Pensions ,Prescriptions & Racheal Reeve’s

NotSpaghetti

I never understood why prescriptions are free at 60.
Why?

I never understood

^As of August 2024, the prescription charge in England is £9.90 per item, but there are exemptions available. Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland no longer charge for prescriptions:
Wales: Abolished prescription charges in 2007
Northern Ireland: Abolished prescription charges in 2010
Scotland: Abolished prescription charges in 2011^

Casdon

I wonder how the pension credit is assimilated into pensioner income? My impression is that the people who are struggling the most aren’t those with the very lowest incomes, because they do get pension credit. It’s the people who get a little bit more than that, but who aren’t entitled to any help. That’s why raising the pension credit threshold and the personal allowance would make a big difference?

Yes, even those with an income above the threshold for any help at all but who may be paying rent may be struggling and frightened to turn on their heating.

I think it would make a difference although many do not claim pension credit now even though they are entitled to it.

Nana Tuesday. I totally agree with you, I have also asked why prescriptions aren’t in line with pensions, however she should also target ax you say the people where whole families don’t work and rely on benefits and yes before you target me I have many experiences of this including in my. Own family , Labour won’t target them as they are their core voters

growstuff

icanhandthemback

I'd like to see free prescriptions set at the retirement age BUT maybe more items that are free for those suffering extensive age related conditions. Also, I'd like to see more exceptions for congenital conditions. My adult children all suffer from a systemic syndrome where they suffer from a variety of things needing treatment from replacement saliva, eye drops. digestion meds, some vitamins and hefty pain killers as a minimum. My daughter can't work but receives income related incapacity benefit which means that she is low income but too high for free prescriptions. This means she goes without what she needs. She will need all the things all her life and not taking what she needs costs the country more.

Is incapacity benefit over the limit for an HC2 certificate?

Sorry, I should have said that it is ESA she claims. You can only get help if you are on income related ESA, not contributory.

The Conservatives used to favour pensioners because in later life, people tend to become more right-wing, also because pensioners are more likely to vote than other age groups.
Labour needs to appeal to the working-age population, some of whom have voiced resentment at the Conservatives' generosity to pensioners.

icanhandthemback But surely if her total income is below about £14,000 a year and she has minimal savings, she should be eligible for an HC2 certificate. Have you checked?

newnanny

@lizxiedrip, how can it be Conservatives to blame for cutting WFA from pensioners when Conservatives did pay it and Labour have immediately cut it whilst giving train drivers already earning £70k per annum a big pay rise? It's almost as if you don't want to face the actual facts.

Lizziedrip was discussing Angelnan's complex and painful situation as regards being able to be a carer and find reasonable work and keep afloat financially,

which is sadly a situation for many which has been a problem for a very long time and therefore LD suggested its was perhaps unreasonable to blame Labour for a quick fix.

Her situation didn't in anyway relate to WFA or for that matter rail pay rises.

If you have a few minutes, you can see if your daughter is eligible.

check-for-help-paying-nhs-costs.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/start

newnanny

@lizxiedrip, how can it be Conservatives to blame for cutting WFA from pensioners when Conservatives did pay it and Labour have immediately cut it whilst giving train drivers already earning £70k per annum a big pay rise? It's almost as if you don't want to face the actual facts.

Lizzieis not saying that the Conservatives are to blame for WFA, which is a drop in the ocean compared to the things they cut. She is responding to Angelnan's post about the rising retirement age and the resultant disconnect between that, the need for carers, the benefit system and the reluctance of employers to take on people of 60+. It's almost as if you didn't read the post.

Good posts Angelnan (although I agree with LizzieDrip about it not being possible for the new government to have sorted things out in the time they've had), and also Romola.

www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/free-nhs-prescriptions#:~:text=You%20are%20automatically%20entitled%20to,related%20Employment%20and%20Support%20Allowance

Thanks Wyllow and Doodledog

Yes, indeed newnanny, I was responding to Angelnan’s post which didn’t mention the WFA or train drivers’ pay rise.

Hence, I’m somewhat mystified by your comment newnanny.

Doodledog

Would cutting the tax free sum limit mean that fewer people would take out a lot of money and leave themselves without enough to live on, so end up claiming benefits? Or is it that pension contributions are tax free when made, so the idea is that you pay tax when it becomes income?

Sorry if that's nonsense, but I didn't need to think about that sort of thing as my occupational pension was a fixed amount based on salary, and I had no say over how much lump sum I took (Mr D's was the same). I don't really understand the motive behind possible cuts to the lump sum, and think it's important to understand that before deciding whether I think it's a good idea or not.

I assume this is the case and I see no problem with it being limited. My pensions are all public sector - NHS and LGPS - so I couldn't take anything until I retired and took the pension, but part of the overall amount could be taken as a tax free lump sum, so the only difference was that I couldn't dip into it early. Restricting the tax free amount seems fair enough as the contributions are tax deductible in the first place.

