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State Pension rise.

(93 Posts)
watermeadow Thu 11-Mar-21 07:24:52

My State Pension is going up £4 a week fro April. The Tory government is always generous to old people in the expectation that we will vote for them, a misplaced belief in my case.
They have offered nurses a rise of £3 PER MONTH. They say they can’t afford more, having wasted billions on strategies which haven’t worked and dodgy contracts given to their buddies during the pandemic.
I an disgusted.

Chardy Thu 11-Mar-21 14:53:02

PippaZRetiring at 62, I lost 2.5yrs of state pension (£16k) and paid 2.5yrs of extra NI, but am on the old pension which is £50 a week less. I retired Jan 2015. The new pension came in April 2016, so there are plenty like me.
If this started in 2010, there will be over 5 years of women who lost money but still don't get the new State Pension

Gwyneth Thu 11-Mar-21 14:59:25

Are National Insurance contributions or their equivalent higher in other countries than in the UK?

EllanVannin Thu 11-Mar-21 15:09:35

My NHS pension increases every year so why not allow the nurses an increase too ?

Cherrytree59 Thu 11-Mar-21 15:27:51

My state pension rise is a big fat 0%

As a waspi I have lost £48,000+

PippaZ Thu 11-Mar-21 16:10:37

Blossominggrin It's not really in exchange for all you have done for them -more like the batton being handed on as we paid our parents pensions.

Oops I have read on to the angry bit. Your choice, I was only telling it how it is.

Ngaio1 Thu 11-Mar-21 16:13:52

If we cut the foreign aid budget we could give a substantial rise to nurses and help British OAP's.

PippaZ Thu 11-Mar-21 16:16:11

Chardy

*PippaZ*Retiring at 62, I lost 2.5yrs of state pension (£16k) and paid 2.5yrs of extra NI, but am on the old pension which is £50 a week less. I retired Jan 2015. The new pension came in April 2016, so there are plenty like me.
If this started in 2010, there will be over 5 years of women who lost money but still don't get the new State Pension

It simply isn't like that. The conditions of your pension changed. We just don't get back what we put in. We may get more, we may get less but that is true of all pensions.

A bit rotten for you to have to retire later and then not get the new pension but you may, I'm sure we all hope you do, live to far exceed this mythical amount you feel is due to you.

jaylucy Thu 11-Mar-21 16:16:34

I just feel a bit sorry for the pensioners that have decided to move overseas for their retirement and have their pension frozen to the same rate it was when they left the country.

PippaZ Thu 11-Mar-21 16:19:53

So do I. I really think we have a pretty poor state pension system but that doesn't stop it being what it is at the moment.

First step is to understand, second is to fight for change.

Urmstongran Thu 11-Mar-21 16:21:17

They still get the increases in Europe.
Not Australia I know, there are probably loads of others too.

Elusivebutterfly Thu 11-Mar-21 16:25:05

Chardy - I am in the same position. There are a lot of us but we are another chunk of people forgotten about.

Chardy Fri 12-Mar-21 09:50:31

Elusivebutterfly I knew nothing about the 2 tier pension. I would have like to have been told that if I worked another year my pension would be £2.5k more. But then I never had a letter about changes to SPA either, I just heard rumours in 90s and had no clue about Osborne's stitch-up.
As a single mum and unofficial carer, all these bits would make a difference to me now.
Having said that, there are women whose lives have been destroyed by these changes, health, loss of home - nightmare

M0nica Fri 12-Mar-21 10:00:43

I think the nurses have been offered £3 a week, not a month. If a 1% rise was equated with £3, there current monthly salary would be £300, annual salary £3,600.

Nurse's pay may be low, but not that low.

janeainsworth Fri 12-Mar-21 10:53:07

Monica According to this nurses’ website, the average nurse earns between £33K and £35K per annum.
So an additional 1% would be an extra £330 per annum.
That’s £6.34 per week.

The article also explains that NHS nurses’ pay is increased incrementally each year within their band, in addition to a percentage increase awarded by the Review Body.
www.nurses.co.uk/nursing/blog/a-quick-overview-of-nurses--salaries-in-the-uk-in-2021/#banding

The starting salary for a nurse in the NHS is £24900, according to the same website.

