Stop blaming Pensioners

I believe I saw the stats at the time of Brexit and if the under 25s had all turned out to vote no it would not have happened! Bit of a selfish generation, they seem to have to have everything new, whereas I was grateful for mother in law's handouts! We did get free Uni but then only about 5% of us qualified! Plus the fact that so many pensioners now work themselves into the ground with grandchildren while loaning/giving their children money for their homes (and if posts on here are anything to go by, often with scant thanks!). It's always easy to moan about what you do not have, and blame someone!

NotSpaghetti

Dickens - I repeat, have never seen it or heard "OK boomer" used.

Maybe I've never heard it because I've never been dismissive of other "generations"?

Having a succession of other generations in my own family - neither have I.

Do you think then that I've only heard the comment because I've been critical of younger people?

The comment, "OK Boomer" used to quite frequently be used in discussions that had absolutely nothing to do with 'generational warfare'.

The last time anyone used that phrase to me was in a discussion about tarmac and concrete! It seems, as a woman and an old one at that... I had no idea what I was talking about. When I pointed out that tarmac is not consistently the same and comes in different grades, the reply was "OK Boomer, but you're talking sh*t like most of your generation".

Dottynan

Totally agree. Well said.

Don't forget the 15% interest rate we paid on our mortgages in the 80's

cc

I've always understood that it can be more expensive to administer a means tested benefit than to pay it to everybody. If pensioners are better off the Fuel Payment will be taxed in any case, at their highest tax rate.

The winter fuel payment is a benefit and is not taxed. I pay tax as I have some small private pension income so I exceed the tax free allowance, but the extra payment of the winter fuel allowance last year was paid in full. I assume the same will be the case this year. I also do some casual work which is fully taxed, but benefits are not taxed.

I don’t think a lot of younger people realise how we struggled to bring up our children when there were no tax credits, top ups, free school meals for early years, free nursery places etc.
And a mortgage interest rate of 17%!!

We had to pay for everything. If you couldn’t pay you didn’t go. I remember being first in queue at PO on family allowance day.

I hear young Mums talking about all the things they do like spa days, afternoon teas, girly meals out and I could never have afforded those. These are not Mums in high paid jobs either, just the hairdresser, beautician etc.

M0nica

My free education meant I got a higher salary, but that also meant I paid more tax. Because that higher salary meant I could invest more in my pension I have a larger pension - on which I pay tax.

If you add up all the extra taxation I have paid and will pay over my lifetime because of my higher salary and pension. It repays the cost of my free education many, many times.

The state has been the winner - and my extra tax is no doubt part of the pot that pays Penion Credit and all the other benefits older people on small incomes get.

You didn't pay tax on pension contributions.

I NEED the heating allowance and will be very angry if it is phased out. I know The House Of Lords said most pensioners don't need it but that is a comment made by people with no insight. I know they are trying to phase it it along with free bus passes. Why did we work from being 15. It's not a favour. It's something we have paid into and will protest if it is removed.

People just want secure housing and I can understand that. I don't think it's necessary to blame different generations as there have always been people in hardship or people's whose circumstances change (divorce, illness etc)

I've not read the thread on mumsnet.

I think the younger generation gets a lot of handouts that they don’t realise we didn’t get. If i didn’t work i didn’t get any top ups or help with childcare costs it all came out of my wages I left school on the Friday and started working on the Monday. Only took time out for my sons and even then I became a childminder while my husband went out to work. But the ones moaning now in a few years they will be on here moaning about the younger generation calling them on what they got too. Old age comes to us all they just don’t see it yet.

Maybe if we had a better rented sector the "housing ladder" would seem less important.

I hate to hear inter-generational squabbling. Comparisons are usually meaningless. I'm from the "silent generation" born during the war before the emergence of the baby boomers. I had to resign from my job when I was pregnant and missed out on state pension because at that time married women could pay a reduced "married women's "stamp (national insurance). It was a shock to get to retirement age and discover that my state pension was diddly squat because of these reduced payments. Thanks to my husband's occupational and state pension we do not strictly speaking need the heating allowance and I think there is a case to be made for having these payments as taxable benefits. But I resent Mumsnetters weighing in against better-off pensioners. Bringing up a family in the 1960s/70s was very hard financially. Many women were full-time housewives and mothers with little opportunity to work. Every generation has its challenges and I do concede that today's young people are disadvantaged in their ability to get on to the property ladder (awful phrase). My generation scrimped and saved to buy a house but we always knew that we could do it. Sadly that is no longer the case for so many young people today.

M0nica

My free education meant I got a higher salary, but that also meant I paid more tax. Because that higher salary meant I could invest more in my pension I have a larger pension - on which I pay tax.

If you add up all the extra taxation I have paid and will pay over my lifetime because of my higher salary and pension. It repays the cost of my free education many, many times.

The state has been the winner - and my extra tax is no doubt part of the pot that pays Penion Credit and all the other benefits older people on small incomes get.

Of course. Thus what is all the complaining about?

Earn more pay higher taxes, save more, better pensions - so?

People love to complain, winter fuel payment is timely.

