AIBU to be concerned that my State Pension is referred to as a 'Benefit'?

Greciangirl

Maddyone.

Pension credit has not disappeared along with the new state pension.
I’m still getting it.
Where did you get that information?

You are quite right. Guarantee credit is available to all. Savings credit is different and broadly applies to people who reached state pension age before 6 April 2016 but there are special circumstances for couples. All explained here:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/pension-credit/

54schnoodlelove

The State pension is currently paid at the same rate whether you have paid all your contributions..or not.
You're wrong there it everyone gets the same rate

I have another seven years to wait for my (state) pension/benefit.
I was the one who cared for my darling children, juggling temping with school holidays. My ex husband took the child benefit, the business we grew together and his military pension. I didn't fight for a share, he was an abuser and I wanted out asap.
I'm currently caring for my DH who has cancer. I don't have carer's allowance as we have savings.
Thankfully my second husband does have a pension, but will that even be advantageous to me?
We've worked hard to own a house outright together. That's one blessing to fund our care in old age, if we are privileged to reach old age.
Quite honestly I am beginning to feel more anxious with each passing year. I dread to think how my DDs feel about their finances as pensioners.

Germanshepherdsmum

We don’t pay for our pensions with our NI contributions. Our children are paying for them. Has anyone here paid as much NI per week as they now receive in SP? No. And remember that NI was supposed to cover healthcare too.

The reason that carer’s allowance is no longer paid once you receive the SP is because it is supposed to compensate you for not being able to work (or work full time) due to caring responsibilities.

I was just going to say the same thing! We paid NI to fund the pensions of those who were receiving it at the time, as well as all the other things funded by insurance contributions, so it’s not really accurate to say we’ve ‘paid into’ our own pensions. I believe there were extra payments we could pay to increase our pensions ( SERPS), as I know I get ‘extra pension’, and also half of the Bodach’s extra pension since he died.

The state pension has always been a benefit. It's very unfair, the 'new' state pension paid since 2016 is higher than the old one and you don't need so many qualifying years. Unfortunately I had the years but not the pension - I get the old one.

I should add that Iwas 68 when I retired.

This has been discussed at length on other threads. There is no provision under the new state pension rules to build an additional state pension.

Under the old rules you could build as much as £204.85 per week additional pension on top of the £156.20 basic pension. £361.05 versus £203.85.

Plus, some WASPIs has to wait another six years to receive the new state pension - a loss which, at the new state pension rate, will take around fifteen years from age 66 to recoup.

If you were contracted out of SERPS/SP2 so didn’t build an additional state pension you should have a Guaranteed Minimum (occupational) Pension to compensate.

homefarm

The state pension has always been a benefit. It's very unfair, the 'new' state pension paid since 2016 is higher than the old one and you don't need so many qualifying years. Unfortunately I had the years but not the pension - I get the old one.

If you are on the old pension, I imagine that you would be able to claim Pension Credit if you have no other income and savings below a certain threshold. Because of the additional benefits that brings, that would probably make you better off than someone in a similar position but retiring now on the new state pension.

Yes it's a benefit, so was the old child allowance which many of us will have claimed. I can't really understand why people are getting upset with this. The whole point with benefits is that the recipients are entitled to them under the law.

Every time this topic comes up someone points out (often sneering) that we haven’t paid into a pot, as though we don’t all know that. It doesn’t matter.

Most of us paid NI as asked, and did it in the expectation of getting a pension in our turn. If we were misled about that it is not our fault. If we knew all along that we were paying for the people before us, it doesn’t matter either. Again, we did it in the expectation of getting a pension in our turn.

That there is not enough money (if we prefer to see economics in that way) then again, it is not our fault. Governments are supposed to manage things like that in return for the cooperation of the population, (in this case in the form of contributions). If they mess up, they are supposed to make it better. They were the ones with the demographic figures and the expenditure forecasts, not us. We did our bit.

Don’t fall for the excuses. Those of us who played the game by the rules are entitled to get what we were promised - whether that promise was signed in blood or a tacit understanding.

If they want to call it a benefit then they shouldn't be taxing it.

