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I am incandescent with excitement!!!!!

(72 Posts)
M0nica Fri 11-Aug-23 10:41:20

I hve just had a letter from the Pensions Agency to say that from next week, when I am 80, I will be getting an extra 25p pension a week.

What on earth am I to spend all this largesse on? Should I while away an afternoon looking round a supermarket deciding what to spend it on. Perhaps save it up for a year and treat DH amd I to fish and chips -

Although he will be getting his extra 25p a week in a months time. Then we really will be in clover. Las Vegas, perhaps npt, , Blackpool, no, I think we might just get some bus passes and go to a games alley in a nearby town and once every 4 weeks we could have one go each on a slot machine (I assume they run on £1 coins). You never we may get really lucky and win a fiver.

buffyfly9 Fri 11-Aug-23 17:26:54

It's a bloody disgrace and an insult. I've only got another year to go so when my letter arrives and if I'm still alive I will be telling the Pensions Agency where to stick it.

M0nica Fri 11-Aug-23 17:29:27

If I am still drawing it in 2075, not only will I be extremely old, I will probably being living off my media presence.

Callistemon21 Fri 11-Aug-23 17:30:33

You'll be a living miracle!!
😁

maddyone Fri 11-Aug-23 17:44:42

Is 1971 when it was introduced?

M0nica Fri 11-Aug-23 18:08:36

buffyfly9 I understand the temptation, I felt the same about a very tiny occupational pension I got, but at our age we are mature enough to restrain ourselves and just take it with a casual nod.

Remember, every little helps!

Bella23 Fri 11-Aug-23 18:17:51

That's a pound a month you lucky girl, live it up and buy something exotic, like a Lolly a week.smile

Redhead56 Fri 11-Aug-23 19:47:44

Have a Happy 80th next week don't spend your 25p rise all at once.

foxie48 Fri 11-Aug-23 19:50:40

I think I'll be very happy to have made it to 80 and will have been drawing a pension for 15 years. I think I'll have got my contributions back so I'll donate to charity with gift aid!

welbeck Fri 11-Aug-23 19:59:37

maddyone

Is 1971 when it was introduced?

no. it is the lloyd george pension of 1909 or 1911.

welbeck Fri 11-Aug-23 20:04:11

it was 1911. maybe the legislation was drafted in 1909.
anyway i believe it was introduced for over 70s.
that's why they can't get rid of it, for political reasons.
i guess the age rose to 80 when other support became available after 1948, but that's a guess.

welbeck Fri 11-Aug-23 20:07:11

here's another lucky recipient, looking about as impressed as you feel, MOnica. maybe.
www.peoplescollection.wales/items/8292#?xywh=-73%2C0%2C1024%2C583

Chardy Fri 11-Aug-23 20:14:39

Happy big birthday for next week, M0nica

welbeck Fri 11-Aug-23 20:14:55

UK Parliament
www.parliament.uk › taxation › overview › ne...
In his 1909 'People's Budget' Lloyd George requested that Parliament endorse proposals for raising £7 million to pay for old age pensions

M0nica Sat 12-Aug-23 07:39:23

Thank you, Chardy

Welbeck being part-Irish, we take these things more lightly, but I know how he feels.

Iam64 Sat 12-Aug-23 08:22:44

25p 😵‍💫😂. I wonder what the administrative cos it…..

Iam64 Sat 12-Aug-23 08:23:22

Administrative cost is?
Apologies for fat fingers

M0nica Sat 12-Aug-23 12:23:18

Probaly not much, now it is all done on computers working from huge datatsets.

Susie42 Sat 12-Aug-23 13:00:34

My tax code was changed so my income has not increased by 25p.p.w. I too think the £10 Christmas payment should be abolished or only paid to those on Pension Credit.

I have a very small occupational pension of less than £10 on which I pay tax but I am not able to consolidate it with my other three pensions.

I would like to see the personal allowance increased for pensioners only so the state pension would always be tax free.

M0nica Sat 12-Aug-23 21:14:46

The current standard state pension is £8,122 a year. The tax free allowance is £12, 570 a year. So it already exceeds the state pension, so what you would like to see Susie42, is already with us.

Aveline Sun 13-Aug-23 06:56:06

Blimey. Somehow pensioners make ends meet on £8000 yet people on massively greater salaries are striking for more. Well done us pensioners.

nanna8 Sun 13-Aug-23 07:10:44

Now don’t you lot all run off on a holiday to Queensland, as they say here! Your lot sound about as ‘generous’ as our lot. Mind you, they pay themselves extremely well. 🤪

M0nica Sun 13-Aug-23 08:13:31

Aveline if state pension is your only income you can apply for Pension credit that will increase your annual income to £10,400. Still less than the tax free allowance.

For those of us on the old pension system - and that will be most of us - where how much pension you receive is based on a host of payments and deductions, there will be a few on comfortable salaries when working who did not pay into an occupational pension and so paid lots of SERPS, who may receive a state pension, just in excess of the tax free allowance, but they are very few., but I think I know one.

Aveline Sun 13-Aug-23 13:55:29

M0nica yet somehow pensioners manage. Years of practise I suppose.

Grannycool52 Sun 13-Aug-23 14:42:04

Hi, I do think a rise of 25p per week at 80 and a £ 10 bonus at Christmas is shocking.
I am UK born but have lived in Ireland long enough to get a full Irish state pension.
I get 287.30 Euros per week, our Christmas bonus is a full week's pension, so again E287.30, and we get free bus, tram, rail and local ferry travel, free tv licence, heating allowance (I know you get this too) and other perks. We are told we are getting a rise in the next budget.
I am lucky to have other pensions too, as I am sure many of you do, but for those dependent on their social security pensions I think Ireland is more generous.

M0nica Sun 13-Aug-23 15:06:26

Aveline Many pensioners have occupational and personal pensions as well. The averageannual income of a single pensioner is £12, 792 and for married couples it is £26, 572.

But like any average that tells you absolutely nothing about the incomes of individual pensioners. There are about 11 million people over pension age in the country and about 3 million qualify for Pension Credit. So the majority of us have incomes that exceed the minimum to a greater or lesser extent.

That does not diminish the financial diffiuclties of those managing on the Pension Credit income alone.