Pension age

[Dave225]

pelmetman - 2016-03-17 9:43 AM

 

Dave225 - 2016-03-16 10:01 PM

 

I think one should look at this objectively. All that has happened is that the date you will get any miserable payout from HMG has moved. This has nothing to do with your retirement date. If anyone thinks that the State Pension alone will give them a comfortable retirement then they really need to wake up and smell the coffee. £159 a week is not going to do anything more than keep the lights on if you are lucky, certainly motorhoming will be out of reach. .

 

Motorhoming is not expensive.......keeping up with the Jones's is expensive :D ...........

 

As running a camper need be no more expensive than a secondhand car ;-) .........

 

BUT if your motorhoming habits include changing to the latest whiz bang model every few years then yes it would be impossible on the state pension............

 

 

 

Sorry even disregarding your comment re changing a motorhome,the costs can be high if you compare it with just a State pension. Insurance, road tax, servicing alone will add up to around £80-£100 permonth, add on site fees and fuel and £155 per week is not going to cover it plus normal living expenses. I would suggest that on the State Pension alone running a cheap car will be impssible.

 

My point is that the Government gives you just enough to keep starvation at bay, to enjoy any form of retiral requires your own input.

 

You could 'cheat' and use the motorhome as your sole living accomodation but even then, it will be a limited time period and then what? Rely on the State??

[Tracker]

Dave225 - 2016-03-18 7:27 PM

 

My point is that the Government gives you just enough to keep starvation at bay, to enjoy any form of retiral requires your own input.

 

 

Good - that is exactly as it should be.

As I understood it the basic function of state benefits is to provide a tax payer funded safety net not a life of luxury subsidised by everyone else who did make the effort

Also bear in mind that most people retiring will be a couple with two incomes so that for a start is 2 x £159 - not so bad eh?

We all have a working lifetime to make some effort to save on our own behalf for our own benefit, be it by occupational or personal pension, property, shares, or whatever.

To be honest I struggle to find much sympathy for those who spend fifty or so years working without giving some kind of thought and making some kind of effort to save entirely for their own comfort and enjoyment in old age.

[Pampam]

When did the state pension become classed as a benefit? I was always under the impression that nat ins contributions were paid , so you could then claim a pension at the end of your working life , is that no longer the case ?

[lynneroy]

Pampam - 2016-03-18 10:00 PM

 

When did the state pension become classed as a benefit? I was always under the impression that nat ins contributions were paid , so you could then claim a pension at the end of your working life , is that no longer the case ?

 

That is what I thought too, now no longer can we draw that, we have to work and pay into it for another 6 years. To receive full pension you have to pay in for a minimum of 35 years, I have already done more than that and still have to do another 6. Our health will deteriorate if we make people work until they are older, perhaps most on here are lucky enough to have everything sorted, but there are still a lot of people in the uk who have not been as fortunate, lived on low wages with no spare to save for retirement, no big house to downsize from, I feel for them.

 

Lynne :-)

[Guest pelmetman]

Dave225 - 2016-03-18 7:27 PM

 

pelmetman - 2016-03-17 9:43 AM

 

Dave225 - 2016-03-16 10:01 PM

 

I think one should look at this objectively. All that has happened is that the date you will get any miserable payout from HMG has moved. This has nothing to do with your retirement date. If anyone thinks that the State Pension alone will give them a comfortable retirement then they really need to wake up and smell the coffee. £159 a week is not going to do anything more than keep the lights on if you are lucky, certainly motorhoming will be out of reach. .

 

Motorhoming is not expensive.......keeping up with the Jones's is expensive :D ...........

 

As running a camper need be no more expensive than a secondhand car ;-) .........

 

BUT if your motorhoming habits include changing to the latest whiz bang model every few years then yes it would be impossible on the state pension............