I really think the government is hoping the different generations will keep falling out as it stops us noticing so much of what they’re doing, I have children and grandchildren and think it is quite tough for them but they all seem very respectful towards older people

My free education meant I got a higher salary, but that also meant I paid more tax. Because that higher salary meant I could invest more in my pension I have a larger pension - on which I pay tax.

If you add up all the extra taxation I have paid and will pay over my lifetime because of my higher salary and pension. It repays the cost of my free education many, many times.

The state has been the winner - and my extra tax is no doubt part of the pot that pays Penion Credit and all the other benefits older people on small incomes get.

Chardy

Unfortunately it seems to be a political tactic, endorsed by the right-wing media, to drive wedges between the older generation and the younger, the able-bodied and the disabled, those in work and those not in work, those born in UK and those born abroad etc.

Agree - it suits their narrative to divide ... the next thing is new 'Work Coaches' for the disabled who will focus on what we can do - who would employ/insure someone who has been off work for 13 years and has a vague window of opportunity in an afternoon for a few hours where I am not heavily medicated, but can't be reliable? Sanctions for not working/being unable to spend 35 hrs a week looking for and finding work, coming to a Job Centre near you soon ....

I got my winter fuel payment today and I only got £500. Like others I have worked a lot of my life but I was married to a Royal Marine for about 15 years. My first child was born in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Maternity Home in Southsea, Portsea Island. I had to PAY according to my husbands rank and could not argue about it, must obey orders got pain killers also according to his rank.

I was forced to moved 28 times and started to wake up wondering where I am and then divorced and later got a council house which I bought so I could not be moved again. I bought it for a song but paid 17 and half per cent so it took most of my wages. Had to have a lodger to pay the bills. OK it is now worth over half a million and all paid for even though I helped both children buy their first homes.

I do find this country so selfish and full of opera singers (me! me! me!). ALL the money from this house will go to charities and most of it to the hospitals that do cataract operations in high mountainous areas.

I am glad I was born when I was born because it was soon enough to know my grandmother who started work when she was 10 and told me all about the first time she turned on an electric light and rode in a car. Also look at the music we had especially in the 1960.. I am off to break into song..."those were the days my friend..."

Who decides what someone else ‘needs’? Why can’t people have more than the basics (whether parents or pensioners)?

A pension is not charity if you have paid NI for 35 years, and children are the future for all of us. Maybe CB could be repurposed as better maternity pay (or pay to allow mothers to stay with their babies for longer), or for working parents (who are paying for it) to help with childcare. That way it would go to help working families who struggle with childcare, and mean that parents (usually mothers) don’t have to lose out on career progression because they can’t afford to go to work.

If anyone in receipt of the State Pension feels that they don’t ‘need’ any money they are receiving they can donate it to charity- it’s very easy to do. But people on the sidelines never know other people’s circumstances and IMO have no right to say who needs what. If you pay in, you should get out - it’s not difficult.

eddiecat78

Just wondering if Mumsnet ever mention the pensioners who give their children and grandchildren substantial amounts of money to help with house purchases?

Do you actually think, when adjusted for inflation, there is any generational change to inheritance received by boomers and millennials?

If you have enough money coming in that you don't need the heating allowance (or Child Benefit, come to that) you will be paying it back in tax, Bugbabe2019.

Cambsnan

I think they have a point. Many of my friends benefitted from free university education leading to a good job and a good pension. Others benefitted from the right to buy and are rent / mortgage free.
If pensioners need the money they should absolutely get help but many pocket the money and don’t need it. Target those in need.

Absolutely!

I read the thread that you are referring to. The OP was referring to those who have no need of the winter fuel allowance due to being wealthy! And I agree. As I agreed with the changes in Child Benefit

Completely agree

I was born on 1941, the youngest of 3 girls. My first wage ( take home pay,) was £3 and nine pence per week. I worked from 9 am until 5.30pm six days a week for that. I started nurse training when I was 17, 1/2 and worked as a not very well paid nurse until I was 68. Yes I will be taking my £600 from the government when it comes.

Absolutely free childcare is a very important factor. My grandparents would never have done a whole day of childcare for one child and certainly not two. It is very rewarding but also hard work.

And I'm fed up with posters on MN referring to 'boomers' in such an unpleasant way.

eddiecat78

Just wondering if Mumsnet ever mention the pensioners who give their children and grandchildren substantial amounts of money to help with house purchases?

I know! The people I personally hear moan the most are those with large inheritances based on the massive profits their parents ‘made’ by simply living where they did. There is a lot of cognitive dissonance about this, as there always is where money is concerned.

I don’t think means-testing is fair - it keeps people ‘in their place’, and as 4awk says, it often results in situations where those who have tried to provide for themselves end up with less than those who haven’t.

I think that those who have more should pay more tax, but I don’t think that anyone should get a ‘free ride’, which can be the result of mainly taxing income, so that those who work pay for those who don’t. A universal tax would be much fairer, with discounts and exemptions for those who are unable to pay. Some of that should go into a separate and ring-fenced pension scheme so that there is no need for means-testing or top ups - we all pay in and all take out. Any provision we make above that should be considered our own, and not means tested, as should savings from earned income. Maybe inheritance and other unearned income should have to go into a separate account and be taxed each year, to encourage people to spend it and put it back into the economy.