State pensions

Gentle reminder that we all pay towards the NHS. It’s National Insurance, absolutely NOT for profit and properly managed and maybe increased for those able to pay more (taxes) it works very well! Anyone trying to get rid of it wants to make a profit out of our healthcare! Like parking companies!

Right but you have to understand that’s where the anger comes from. In my life I see pensioners sitting in family houses far too big for them, worth an absolute fortune, who are penalised for downsizing and incentivised to suck up state money rather than draw on their own accumulated wealth.

Until the typical pensioner relying on the state pension doesn't need more benefits to be able to just pay the basics of rent, utilities, and more than beans on toast for tea, the triple lock should be seen as untouchable. Lots of folk who don't need the state pension wanting cuts to it lately.

We seem to be taxed more every year for diminishing returns. Where is all the money going? It isn't on health and social care as those have been cut to the bone!

and even then, they also originally intended for people to pay for the EUSS application! the sheer blatant scale of the lies with basically zero pushback is mind boggling

We still have a state pension that's lower than the EU average and "the relative income poverty rate is highest among private renter pensioners: 38% in 2022/23, compared to 34% among social renters and 12% among owner occupiers." and "women, who make up two-thirds (67%) of pensioners in poverty"

There is lots of benefit of that, you seem to be misunderstanding what I am saying. It’s when you stop working that your taxes should go up, rather than any specific age. You can delay taking your state pension and most people who work past SPA do that for tax efficiency reasons.

They've very much relying on people not realising pensions = welfare here

Lots of people whose total income is under £35k are not getting the free money, and we're told to get a life...

Pray tell how are we not covering our share of road tax? I've been paying road tax for 27 years I've been payo g fuel duty (85%) for 27 years I've been paying insurance (plus VAT) for 27 years I've been paying tolls on bridges in ENGLAND for 27 years what more do you want?! BLOOD?!

in short we should triple lock /all/ benefits

We are literally just incapable of having a sensible conversation about the triple lock anymore. There is a coherent case for abolishing it but it all quickly turns into "abolish the state pension to own poor people/my parents" in lots of ppaces

Yes. I think everyone needs to be investing in a private pension. State Pension was invented in 1908 to stop older people from starving in their final 5 years of life, not to sustain 20+ years of not workng

Exactly Wren. There's plenty of places to make savings without always blaming the most vulnerable in our society. Absolutely appalling scare mongering to hit the people who have no skin in their man made wars!!

Its a bit of a catch 22 because pensioners are a emotive group and no one wants their grandpa to be jn poverty - the arguement theyre doing well hasnt been won Its a lot harder sell than the Cameron approach

Right?! Heard it reported this morning and... yes. Some of us have been saying this for a decade and more. it's not new information Then 'Welfare' was chucked in seemingly out of nowhere and... wtf? The arse was being ripped out of Welfare while this was happening, so... no. That's not the problem

Indeed. Let's make it a 'living pension' then discuss how to keep it that way.

This is essentially why welfare was termed "social security" and the primary tax for it was called "national insurance". The premise was *if* you are thrown out of work or become ill you'll keep your home and have enough to eat, and this tax is to pay for it (and will go on your personal record)

Yes, makes sense, but the current situation doesn’t *not make sense*. What you are saying is progressive and hopefully fairer (or differently unfair! everything’s unfair to someone), but it would be a big change from the status quo and would need lots of positive arguing for.

There’s also a post Brexit drop in food quality/availability which is hard to measure but people absolutely recognise. Paying more (inflation) for a worse range of lower quality food (especially fresh) leaves a sour taste and a bad vibe.

Basic benefits like healthcare should not be paid on the basis of having “made a contribution”: they should be paid on the basis of need and out of general taxation. The burden of which should fall progressively?

We are under attack, we are not safe. A sentiment shared by many disabled people who rely on welfare to survive.

The NI exemption for retirees makes no sense for example. No one has “paid in” to anything: it’s incomprehensible that someone retired on 60,000 gets a huge tax break that someone raising a family and paying a mortgage on the same amount doesn’t get. Just abolish NI and roll it into income tax.

exactly my thoughts. they aren't going to be prepared. they have not been saving for retiremrnt

Good point about occupational pensions Some other small non-pension income that takes them over the threshold

Like other countries have done, we should link retirement age to life expectancy Make those two changes and the unaffordable projections largely disappear.

Probably won't be a state pension in 2033. The Boomers will have scuttled off with all the money and those of us who follow will be working for peanuts until we drop dead.

It’s crippling us. The cost of the state is massive. Richard Branson doesn’t need a pension The King doesn’t. A 40 year 30% civil servant will very unlikely need one as well We have to be adult about this.

Don't pat yourself on the back. It's indexation. It'll hardly make a dint. Raise the rate!!!