I agree with the WFA being means tested as many people received it who were very comfortably off. Unfortunately I think that making the cut-off those on pension credit will leave many people above that level seriously struggling, but to properly means test it would be costly administratively.

I still remember my in-laws refering to themselves as 'poor pensioners now' when FiL retired, despite them being far better off than we were at the time with two children and a big mortgage! MiL is still probably vastly better off than me as my pension income is much lower and I still have a small mortgage, so she definitely doesn't need the WFA. I'll survive with out it, just having to be even more careful than I already am, but some won't!

rafichagran

Wyllow3

😂 here we go, "rumour has it".....

"I've heard that"

"I read that"

They are discussing it on Jeremy Vine, Harriet Harmon is on the panel. She has stated that nothing at the moment has/will be done about it. The callers are very irate though.

www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/reeves-urged-scrap-free-prescriptions-60-65-year-olds/?fbclid=IwY2xjawF0yHdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHTmabwaob9_UBX2LzNDUb3cUhhTWqOUurJsOiu3Kg5O4kuorUCWGLcvypA_aem_xIdrgrE_1VbAOwhh6oohNQ

The Telegraph article doesn’t say that the prescription exemption is going to be scrapped. It’s speculation, which they excel at..

Romola

The Conservatives used to favour pensioners because in later life, people tend to become more right-wing, also because pensioners are more likely to vote than other age groups.
Labour needs to appeal to the working-age population, some of whom have voiced resentment at the Conservatives' generosity to pensioners.

So pensioners like my Mum, a lifelong Labour voter btw don’t matter?
Younger people have an entitled view of lots of things in life but should remember they'll be old themselves one day.

Is looking like NI will go up for employers , as KS refuses to rule it out.

jocork they could easily means test it ( WFA) and in any case the child allowance is means tested.

growstuff

icanhandthemback But surely if her total income is below about £14,000 a year and she has minimal savings, she should be eligible for an HC2 certificate. Have you checked?

She has checked but her husband's income puts them just above the amount as a joint household. They are in that precarious place where they are just over the threshold but don't have enough to live on when you have regular expenses like this.

Oreo

Is looking like NI will go up for employers , as KS refuses to rule it out.

He hasn’t given anything away about anything though, so it might not be the case, who knows. If it is, I doubt if it will be until April 2025 in the new tax year. I wouldn’t work for HMRC for a gold clock.

Oreo I said that older people tend to become more right-wing, not that all pensioners vote Conservative. But many have done while the Conservatives were favouring them.
I'm 79 and a Lib Dem activist.

Totally agree

The Conservative Party have regularly raised the retirement age but seemed to forget about raising the free prescription charge. Strange when you think about it. As they were always clobbering pensioners.
If they had stayed in power then a good few of us would never have lived to claim our pensions.

I recently read "Love on the Dole" by Walter Greenwood. This book is set in the 30s in the Salford area and details what life was like for our parents or grandparents generations.

In the book, most of the men are employed in a very large engineering factory. One of the main characters is a schoolboy desperately wants to work at the factory so that he can become an engineer, rather than try to get an office job as his parents would like him to do. Practices that were common then still happen, such as firing someone when they got to a certain age. As described by a GNer above.

I really don't think that my generation and younger lived under the conditions as described in the book. I recommend it.

Taxation in all its forms is used to improve all our lives, one way or another. The contributions paid by my GPs provided healthcare and education for my parents and this has happened to the subsequent generations.

Unfortunately when pensions were first introduced life expectancy was short. Move forward to us baby boomers who have benefited from free health care and education. As a consequence of the former our life expectancy has grown and we are living much longer. Advances in health care have contributed towards life expectancy for the young and old.

We expect this but are not always prepared to pay the necessary taxes to bring this about. Why? Because we may say we don't mind paying more taxes but really, we would like to keep our money for ourselves.

I live in France where taxes are higher than in the UK and we also contribute towards our health care. The system is different in that the state pays a percentage, we contribute to a mutuel and may have to pay extra if the professional's fee for example, is not covered by the mutuel. The contributions for myself and my DH are about 255 euros per month. These are dependent upon age. For young adults they could be around 30 euros per month.

My DH and I have both had operations this year and when we came home from hospital a nurse came in every day for 2 or 3 weeks to give us anti coagulant jabs, to take our blood pressure, to change dressings and to remove stitches if necessary and just to check up on us. This really helps one's state of mind.

Oreo

Is looking like NI will go up for employers , as KS refuses to rule it out.

Being an employer I have been keeping a close eye on this, KS and various ministers have avoided answering and have not categorically denied it will happen as they have regarding bus passes.

Wyllow3

Where is there mention of tax on taking money from your pension pot? Reference please.

This post is really no different from the summer of accusations and speculation/scsremongering repeated at least 20 times....

There has always been a tax on withdrawing a lump sum from a private pension. You can withdraw 25% tax-free, and the remaining 75% is taxable.

I don't know about taxing the state pension but it wouldn't surprise me.