NannyWren

I have another seven years to wait for my (state) pension/benefit.
I was the one who cared for my darling children, juggling temping with school holidays. My ex husband took the child benefit, the business we grew together and his military pension. I didn't fight for a share, he was an abuser and I wanted out asap.
I'm currently caring for my DH who has cancer. I don't have carer's allowance as we have savings.
Thankfully my second husband does have a pension, but will that even be advantageous to me?
We've worked hard to own a house outright together. That's one blessing to fund our care in old age, if we are privileged to reach old age.
Quite honestly I am beginning to feel more anxious with each passing year. I dread to think how my DDs feel about their finances as pensioners.

@NannyWren , I think carers allowence can be claimed regardless of your savings . Look into this as you should be able to claim .

MaggsMcG some benefits are taxable.

Jess - Surely the State Pension isn't a benefit but an Entitlement?
Yes, I agree in principle- but surely all "benefits" are actually entitlements?

Most of us paid NI as asked, and did it in the expectation of getting a pension in our turn. If we were misled about that it is not our fault

I dont always agree with what Doodledog posts but in this I do 100%. No one told me as a young woman that I was contributing to an unfair ponzi game which is one of the most corrupt and misleading of all systems.

Governments in other countries used a different model. It was up to successive governments in this country to anticipate that there would be a demographic problem after the so called "boomer" generation aged but they sat on their lazy asses and did nothing to reform or alleviate the system.

homefarm

The state pension has always been a benefit. It's very unfair, the 'new' state pension paid since 2016 is higher than the old one and you don't need so many qualifying years. Unfortunately I had the years but not the pension - I get the old one.

@homefarm Sorry that is incorrect they are different schemes with different rules, therefore it is not true that every one who reached pension age before the new rules only get the basic many get far more than that due to paying into whatever earnings related second state pensions were active during their working life, graduated retirement benefit, SERPS S2P could always increase the amount you got from the state SERPS alone (using 2024/2025 rates) could give you an extra £218.39 a week over the 2024/2025 basic pension rate of £169.50 alternatively you could contract out of SERPS and get a works/company pension to increase your pension income.

It is also not true that everyone who reaches state pension age after 6th April 2016 automatically get the new higher rate in fact the governments own figures show that less than 1/2 do.

My late husband was in the Army when he died and I received half his pension. Imagine my surprise when an 'official' called it a benefit. He was surprised by my reaction. What a a hole!!!!

Perhaps it would help you all to understand if I explain something. There are contribution based benefits, such as the pension, and the old contribution based sickness or unemployment benefits; then there are income based benefits, like the old income support. JSA, JobSeekers Allowance had an element of both but the income based was only payable if contribution element wasn't paid, due to not enough NI paid in the last two years.
The government have gradually changed everything to Universal Credit, effectively removing the contribution based altogether.

It is still possible, if you have made NI contributions for the relevant period of time, to claim New Style JSA or New Style ESA. Any top ups are made through Universal Credit. It can include a Housing element, paid instead of Housing Benefit.

Interesting that the state pension is referred to as a benefit, but the pension credit is not.
The way that it is likely to go is that with the semi-mandatory personal workplace pension, the state pension will become a benefit similar to what is now the pension credit, only going to those whose income is below the benefit threshold.
This will mean that there will be no standard pension for all.
NI used to stop at 60, but now you carry on paying to state pension age.

I worked for the DHSS when I left school back in the 70's. Benefits were either contibutory benefits e.g. state pension, unemployment benefit etc or non contibutory benefits such as supplementary benefit (equivalent of universal credits etc) so it has been a benefit for over 50 years

It’s much easier to stop a benefit than an entitlement.

I just had a letter telling me about the increased weekly payment, so quite frankly they could call it a kick up the bum for all I care!

The State Pension is a Ponzi scheme on the point of collapse. Folks my age (the dreaded millenials) are paying our NI right now with absolutely no expectation or even significant likelihood that we will be able to claim it when we are elderly.

In a Ponzi scheme, someone always gets left holding the bag, but we current bagholders do not have the option of opting out of paying it. Because it is needed to support those people who are claiming a pension now.

It would be more unfair to allow us to walk away. At least we are aware that we cannot expect to draw any state pension.

And that’s what I object to muffin. We who are on the state pension should be concerned about the semantics of it, because your generation are paying for us, as we paid for our parents generation’s pensions, and I think your generation is likely to unfairly lose the right to claim a state pension unless you are impoverished, meaning means tested. That’s why they want to get rid of NI so that the link between paying for a benefit and the benefit is broken. However we will all just pay more in taxes.