 

 

 

Sorry even disregarding your comment re changing a motorhome,the costs can be high if you compare it with just a State pension. Insurance, road tax, servicing alone will add up to around £80-£100 permonth, add on site fees and fuel and £155 per week is not going to cover it plus normal living expenses. I would suggest that on the State Pension alone running a cheap car will be impssible.

 

My point is that the Government gives you just enough to keep starvation at bay, to enjoy any form of retiral requires your own input.

 

You could 'cheat' and use the motorhome as your sole living accomodation but even then, it will be a limited time period and then what? Rely on the State??

 

If I did find myself in the situation where I had no assets except a camper and the basic state pension ;-) ..........

 

Then I'd probably spend 10 months of the year in Spain and Portugal where my 155 quid would be worth nearly 200€.......but more importantly will have the spending power of 200+ quid B-) ......

 

But eventually as you say one day I'll no longer be capable of mohoing :'( ..........and that's when I'd become a burden on the state.....or as I see it.....pay back time >:-) .........

 

I just need to learn how to say "NURSE I've sh*t myself again" in Eastern European (lol) .........

 

 

[Dave225]

pelmetman - 2016-03-20 7:06 PM

 

Dave225 - 2016-03-18 7:27 PM

 

pelmetman - 2016-03-17 9:43 AM

 

Dave225 - 2016-03-16 10:01 PM

 

I think one should look at this objectively. All that has happened is that the date you will get any miserable payout from HMG has moved. This has nothing to do with your retirement date. If anyone thinks that the State Pension alone will give them a comfortable retirement then they really need to wake up and smell the coffee. £159 a week is not going to do anything more than keep the lights on if you are lucky, certainly motorhoming will be out of reach. .

 

Motorhoming is not expensive.......keeping up with the Jones's is expensive :D ...........

 

As running a camper need be no more expensive than a secondhand car ;-) .........

 

BUT if your motorhoming habits include changing to the latest whiz bang model every few years then yes it would be impossible on the state pension............

 

 

 

Sorry even disregarding your comment re changing a motorhome,the costs can be high if you compare it with just a State pension. Insurance, road tax, servicing alone will add up to around £80-£100 permonth, add on site fees and fuel and £155 per week is not going to cover it plus normal living expenses. I would suggest that on the State Pension alone running a cheap car will be impssible.

 

My point is that the Government gives you just enough to keep starvation at bay, to enjoy any form of retiral requires your own input.

 

You could 'cheat' and use the motorhome as your sole living accomodation but even then, it will be a limited time period and then what? Rely on the State??

 

If I did find myself in the situation where I had no assets except a camper and the basic state pension ;-) ..........

 

Then I'd probably spend 10 months of the year in Spain and Portugal where my 155 quid would be worth nearly 200€.......but more importantly will have the spending power of 200+ quid B-) ......

 

But eventually as you say one day I'll no longer be capable of mohoing :'( ..........and that's when I'd become a burden on the state.....or as I see it.....pay back time >:-) .........

 

I just need to learn how to say "NURSE I've sh*t myself again" in Eastern European (lol) .........

 

 

I suspect we all agree with yoru sentiments. But..........isn't there always??

 

In Spain you now need health insurance and of course you can only stay 6 months or be resident with all the pitfalls that may incur. No disrespect but the Spanish do not want the UK's disregards anymore than anywhere else does. Costs in Spain are rising and the exchange rate is dropping. It does both those things but it is not that long agao all the expats in Spain were crying as the euro and the pound approached par, and they had 'lost' 40%. No more boozy nights in restaurants etc. I do not know what will happen tomorrow, nobody does. However your point about getting old and decrepit is valid. We have met many expats in Sapin who are bluntly the last of the generation still alive and having put everyone else inthe graveyard are now facing who will do it for them. A horrible thought, so you need to consider family, even if you hate 'em. So you need to consider where you want to be where there is the possibility of someone being able to help. I suspect lonliness is the most horrible thing we all may face in our lifetimes, especially if a spouse/partner is the first to go. As dear Mr Shakespeare put it so bluntly 'sans teeth, sans eyes, sans everything'. Does one even have the ability to switch the gas oven on?? Very morbid I know but we cannot escape the fact that we will all grow old. Of course if you have lots of 'assets' then you can pay a 20 year nimbo nurse to take care of your every need, and probably not last a week, but what a way to go.