Blossoming Fri 12-Mar-21 11:09:39

pippaZ I’m not angry, just telling it how it is.

annsixty Fri 12-Mar-21 11:20:47

Their are millions of families who would be delighted to be earning between £33 and £35k.
These figures mean some are earning very good salaries if that is the average.
Not disparaging nurses, just pointing out that fact.
As I said on another thread, some deserve it and some don’t.
Again, just pointing out a fact, as anyone using the NHS knows.

Lovetopaint037 Fri 12-Mar-21 11:37:45

If you pay tax on a private pension you will taxed on the pension rise. So don’t get too excited!

suziewoozie Fri 12-Mar-21 12:56:41

annsixty

Their are millions of families who would be delighted to be earning between £33 and £35k.
These figures mean some are earning very good salaries if that is the average.
Not disparaging nurses, just pointing out that fact.
As I said on another thread, some deserve it and some don’t.
Again, just pointing out a fact, as anyone using the NHS knows.

It also means there are many earning less. I think giving the mean salary is nonsense - I’d give the median and also the quartile ranges. And anyway, nurses are only one group of all this offered the pay rise and many of the are not much above minimum wage

annsixty Fri 12-Mar-21 13:52:27

But all the press is about nurses pay, the other staff are not mentioned.
All nurses are angels, discuss.

annsixty Fri 12-Mar-21 13:53:30

Starting salary £24,900, so not a pittance.

suziewoozie Fri 12-Mar-21 13:58:42

annsixty

Starting salary £24,900, so not a pittance.

What are you comparing this with? It doesn’t really mean anything with no context

suziewoozie Fri 12-Mar-21 13:59:34

annsixty

But all the press is about nurses pay, the other staff are not mentioned.
All nurses are angels, discuss.

Well of course nurses get the headlines but as so often the headlines are misleading rubbish

Granny23 Fri 12-Mar-21 14:03:29

"A classic example of the UK Government’s priorities is the state pension, which is the worst in the developed world in terms of its value verses average wages. It ranks bottom in a list of countries compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), paying out just 29% of the average wage.

READ MORE: Open Minds on Independence #7: Believe in Scotland’s Manifesto for Wellbeing

Top of the pension table in the data is the Netherlands (100.6%), followed by Portugal (94%) and Italy (93.2%). The second worst is Mexico (29.6%) but it is quite a jump to the third worst, Poland, which pays 38.6% of the average wage. The average pension of all the countries on the list is 62.9%.

Thus the drop in earnings from employed to retired in the UK is the largest in the developed world. That isn’t because the UK can’t afford pensions or that the UK economy isn’t strong enough to survive if we decided to end pensioner poverty. It is a political decision and the UK Government simply has a policy of not paying a good pension.

The reason they have adopted that policy is that it significantly boosts the financial sector as it encourages those who can afford it to buy private pensions to increase their retirement income. That diverts money away from the real economy (local to you) into the City of London-based financial economy.

It also condemns those who simply can’t afford a private pension – those who have experienced unemployment, poor mental or physical health or who could only find low-waged work – to live in poverty in old age, to years of worrying about heating their houses in the winter and even in some case to early death."

Not my words but I fully concur with them. It amazes me that so many people accept this situation, when the difference between our State Pension and the pensions paid in other Countries (many of whom are not nearly as rich or have as many resources as the UK) is incredibly vast.

PippaZ Fri 12-Mar-21 14:17:22

Good post Granny23.

I really get the feeling that many people are brainwashed by the idea that this or that can't be done but it simply isn't true. We choose. Those who voted for this government chose the economic choices put in place by it. Equally, if you vote for a different party you will be chosing a different a different type of benefit system. Those who vote have to be prepared to own what they have voted for and also understand that no type of economic system is the only one that works you are not voting for that you are voting for what it works for.

janeainsworth Fri 12-Mar-21 14:26:40

Suzie some more detail about nurses’ pay from the nurses.co.uk website
“ What salary do you earn with each NHS banding?
NHS pay is operated in a banding system that was introduced in 2004.This system allocates specific roles and levels of seniority to specific bands, and therefore, salaries.As already mentioned, newly qualified Nurses enter the workforce at Band 5.The salary ranges at each banding beyond this level are:• Band 6: £31,365 to £37,890• Band 7: £38,890 to £44,503• Band 8: £45,753 to £87,754• Band 9: £91,004 to £104,927”

The nurses’ starting salary of £24.9K is comparable to junior doctors’ starting salary of £28K, and a teacher’s starting salary of £25.7K outside London.

Those differentials seem pretty fair to me.