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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

Well said VQ - "divide & rule"

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.

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 .

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.

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.

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%.

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.

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'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.

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

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

It is only bribery, if we voted for the Conservatives as a result of it. Since I didn't and have expressed my disapproval of it on GN and elsewhere. If it was bribery, the bribe was not accepted.

You might not have done, I certainly haven't and clearly neither have a number of other Gnet posters, but the statistics tell us that the greater part of our contemporaries are conservative voters. They certainly didn't turn down the bribes...

Just a point; don't you think that things like teacher training and nursing training would count as 'tertiary education'? That would bring the percentage up a bit.

But I wasn't just thinking of tertiary education, I was thinking of free education in general (after the 1948 Education Act) improving people's chances of getting better jobs.

Nobody is claiming that no houses are being built, Jalima, just that demand is outstripping supply. However many 'thousands' of houses you see being built wherever you go there still aren't enough. House price inflation is a consequence.

Every generation is different. We benefited from free tertiary education, but less than 5% of the school population went to university. Now nearly 40% do.

Buying a house would be much cheaper now, talking in terms of purchase price, if interest rates were 10% or more. We bought cheap but paid considerably more than younger people will, proportionately, if you take into account how much we ended up paying for our houses in high interest mortgage payments and many of us have used the equity in our houses to give our DC significant sums of money to get buy their first houses. help we didn't have.

Of course the older you are the more likely you are to be better off. Most of us start with little and gradually build up our assets so that they are at their maximum when they retire. Anyway, look at how so many people kick up about rich kids getting an easy run in life because they have money. The Beckham children, and the children of other wealthy people.

Getting Pension Credit does mean you are in poverty before you get it, but with it, it certainly isn't riches, but many people live comfortably but modestly on it. I used to work for a charity for older people as a benefit adviser and problem solver. Most of those on PC were in decent quality council housing and if you added onto their income with PC the housing benefit and council tax they also received, their effective income was comfortable.

I think our big advantage has been our pensions 1) PC, which did not exist for previous generations and may not be so generous under future governments 2) for those of us who receive them, occupational pensions, especially final salary schemes. But very few of us get a full OP. DH has about 25 years FSP, I only qualified for 11 years of FSP but for 10 years I paid the maximum amount of extra money I could to buy extra pension, and we are comfortably off as a result.

The triple lock has nothing to do with us. This was thrust upon us by the generation below us. It is only bribery, if we voted for the Conservatives as a result of it. Since I didn't and have expressed my disapproval of it on GN and elsewhere. If it was bribery, the bribe was not accepted.

I have also benefited from inheritance, as quite a lot of us have, but like many, much has already been handed on to DC and even more, DGC and we are doing all we can to make sure we leave a reasonable sum to our children, even after care fees. The proportion of us who will need care is not that large.

Most of my family have, so to speak died at an advance age with their boots still on or after brief illnesses. Hard on those who need the care, but the proportion of every age diagnosed with dementia is going down and fewer of us are crippled by disabling conditions like arthritis, now much less work is physically demanding and thanks to HSE that assures most safe and healthy working conditions - and that will continue.

Me too Oriel. If they'd told me when I was 58 that I'd have to work until I was 66, that would have given me the opportunity to set up a pension and contribute to it for 8 years. But by just moving the goal posts every 2 years, it was impossible to plan ahead.

Personally struggling to make ends meet, I'm amazed at the young people walking around with the latest iPhone - it must be costing them a fortune!! I can't help thinking, no wonder they're struggling..