No problem. I’ve update the blog. Ridiculous policy (if true). They should stop tinkering, withdraw all reduced rates and lower 20%. Then some careful targeted welfare. In Colombia, fiscal cash registers in shops and online give you a personal vat rate based on your income

There are all sorts of fairly foreseeable car crashes that I can see in the decades ahead, classic example, what happens in a couple of decades when the first lot of 9k fees student loan accounts get written off? The state will suddenly have large yearly write off bills going forward

the issue of relative levels being unhealthy is not without merit but adjusting for household size and composition seems like the wrong metric to me - at least for the takeaway to be that pensioners literally take home more than workers (ht @sanderwagner.bsky.social)

@martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com @danneidle.bsky.social Lowering state pension age for grand parents who play an active role in thier grand childrens child care could save families and the Govt billions each year. Any thoughts?

@martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com @danneidle.bsky.social Lowering state pension age for grand parents who play an active role in thier grandparents child care could save families and the Govt billions each year. Any thoughts?

IFS made some sensible proposals about reform to the triple lock in their Pensions Review this year. Unfortunately no one seems to have noticed ifs.org.uk/microsite/pe...

It maybe heresy, but maybe they should take a look at the Triple Lock. An almost 5% rise in a single year is ridiculous. This you?

comparing having opt out of the political levy to an insurance scam doesn’t hold water because: 1) it doesn’t change overall cost of membership 2) easy to cancel your trade union membership- you just cancel your direct debit

Pensions "tax relief" isn't a giveaway, it just stops double taxation and means people pay tax on their pensions when they receive and can spend them, rather than when they lock them away. AE minimums are guidance / suggested saving, not part of the safety net / Government's forced transfers.

It's not a question of divide and rule, but prioritisation. If we think the safety net should be higher, that's fine; start by increasing benefits for those that receive the least, not the most. I could live off pensioner benefits with much less difficulty than non-pensioner benefits.

There are significant numbers of people who only have the basic state pension. Don’t know about you, but I couldn’t live on that little. So - what’s the best way to increase pension? Two choices - tax or individual investment. I’d prefer to spread the cost/risk by using tax. 2/2

Yeah, that's why I was saying the point very much stands. And it's not that much different if you choose other EU countries. And it's not like the tax regimen in the UK has attracted massive investment. And conversely other countries that tax more have no issue with either investment or growth

The UK has picked 2, but at the same time the older population is in bad health after more than a decade of underinvestment

How much worse off do you think low income non-pensioners should be than low income pensioners?

I wonder if any reluctance on the part of the parents is due to them having brought their kids up to be good little right wingers, so as soon as the kids inherit they'll cut their parents off with the same lack of mercy and compassion they've been taught to have for anyone who isn't wealthy.

These figures exclude big ticket items like mortgages & children. Adjust for them, & UK non-pensioners are already worse off than pensioners (have been for a couple decades now). Wanting to be about as well off before and after retirement is a sensible aim: much worse off beforehand isn't normally.

It’s so sad, young people tell me “we’re never going to have pensions”, which is a complete overreaction and contradicts them voting for any party that will promise to defend the status quo 🤷🏻‍♂️

So finally we have it. Another left wing hypocrite screeching about the virtues of higher taxation while working abroad and limiting their own liability to £100 a year in Class 3 NI contributions just so they can scrounge the state pension. Small wonder your ilk consider that a 'wet dream'.

Reform: proposals for wasting council tax.

A wealth tax is not impossible as the wealthy running our country are saying. It is unfair that dynasties can be passed down through generations. Inheritance tax needs to be revised. Capital Gains Tax revised.

The article very confidently proclaims upfront that a wealth tax will never be applied in the UK, then goes on to suggest a land tax as an alternative. However, I would confidently suggest a land value tax would be even less likely.

Even if we had Universal Basic Income (effectively a tax free minimum cost of living, whether earned or as “benefits”), with scaled income tax over that amount, and did it all through the tax system rather than having an entirely separate bureaucracy …

It's not just average pensioners: lower income pensioners are better off than lower income non-pensioners, and the gap at the top is also very narrow (if currently in the opposite direction).

There are far better ways of getting everyone to pay a fair share than withdrawing or reducing universal benefits. (See, for example, the mess associated with withdrawing child benefit from "rich" parents.)

Replacing stamp duty falls between the two camps, because it would be quite the prize if done successfully, but I can envisage myriad ways it could go horribly wrong

I do agree that the recent (cross party) drive to put investment risk on the balance sheets of today's workers, and not Government, is also damaging (not least from an intergenerational perspective). The article could have done without that extra layer, presumably intended to help it be topical?

Good argument that Capital Gains tax needs to be split between higher short term gain (where it is treated as income) and long term gain (where the tax is lower because inflation eats the gain). Like they do in Spain? And adopt Italy's corporation tax rules? 🫣

The problem with increased pension saving in the £50-120k bracket is it increases the likelihood of them retiring earlier in the future. And given many will be doctors, teachers etc the public sector can't really afford to lose such experienced employees. So in the long term is still a loss.

But the issue isn't average pensioners. It's pensioners who only have the state pension and little else. Saying the triple lock is bonkers now is the same as saying the state pension is too high, which means cutting it for those who rely on it or increasing means-testing. Which are both bonkers too.