Not my fault I was born in the early 50's .

Our village has almost doubled in size over the past few years but the proportion of truly affordable houses in tiny.

Whilst I believe we had it much easier, generational fighting over boomer jackpots is not a problem answered, rather that talk causes discontent.

I'm in a similar position to you Phoenix will be working until God knows when (almost 70 so far) stil have debts and a mortgage and no private pension. Can't see a time when DH and I will ever be able to retire and he's 10 years older than I am. I'm actively looking for a second job as DH can't keep this level of work up for much longer. Can't see much to look forward to on the horizon just work, work and more work.

I don't understand the "triple-lock bribery" comments - posters saying they didn't vote Tory because of the bribe. But wasn't it the Tories at the last election who said they couldn't promise to keep the triple-lock whereas Labour said they would keep it - yet the majority of older voters voted for the Tories thereby not accepting the Labour bribe?
Conversely we are told that younger people voted for Labour because they thought (mistakenly as it happens) that Corbyn was going to wipe out student debt. Thereby accepting his bribe.
Personally I think all this stoking up of intergenerational conflict is just media hype and very divisive.

I've seen some pretty unpleasant ageist comments on twitter. Someimes from quite respected well known figures such as Dr. Ben Goldacre.

I think that had we not had 'austerity' from 2010 (who voted the tories in?) and younger people were in a better position financially there would't be such a divide. The large numbers of older people voting for Brexit has just exacerbated the situation I'm afraid.

More fuel for conflict. The DT today has a report from the Office for National Statistics that the AVERAGE pensioner household'income at the end of 2016 had risen threefold since 1977 to £29,500 . There must be some very high pensions out there.
One of the components was £2,291 from investment and other income. Someone is getting much more interest than me on their savings at about .5/1%.

Pitting the generations against each other, middle class against the working class, splitting the poor into the deserving and underserving poor, indigenous population against immigrants, religion against religion, etc. all help the establishment to keep in power. If we stop fighting each other we may realise that we have a lot more in common with each other than with the establishment and turn on them instead.

Averages are never fair annsixty . I have a pensioner uncle in his 80's worth a small fortune and my dad around the same age struggling on a basic pension in his LA bungalow.

My DH and I both work full time (and some) and don't have an income of £29,500.

I am fortunate to have had my pension paid 6mths after my 60th birthdayas I was born Sept 50 and not for one minute due I think we are well off as to our income.
I can remember going to work when my DCs where small from 5.30am to start one of my 3 p/t cleaning jobs which I would fit in during the day between school/hubby's work finishing sometimes at 10.30pm all to pay our mortgage which was at a far greater percentage than to-day sometimes 15%.
We are fortunate to have good private pensions between us and our state pensions plus all the other discounts on meals/hairdressing/travel so we are very comfortable and don't have to worry,we have worked long and hard and deserve to have the income we have .

Well if that's the average annsixty there must be some very high incomes! And as for earning over £2000 from investments, well.....But, as others ( including me) have said, this is all divisive and we must not allow it to deflect us from what is being done to public services.

Well said VQ - "divide & rule"

And another "divide" is public sector = good, private sector = bad.
But without the private sector and the taxes paid by companies and their workers (often very low paid) there wouldn't be any money for public services.

Good thread.

I'm 34 (not a Gran, but read this forum for advice!) and I don't know anyone of my generation who begrudges a penny to the older members of society. We've all got it hard in different ways.

I think the media - especially tripe such as from the Daily Fail - would love generations to turn on each other, as it makes for good copy. I think in reality, everyone is just trying to do their best with what they have.

I have a mortgage (saved everything in my 20s while renting a tiny flat), holiday in the UK, 2 children, and over £20,000 of student loans from training to be a teacher, and I count myself very lucky. I have that because of the choices I've made; not because anyone else has taken/given anything to me!

Good for you EdithCrawley you're a great example to your generation.

But without the private sector and the taxes paid by companies and their workers (often very low paid) there wouldn't be any money for public services.

I'm afraid this comment immediately feels divisive.

Private and Public feed off each other. Without the public sector a lot of private sector businesses would go bust, both suppliers of goods and services directly to the public sector and the businesses where public sector employees spend their wages. That's what a 'mixed economy' is all about.

I didn't have 29000 per annum when I was working and certainly don't have it now. What I do have is used to support family. I have a granddaughter with severe health problems who cannot work and a daughter who works in social care. No way can they ever afford to buy this laughably labelled affordable housing. My granddaughter was advised to live in her car or sofa surf. I'm tired, I've worked since I was 18, I don't begrudge helping my family but a little left over for luxuries would be nice.

Nurses were paid during training then. It was more like an old fashioned apprenticeship. Even with teachers added still a small percentage compared with those who left school, often at 15, to go directly into work.

Just because someone voted Conservative it doesn't mean they did it because of the triple lock. Most older people voting Conservative were probablywere probably lifelong Conservatives. I would not vote against my party allegiance, just because one of its policies would benefit me.

All children still get free education and the education my DGC are getting now is much better than the education DC got in the 1970s and 80s. But older people keep getting the free university charge thrown at them, when in fact very few benefited from it - and I was one who did.

My local authority area has been told it has to build 10,000 houses by 2013 - and there are the jobs to go with them. Unemployment is 2.6%. Unfortunately while there are many well paid jobs available there are also a lot of the jobs in warehousing and transport that generally pay around the minimum wage. Although 40% of houses have to be 'affordable, ie bought by housing associations, most are expensive family homes and many are bought by families working in surrounding areas because house prices there are higher than in my area.

My small ISA is paying 0.4% - I'd need a lot of savings to get over £2,000 pa income from savings and investments.
I did win £25 on the Premium Bonds this month, perhaps if I win £1million that will bump up the average income from savings.

The £29K is per HOUSEHOLD not person - that would give an average of less than £15k per person. The normal state pension is between 7 and 8k and many modest private or company pensions would make up another 7 or 8.

As many older people are living on their own that could mean that some households are getting quite a high income to get to that average.

It depends on the disposable income you have left when all necessary bills have been paid which is the crucial factor in the calculations.

Welshwife my DH I work full time and don't have that much between us ! Seriously it's another world.

We keep trying to win a million too Jalima but would settle for £500k or even £250k.... £50k ? ... £10k, £5k, £3....

I think they do 2 x £1 million then down to just £100,000 prizes now, no £500,000 or even £250,000.

I don't mind at all if you have the other £1 million next month gillybob.

Even £25 made me happy!

Every time someone starts a thread about not being divisive people agree we shouldn't be and then make divisive remarks such as:

"And another "divide" is public sector = good, private sector = bad."

There are almost always three ways of seeing things. There are people who do think:
Public sector = good, private sector = bad
but just as many believe:
Private sector = good, public sector = bad
The third view is:
We need both and both have good and bad points.

Some very blinkered views have been posted on this thread but the worst is the roll out of the usual "we worked all our lives" - so did/do the vast majority in every generation!

(I would really like to know who has nicked a large part of my 'average' )