[Guest pelmetman]

Dave225 - 2016-03-20 7:27 PM

Of course if you have lots of 'assets' then you can pay a 20 year nimbo nurse to take care of your every need, and probably not last a week, but what a way to go.

 

20 year old Nympho nurse.......now that's the way to go.........don't tell the Mrs 8-) .......

 

 

[John52]

 

Lets face it, British people tend not to trust pension salesmen - and with good reason.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/11140240/British-pensions-worse-than-in-most-of-Europe.html

[John52]

RogerC - 2016-03-03 7:39 PM

Gordon Brown, when Chancellor, ruined the private pension schemes with his £5 Billion raid on funds back in 1997 ...

Some might characterise any removal of benefits or handouts or credits, as a 'raid'. Ergo, the actions taken to stop giving pension funds free money would be seen by them as a 'raid'.

 

But really it was just stopping giving them the free money which had been a nice little gift which directly handed them a piece of the corporation tax which was paid by the companies in which they invested. The 'credit' was not for a tax that the pension fund had directly suffered, because pension funds don't pay tax on their earnings. So, the 'raid' was just taking away a benefit or a gift, not increasing their tax bill.

 

Indeed, the current government have got rid of the whole notion that a theoretical imputed tax credit should even exist, and now all individual investors simply get their first £5k dividends tax free and only pay tax on dividends after that. Pension funds of course do not need an allowance to get the first £x of their dividends tax free, because all of their dividends are tax free.

[StuartO]

pelmetman - 2016-03-20 7:06 PM....I just need to learn how to say "NURSE I've sh*t myself again" in Eastern European (lol) .........

 

Unfortunately there might be no nurse around to hear you because of short staffing, or a nurse who is too busy to deal with you for far too long because of other priorities, or a nurse who's not in Florence Nightingale's league and more interested in her leisurely tea break than your discomfort from what you are sitting on.

 

Isn't it naive to assume that the facilities to cope with us (especially all of us, including those who have no money left) in a kindly way in our dotage will continue to be available in an increasingly distressed society?  In some societies those who are old and no longer useful to anyone or able to look after themselves are simply abandoned to die.

 

I share Tracker's sense of good fortune at having ended up with enough to pay my own way for care in old age as necessary, but I still feel uncertain about whether I'll be guaranteed a smiling carer to wipe my backside when I need it.

 

[Guest pelmetman]

StuartO - 2016-04-19 8:32 AMI share Tracker's sense of good fortune at having ended up with enough to pay my own way for care in old age as necessary, but I still feel uncertain about whether I'll be guaranteed a smiling carer to wipe my backside when I need it.

As Harold Macmillan said.....You baby boomers have "never had it so good" ;-) .......The best education opportunities, plenty of work opportunities, great pension payouts.....and you even managed to stitch up future generations by joining the EU, thus ensuring they have to compete with the rest of Europe for their education, employment and housing.....not to mention having to work until 70 8-) .........

[John52]

Well certainly those depending on a private pension will lose out because of the poor performance of these funds - due to unwise investments or the high fees the pension companies have quietly helped themselves to.

Gordon Brown's so called 'raid' on the pension funds is nothing compared to what the fund managers have taken out for themselves, but Brown makes a believable scapegoat for their poor performance.

[Dave225]

John52 - 2016-04-21 9:25 PM

 

Well certainly those depending on a private pension will lose out because of the poor performance of these funds - due to unwise investments or the high fees the pension companies have quietly helped themselves to.

Gordon Brown's so called 'raid' on the pension funds is nothing compared to what the fund managers have taken out for themselves, but Brown makes a believable scapegoat for their poor performance.

