shopping in food banks and charity shops. All age groups are suffering poverty stop dividing by wealth, the government need to protect the weakest in society.

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

I am in my 60's and in reasonable shape (so long as I keep taking my tablets lol).
Regarding pensions.
It's a minefield. One point I will make is that if your private pension is over a certain amount then your state pension will start to reduce once you reach that level. Also you will be taxed on the combined income.
If you want to travel and get the most benefit from it, travel while you are still in your prime as when you reach your 60's, (IF you do) your desire to do so may have diminished. Also your or your partners' health may restrict your ability to travel.
You may have obligations which get in the way of things.
Finally, don't forget that in 25/30 years time the cost of transportation accommodation and commodities will have risen.
Life is a gamble so don't sacrifice too much of your present for a future which may never arrive.

Bon chance!

Cheers mate, appreciate your thoughts. As with all things, I think it’s about balance.

I’m particularly paranoid because my health has always been awful since birth and so I’m in a position of really not knowing how many years of work I have left in me. Could be 10, could be 40. That’s, like you say, if I make it that far. I’m constantly stuck between wanting to enjoy life with the health I still have and trying to make sure I’m not going to leave my wife struggling if the worst happens.

I’m in a fortunate enough position with my earnings that I at least have options. I’ve decided that the best way is to live a good but not frivolous life. Go on holiday, but don’t break the bank. Have a nice, practical car, but don’t pay a premium just for a brand name. Eat at nice restaurants, but don’t make a habit of it. Anything I have after that I put aside. It’s served me well so far.

 

[Vic]

I know you’re a similar generation to me Paul and did your stint in the Armed Forces. What some of later generations don’t know is if we couldn’t afford anything it just wasn’t an option.

I spent my first few years in a house with no bathroom, despite my parents both working we had little money. We took holidays to Cornwall (on a bus) and Blackpool, never ever went abroad and I was about 19 the first time I dined in a restaurant.

Today is the funeral of my last remaining Uncle, he was 97, our generation are not heroes but deserve a life on a pension of more than 6k pa, on that revenue you would live a better life in Prison!

But he's not on £6k a year. That was just someone claiming that he can live on £6k.

 

[jacko74]

Some of them are depending on the yardstick you’re using.
They will probably be the last generation if they own their own home and increased their state pension pot.
The next generation will not be so lucky the increase in state pension age will see many over sixties die before enjoying a state pension.

The focus should be on all poor people not rich pensioners but those people who are living in squalid conditions shopping in food banks and charity shops. All age groups are suffering poverty stop dividing by wealth, the government need to protect the weakest in society.

I do agree with this.

The problem with reigning in the State Pension based on the wealth of the current generation of pensioners is that those State Pension changes will become permanent and in the future there will once again be genuinely poor pensioners.

 

[BrianW]

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.

 

[TonyColemansbagofapples]

All round to Jacko's for the Xmas do this year

 

[yerwot?]

Why should they downsize, they’ve paid into a system, saved and been savvy with their money, they shouldn’t be penalised because the people in power couldn’t run a piss up in a brewery or are lining their own and their mates pockets. I’m mortgage free, not a chance £6k stretches eBen been frugal, £2k for council tax, £1500 for utilities and thats been generous, plus food, I wouldn’t even be leaving the house, ye sounds a great retirement tha

Exactly.
Already one of the worst State Pensions in Europe and the Gov want to penalise pensioners again. They should look internally first at all the money they spunk being stupid and inept.

stupid and inept???, more like devious lying avaricious anti-democratic career parasites gorging on a brain-washed public....that's not stupid and inept...surviving countless examples of criminal behaviour scot-free takes cunning and planning, an iron grip on the msm. Stupid and inept applies more to the electorate than the perpetrators, taken in by a serial liar, on record as calling the working class stupid lazy drunkards. Stirring up the jingoism and racism latent in enough of the population to scrape through brexit was not stupid, nasty divisive abhorent but successful, which is all that mattered. Stupidity is not a chosen condition, whereas cruelty and avarice are. There is world of difference.