Pension credit cuts

[Raven]

One of my granddaughters had a part time job and lost it. Turns out her unreasonable employer expected her to turn up for the shifts she was allocated. Apparently as little as 3 hours after start time was classed as being late.

If she treated her Employer like that then yes she did deserve to lose the job. IMO.

[fortyone]

She did. I hope she will learn a life lesson from the experience.

[Michaelt]

The only reason for pensioners benefits is because the State pension in this country is not enough to live on. 

[Undercover Pensioner]

Although I think the state pension benefit in this country may actually cost us more in the long-run because it is so low, I'm not sure I trust the figures in the graphic.  For instance, although the figure for Australia is the maximum payable it is means-tested so not a real comparison. It is at a level ours should probably be according to the research I have read and, of course, this would be a lot more possible if ours was means-test and the minimum was put at £12,500 say. 


Australians pay 9% of income to receive this.  We pay less than this but it is rising.  In the UK it is split between employer and employee and will total 7% from this year.  In Aus. the employer pays it but it may be taken before salary is paid or paid on top.  That will be part of your contract of employment conditions.   However, in the UK you can opt out.  I think that in Australia you can only opt out if you are paying at least that amount elsewhere but I am not sure about that. Because there is an amount below which you do not have to pay, as is the case currently in this country, most of the people receiving a state pension who have paid little or nothing in to it will be those who have been on a low income for large parts of their working life. 

[Bee]

Compared to some of those other countries the U.K. state pension is disgusting.

[Undercover Pensioner]

Compared to some of those other countries the U.K. state pension is disgusting.

I agree that no one should be living on the sort of income the lowest paid pensioners get Bee but the trouble is no one sorted it out years ago.  In my previous post, where I said "we pay 9%" that was not us; people have only recently started paying in this way into the workplace pension.  Our NI has had to pay for all benefits we may have had not just pensions and that is spread over a population - the essence of insurance.


Personally, I think raising the pension - possibly by means testing - would be a good move but they are really unlikely to change ours.  Those of us on the "old" pension will almost certainly fall well behind those on the new one, except perhaps for those who need to receive pension credit - so that is a form of means testing I suppose but not a very fair one for those whose income is just over the Pension Credit level.


As I said, I think there is sense in making sure everyone is on a higher minimum of overall income for very much the same reason as when people say "if you buy cheap you pay twice".  Those on the lowest pensions are likely to cost the state in many other ways, the most obvious being cost to the NHS. However, this is how this government works.  The have cut away the money for most things at the beginning - cutting children's Sure Start programmes and storing up issues for the years ahead; cutting elective surgery or lengthening waiting times with no thought to the challenges that may bring. 


Sadly for us life has moved on from when Conservatives could be called efficient with the economy simply because the economy of all countries is far more complicated now.  So, while they have remained bookkeepers we needed accountants and economists.  Small businesses can run using a bookkeeper but larger, more complex ones need the imagination of accountants and economists to grow, but grow safely.  All the Tories have achieved is to chop the limbs off the economy with their continued austerity and then expected the economy to run faster.  Sadly it is and will grind slower if we continue to let the bookkeepers run it.

[fortyone]

In the UK it is split between employer and employee and will total 7% from this year.

SFAIK no taxes get ring fenced although there remains the Nation Insurance myth which is just another tax on incomes paid by both employer and employee. The employer contribution is quite hefty. It is supposed to be for health and pension and certainly employee contributions are used in state pension calculations. I just grabbed these texts from Google and haven't verified them but they look about right so your 7% appears to be low to me


Employer Class 1 National Insurance rates. Employers pay Class 1 NICs of 13.8% on all earnings above the secondary threshold of £162 per week (£157 for 2017/18) for almost all employees. The exceptions are: ... No NI is payable on earnings up to the upper secondary threshold of £892 for apprentices aged under 25.


Employee rate


As an employee: you pay National Insurance contributions if you earn more than £162 a week. you pay 12% of your earnings above this limit and up to £892 a week (for 2017-18) the rate drops to 2% of your earnings over £892 a week.

[Undercover Pensioner]

May I refer you to my previous reply 41 which sadly was not published by the time you wrote yours but it was written and posted.

[Undercover Pensioner]

Majority of people facing £7k pension credit cut are disabled, figures show


"Figures show that more than half (56%) of those who receive pension credits also claim a disability benefit."


"The UN has previously warned that austerity policies introduced into welfare and social care by the UK government amount to "systematic violations"of the rights of people with disabilities."

Full article here:  https://welfareweekly.com/majority-of-people-facing-7k-pension-credit-cut-are-disabled-figures-show/?fbclid=IwAR1Ap5tdQLnqb4TUifKzSvOCvtaxJyryx7QUR4raUJ_U0dhZUSYmM1w4XZc

[fortyone]

May I refer you to my previous reply 41 which sadly was not published by the time you wrote yours but it was written and posted.  

I see it now. I hadn't realised the lower limit had such an impact on the average.

[ckred]

This implies that he never paid into the system but expects to take out of the system !!

I would like to say that my husband worked for over 30 years before getting ill. Unfortunately only the last 2 count for NI contributions so where he kept looking for a job instead of claiming he hasn't got contributions for the years they take into account.

[Bobcat]

OK let me turn this round. A retired couple living in their own house or if rented having their rent and council tax paid. How much pension should they be paid to enjoy an acceptable standard of living ??

[sparky]

Bobcat, well if they able bodied, IMO it should depend entirely what and for how many years they had been paying into the system.

[Bobcat]

That doesn't answer the question. What is the minimum amount they should receive to ensure that they don't end up dying of malnutrition of hypothermia ??

[sparky]

Bobcat. IMO that does answer the question, If they had been one of those fit individuals who had chosen a layabout lifestyle, poncing of the taxpayer all their lives. be they British or otherwise, then they should have thought about the prospect of dying of malnutrition or hyperthermia.