 

 

True, but it is a matter of timing. It is only in the last few years that Fund performance has taken a nosedive, and a lot of that can be laid at the door of the Government for its policy of Quantitative Easing, which is a euphamism for devaluation. Right up to about 2006 you could get a good value annuity from your pension fund, which is of course for life. Yes, there are some fat cats in there but that can be said of almost anything these days, just look at your local Council. Supposedly puiblic servants are anything but. If you wish Gordon Brown was the starting gun for the current malaise. Certainly if he had not splurged so much cash on wasteful pay rises to the non deserving, we may have not found ourselves in the current situation, or certainly to not such an extent. He blew the rainy day fund wholesale.

[Guest pelmetman]

Dave225 - 2016-04-22 3:33 PM

 

John52 - 2016-04-21 9:25 PM

 

Well certainly those depending on a private pension will lose out because of the poor performance of these funds - due to unwise investments or the high fees the pension companies have quietly helped themselves to.

Gordon Brown's so called 'raid' on the pension funds is nothing compared to what the fund managers have taken out for themselves, but Brown makes a believable scapegoat for their poor performance.

 

 

True, but it is a matter of timing. It is only in the last few years that Fund performance has taken a nosedive, and a lot of that can be laid at the door of the Government for its policy of Quantitative Easing, which is a euphamism for devaluation. Right up to about 2006 you could get a good value annuity from your pension fund, which is of course for life. Yes, there are some fat cats in there but that can be said of almost anything these days, just look at your local Council. Supposedly puiblic servants are anything but. If you wish Gordon Brown was the starting gun for the current malaise. Certainly if he had not splurged so much cash on wasteful pay rises to the non deserving, we may have not found ourselves in the current situation, or certainly to not such an extent. He blew the rainy day fund wholesale.

 

Plus he managed to sell our gold reserves at the bottom of the market 8-) ..........Funny how his Prudence turned out to be a bit of a slapper *-) .......must be why he wants to stay in the EU, he's probably been promised a job by Kinnock and Co >:-) ......

 

 

[John52]

I'm no fan of Gordon Brown either. His economic incompetence makes him a believable scapegoat for British pension companies, whose excessive and secretive fees have been brought into focus now they can't be so easily absorbed by todays lower investment returns. Gordon Brown just removed a taxpayer funded gift for pension funds which the pension companies were effectively trousering for themselves, rather than passing it on to pensioners.

As the link says......

Better Finance, which lobbies the EU on behalf of consumers, concluded that Britain was among the worst places in Europe to have a pension. Experts said Britain's poor performance was due to the array of fees levied, many of which were removed from savers' funds in secret....

[John52]

PS: funny how people only remember how much Brown wasted by selling our gold. Its tiny compared to what he wasted with his 'Private Finance Initiative' which Osborne has continued. But that has yet to be paid for.

[Will86]

I became retired on the first day I could walk talk and ride a bike. Retired to me is being able to do what I like when I like. I revel in being uneducated by any educating body. I learned personal skills as I went along that eventually transpired into large companies asking me to apply my skills to their products ... and for which they paid me handsomely.

 

Having now reached a certain age (Whatever that is). I'm being well paid for doing nothing, but of course doing nothing is not me so I occupy myself applying more personal skills on various media as a passing interest.

 

Money is not very interesting but is a means to obtain items that can aid me to become even more skilful at whatever I choose on the day. (Read my interests section for the real me).

 

I'm pleased you asked.

 

Will

[Guest pelmetman]

John52 - 2016-04-23 3:35 PM

 

PS: funny how people only remember how much Brown wasted by selling our gold. Its tiny compared to what he wasted with his 'Private Finance Initiative' which Osborne has continued. But that has yet to be paid for.

 

Don't know if it made the national news, but a couple of weeks ago they closed all the schools in Hull built by PPI due to safety concerns 8-) .........

 

Makes you wonder if the tax payer will still be paying for these initiatives long after they've become unusable? *-) .......