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Hugh, there's an expression - "Asset rich, cash poor". You can have a house worth a small fortune, but that doesn't pay the bills if you haven't money in the bank.
And that's the precise problem with council tax.
The words poor pensioners keeps cropping up on here. But you will find many poor pensioners are saving for a rainy day or want to to leave money to their children. My sister in law was always pleading to be poor and in poverty and would never go on holiday. When she died she was worth in money and property, over £200,000. Could well be many poor pensioners in poverty but myself unable to decide which one's are.
I have been advised in Sutton Coldfield you are poor if you do not have £5,000,000.00. I have not got £5,000,000.00 so I must be poor and should have pension credit. £200,000 is not a fantastic amount these days.
People who live in Solihull think that anyone who only manages to get up the property ladder as far as Sutton Coldfield, is poor.
A man around the corner has just moved from Solihull because he has found a better paid job in Sutton Coldfield.
But if he moved from a final salary to a money purchase pension scheme he might be worse off in old age. The company I worked for changed the scheme and Shabbey dealings near wiped it out! Did you advise him Bri?
Hugh, there's an expression - "Asset rich, cash poor". You can have a house worth a small fortune, but that doesn't pay the bills if you haven't money in the bank. Brian, £5million would buy this village and have enough over for a pint of beer. I don't think anyone here is rich or poor. Almost every one owns their own house and appears to be at least comfortably well off.
Fair enough Hugh but the key word there is 'property'. There are many pensioners who, for different reasons, find themselves having to continue working because they live in rented accommodation and simply can't make ends meet without supplementing their basic incomes. No point folk lecturing them about private pensions and annuities. There are poor elderly just like there are poor of any age or status. Many fret because they don't have enough money to pay for their own burials. Many are proud folk who wouldn't talk about their situation, preferring to be privately poor. Your blithe dismissal is unkind.
This is one of those posts where I wish we had an "I agree" thumbs up. There is a great one on one site I go on which is a thumbs up which says "I agree" if you hover over it and counts the number who click on it. That way you get the quieter majority joining in