Pensioner poverty

Sorry. thise those
provider's providers

MamacCaz

They ARE the prices I PAY NOW.
I've just renegotiated thise terms with new provider's (except elec which is locked in at the quoted price for a further 4 years)

I think you might get a big shock if you had to pay today's prices for energy, GabriellaG54!

Even your water bill seems very low, though I know there can be a big difference between regions, depending on the supplier. I think our standing charge alone is not much lower than your total.

I do have a smart phone. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge which I bought outright new (£300) from someone who had broken his, got an insurance replacement from Samsung with 2 yr warranty and sold it to me as he wanted the S8 version.
Samsung changed the name on the warranty after I rang them.
My SIM is from SMARTY. Unlimited texts/calls plus unused data costs are credited to your account when it rolls over every month, which means I pay £5 pm as I don't use data on my phone - I use my home Wi-Fi.

When my mother was still with us (she died 5 years ago) she had few savings and was on Pension Credit. I can't recall figures but along with her pension her rent was almost all paid along with council tax and water rates. She also got a contribution towards the carers - (nothing fancy just 3 fifteen min calls a day). There were of course the free prescriptions, bus pass, TV licence etc. One day I sat down and worked out what her monthly ''salary'' would be had she got all her freebies as cash. It was not much short of what I received as a teacher each month.

Monthly DDs for gas/water/BB.
Elec is paid by BACS to landlord when he sends the bill after I give reading (and I send screenshot)
I live in 2 bed privately rented flat.

BGBusiness for electricity
iSupply for gas
Thames Water for...water.
I have gas central heating and gas hob (14-16 yr old combi boiler) and washing machine uses elec, gas and water plus a bath and shower but only use shower.

GabriellaG54 I'm gobsmacked at the small amount you pay in outgoings. Are the figures you quote weekly or monthly? If you only pay around £30 a month for gas/electricity, please let me know who your provider is, I'll change tomorrow.

I'm on the State Pension with Pension Credit, which gives me around £663 a month, and by the time I pay my monthly outgoings, I assure you I have very little disposable income left. I do not own a car, mobile phone, TV or go on holiday as I cannot afford to. I worked until I was 60yrs. So, take it from the horses mouth -
living on a state pension/pension credit certainly aint all it's cracked up to be.

Electric business rates are locked in for 3 or 5 years so no price rises.

paddyann
Those figures don't, of course, include my rent and council tax which are £850pm and about 1.5k ct. per annum which are paid for out of the rent I receive from what was my marital home.
I drive a hard bargain and have just changed gas, BB and SIM providers in the past week.
I can honestly say that in 2013 I was paying £14 pm for gas from nPower and, two changes of provider since, I am still paying the same £14 DD, now to iSupply.
My BB is cheaper than 5 years ago. It's £17pm but with £75 cashback through Topcashback, it works out at £10.75pm.

GabriellaG54
I don't know who supplies your energy, but you must have a fantastic deal or use hardly any gas or electricity- at latest prices, the standing charges alone charged by some companies can cost over 30% of what you are paying per month!

Written not writes..... oh I give up...it’s been a long day....

I’m sure you knew what I meant though. The company sitting in the middle is laughing compared with the one at the lowest end.

Yes I know that M0nica (I have just writes a report today based on this very thing based on NE manufacturing). My choice of words were crap as usual.

my goodnessGabriella you should be giving budget advice to folk if you can live well on £8k a year .My friend pays rent of£400 a month ,council tax and utility bills and there wont be much left after those are paid if anything .She certainly wont be living the high life on her meagre pension that she worked for for nearly 50 years .

My basic bills are £14 gas (domestic rate) £17-22 electric (business rate) £12 water, £10.70 BB+phone (including £75 cashback) all DD per month and £99 contents insurance paid yearly A total of £58.70 pm excl insurance.
That is 2.5× less than the weekly basic state pension.

*gillybob, the median is not the average. The average is all the salaries and wages added up and divided by the number of people in the sample.

The median is when you divide the number of people in the sample by 2 and the salary of that central person is the median. The value of the salaries does not enter into it, just what the person in the exact middle of the dsitribution earns.

Franbern
The figure for a single person claiming pension credit rises to £8,697 in April 2019, not the inflated figure you write about.
I've Googled the page and it rises from £163pw to £167.25pw. Times that by 52 weeks and you get £8,697.

This white elephant “median figure” does not take into account the massive differences between those who “have” plenty and those who have very little. Okay so it’s the average, which is great if you are sitting there in the middle and even better if you are lucky enough to be above average but what about those who are drowning way down in the depths ?

As a person who receives a state pension, my own private pension and a portion of my exes pension, I can honestly say that I could manage to live very well on just the state pension.
As it is, I save 90% of the rest and could save more.
It's a myth about the state pension being insufficient.

A silly ,minor point but the increase on reaching 80 is 25p a week , not 50p.
I now understand that widow's pension is abolished, so anyone not qualifying for a pension in their own right, i.e. getting £300 a month on their husband's contribution does not now qualify for a full pension on his death.
Does anyone know if this is correct?

Come to Australia where you don't get a pension if your assets are over a certain amount - $570,000. Even if youve been a taxpayer for decades
Downsize and immediately you have assets. No pension means no benefits like reduced rates, transport, electricity. Not fair.

I can see absolutely no reason why pensioners should not pay taxes, we consume services.

Getting rid of the bells and whistles would enable the closing down of all the departments dealing with them, concentrate what money there is on helping the poorest pensioners and better off among us can just be treated, tax wise and concession wise, the same way as those who have yet to reach pension age.

Well aware of income tax - I pay too!
By increasing the basic rate as you suggest there might be less of the mindset that says no pensioner should pay tax.

I already pay income tax and so does DH. Pensioners are on the same tax regime as everybody else.