Stop blaming Pensioners

I would ditch the triple lock. I think our pension rises should be tied to what average wage rises are. I do not feel comfortable when we get fully compensated for inflation when other younger people do not.

At the moment average wage increases are substantial, but that has not always been the case.

nanna8 i think that is outrageous, your government forcing you to contribute to a state pension and then refusing to give you any of it back. To my mind that is state theft.

I don't see boomer as a derogatory term. We were part of the baby boom post war. I am proud to be one.

I think it only fair that any available money is used for the good of all. We could manage without the winter fuel payment ( and free prescriptions, bus travel) and there are people who could really use the extra.

We all contribute here, too. Our money doesn't come back to us ,though .unless we are pretty poor.

Well, I for one feel no guilt.

The British pension is a contributory pension nanna8, based on contributions made during a working life.

Our pension is means tested and we don’t get a brass razoo from the government even though we are certainly not rich. I am surprised that the British pension isn’t means tested.

When you compare pensions in the UK I don't feel at all guilty accepting the fuel payment. I get by because my mortgage is paid off. I have no idea how people manage if they have rent or a mortgage to pay.

Yes, Norah, but it’s a derogatory term intended to imply we’ve had everything our own way and expect to carry on doing so.

Monica, in my experience young people love their grandparents and are caring towards them, unlikely to express the inter-generational envy we hear about these days.

M0nica

Delila No they probably do not. These accusations are directed mainly against older pensioners 75+ - and th epeople making the accusations are young enough to be our grandchildren.

No, I think the MN crowd is 30-50 years old, not babies to teens. 'Boomers' is just like 'olds' - people born between certain years.

NotSpaghetti

I don't find it upsetting shillyshally.
You can't really argue that better-off pensioners should get the extra cash!

Better to argue that it should be taxed back in my opinion.

I quite agree, notspaghetti.

Delila No they probably do not. These accusations are directed mainly against older pensioners 75+ - and th epeople making the accusations are young enough to be our grandchildren.

I hate to hear the insulting use of the the word “Boomers”. Do none of these critics have ageing parents?

Thank you Aldom and Georgesgran for clarification.

It’s a misunderstanding by the young that pensioner not needing the pension credit are well off those on new style pension are a couple of pound over the criteria for pension credit and are worse off. Some like myself who have a very small private pension since the last increase now pay tax due to the freeze on increasing the tax allowance

Urms it’s £500 or £600 this year (per household) depending on date of birth. I’m 72 and will get £500.

Not just male pensioners Jane43 I worked and paid NI for 51 years ALMOST 52 .with the age change to 67 I had 4 years more that weren't counted .We counted what I'd paid and lost and together it was @£52 OOO .I never took maternity leave or stayed at home with children ,I took mine to work with me,my daughter was just 8 days old when she was in her pram beside my desk .MY choice,we were self employed and if we didn't work we didn't eat .I have a friend who didn't pay NI ever but insists she WILL get a full State pension .I'm not sure that she will as they have private pensions but she wont believe me

Urmstongran

I thought the Winter Fuel Allowance had dropped back down again to £100 per person in a 2 person household? I believe the enhanced payment will be paid out automatically to those on pension credits etc.

Of course I stand to be corrected if I’m wrong!

I live alone. My winter fuel payment this year is £600 because I was born on or before 24th September 1943.
The £600 also includes extra money from the government to help with the cost of living. This extra money is known as the Pensioner Cost of living Payment. I am not in receipt of any benefits.

I don't find it upsetting shillyshally.
You can't really argue that better-off pensioners should get the extra cash!

Better to argue that it should be taxed back in my opinion.

I wonder if those complaining on the mumsnet thread (which I haven't seen), have also berated their own grandparents face to face about how they should not be given this help.

I wonder how their grandparents responded???

My late SIL fell out with one of her daughter’s (about 40) for a few weeks as she kept saying our generation had it easy!!

She pointed out to her that we worked right up until our babies were born. We had to pay for nursery places. No free school meals for early years like today. No breakfast or after school clubs.
I personally worked 4 days a week, came home and cooked a meal then went out again to work for Adult Education and got home at 10pm. School uniforms were far more expensive than now, no supermarkets with bargain school stuff.

There were no top ups or tax credits and we only got Child Benefit for first child.

We were never able to afford meals out, holidays abroad, designer clothes, girly spa days, expensive parties for kids, theme parks etc. I hear young Mums talking about all these now and I am amazed that young families can afford all this.

On top of all that we had mortgage interest rate of 17%!!

Mumsnet is not typical of society at large, though. If you believe everything on there, the average poster has a household income of £100k with one parent at home, wears designer clothes, sends their children to private school and went to a 'top' university where they got a first. Either it is a very specific demographic or there are a lot of fantasists .

I find some of those threads hurtful, but I don't think they are representative of the feelings of young people as a whole. Also, a lot of MNers are buying houses of their own - do they plan to give them away when the mortgage is paid off? I don't believe that anyone really thinks that people should be made to give up the house they have paid for to make room for a family - there would have to be some sort of communist revolution with housing allocated by the state for that to work, and today's young people would fall foul of that sooner than they expect.

I do think that this generation have a very hard time though, and that having been, on the whole, brought up to expect life to keep getting better, they see things differently than perhaps ours did. House prices are comparatively higher now than 40 years ago, and it is true that in some areas people have 'made' money simply by living in a house they bought relatively cheaply. I know it didn't feel like that at the time, but a lot of families did manage on one salary in the past, whereas nowadays it usually takes two to get by, and the cost of childcare is astronomical. Things must seem unfair to them.

Life chances differ even amongst parents of young children. My sister's children are 10 years older than mine and have similar level jobs, yet they were all able to buy houses much younger than mine have. Their rents were cheaper when they started out, so they could save more, and the houses they started in needed a smaller percentage of their salaries than would be the case to buy the same houses now. In another ten years things may be worse again. There really doesn't seem to be a lot of hope for young people today.

Of course it's not our fault though, and I'm sure that most young people don't think it is.

I fully agree shillyshally, like you I was born in 1949 and began full time work aged 15 - loved it ! Time off bringing up three children ,then back to work. We certainly didn't expect help to raise our family, our children,
our responsibility.

The best thing to do is to ignore those many Ill informed comments regarding the supposed wealth of all pensioners, living in hugely expensive homes, squirrelling away their inheritance from their parents etc, etc. (Not at all true for so many of us).
I’m not of an age to receive the winter fuel allowance (would have been once, before the goal posts for state retirement pension age were moved), but don’t begrudge those who do receive it.

Jane43 There is a similar sentiment on Reddit, younger people using words like ‘selfish’ and ‘greedy’ to describe pensioners, there is a stereotype that we all live in detached four bedroomed homes which we got dirt cheap and are worth millions so we all go on multiple cruises each year. There is no recognition that some male pensioners will have paid NI for 50 years.

Youngs complain about olds, will happen to youngs when they're old --

Ridiculousness.

I try not to have my heating on. However, the problem I’ve had with weevils means that I’m having to run dehumidifiers throughout the day because I think that the wet weather has exacerbated the problem. They’re not going to be cheap to run but I have no choice.