living off your savings in retirement

DD yes I see what you mean - when, if ever, UC happens properly this type of benefit fraud would be much more difficult - it's hard to get pensions cash in hand. Re the assumed income on savings, the £1 per £500 is for pensioners which gilly's dad clearly is.

I think Aldi provides the best value (to answer the grocery bit).

Aha! Thanks for clarifying. For us of working age (haha), I'm pretty sure, it's £250. I had a benefits check a few months ago and I'm expected to live on £73pw after rent.

I was told that I'll never be eligible for tax credits as a working person, because my pensions are more than £73. I won't ever be eligible for Pension Credit either, because my private pensions and state pension will be more than £159pw (or whatever it is now).

Unfortunately, it's beyond me to budget, so that I can live on £73pw (which is less than my council tax and utility bills), so I shall probably be still working as I fall into my coffin.

There is just so much misinformation out there fed by the majority of the MSM about the generosity of benefits, the people who wilfully and deliberately don't save and the huge numbers on the fiddle, it's awful and must be very irritating/ upsetting to people like you. I think this stops some people claiming who should because of all these negative stereotyping.

Rigby , thankyou for your excellent posts ! You are so right about misinformation about benefit fraud etc and people who `get everything` . The benefits system is now so punitive , you have to jump through hoops to even get the tiniest bit of help .

Thanks from me too. Quick calculation confirms that I'm entitled to nothing more. Quite happy with that and don't mind paying tax on my small teaching pension and tiny annuity.
My council tax (with 25% discount) has gone up by £3 pm.
If the Scottish government does decide to add 1p to income tax I can handle it!