At last, the baby boomers will share the pain

ruggedtoast

thorsoak wrote: »

The majority of the pensioners that I know do not have final salary pension schemes - of those that do have, 6 (out of 11) of them had to take early retirement on ill-health grounds, therefore final salary pension was based on actual salary earned rather than that forecast. Of the remaining 15 have little dribbles of pensions from previous employments which add up to something in the region of £150-200 PER MONTH, 5 couples have no private pension whatsoever and 10 have private pensions whose values fall far below the predicted forecasts.

6 couples are continuing to pay mortgages (repayment - over the next 4-9 years). 5 (those with no private pensions) are in council housing 8-10 couples have paid off mortgages, and the remainder probably have.

The best-off are those 5 couples who live in the council accommodation, who don't have private pensions, and who now get all the benefits - one couple receives in excess of £1,200 per month.

Winter fuel allowance - yes - it now pays for around 250 litres of oil - 2 years ago it paid for 500 litres. We (I) use around 700 litres.

Bus passes - yes - but when you live in a rural area and buses are as rare as hen's teeth - maybe 4 per day - not much use. Oh yes - and the unlimited healthcare ....did you realise that now, once one reaches the age of 70, all screening above and beyond routine screening is first of all referred to the Geriatric Medical Team - to ensure that it will be cost-efficient?

Oh yes. We've never had it so good :cool: - but its better than the alternative.

I sympathise with your position, and you obviously aren't wealthy.

Nevertheless, the average family is trying to get by on a net average income of around £1700. If they live in the South East about £1000 of this will be going straight out again in rent.

Your £400 a month with no rent or mortgage to pay, for a single person, looks quite attractive. Especially when downsizing would free up a lot of capital for someone lucky enough to have been born in a time when owning a modest 2 up 2 down wasn't considered beyond the wildest dreams of avarice.

Remember, many of these people no matter how hard they work, feel like they have no realistic hope of ever buying somewhere, nor will the state pension be as high as it is for you when they retire, and nor is there much chance of there being any benefits like fuel allowances or free bus travel.

I don't really want to go into the individual anecdotes you gave, some of them seem to have got lucky, some of them seem to be the victims of their own poor planning. In any case, there is always someone worse off you can point to to highlight the general inequality in British life.

ILW

My neighbours 27 year old son has just bought a house. I believe quite a lot are doing OK for themselves.

ukcarper

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I sympathise with your position, and you obviously aren't wealthy.

Nevertheless, the average family is trying to get by on a net average income of around £1700. If they live in the South East about £1000 of this will be going straight out again in rent.

Your £400 a month with no rent or mortgage to pay, for a single person, looks quite attractive. Especially when downsizing would free up a lot of capital for someone lucky enough to have been born in a time when owning a modest 2 up 2 down wasn't considered beyond the wildest dreams of avarice.

Remember, many of these people no matter how hard they work, feel like they have no realistic hope of ever buying somewhere, nor will the state pension be as high as it is for you when they retire, and nor is there much chance of there being any benefits like fuel allowances or free bus travel.

I don't really want to go into the individual anecdotes you gave, some of them seem to have got lucky, some of them seem to be the victims of their own poor planning. In any case, there is always someone worse off you can point to to highlight the general inequality in British life.

Lets assume the average family has a male working full time, the average male full time salary in the Southeast is £43k mean or £32.6 median giving take homes of £2600 or £2000.

Jennifer_Jane

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Your £400 a month with no rent or mortgage to pay, for a single person, looks quite attractive. Especially when downsizing would free up a lot of capital for someone lucky enough to have been born in a time when owning a modest 2 up 2 down wasn't considered beyond the wildest dreams of avarice.

Remember, many of these people no matter how hard they work, feel like they have no realistic hope of ever buying somewhere, nor will the state pension be as high as it is for you when they retire, and nor is there much chance of there being any benefits like fuel allowances or free bus travel.

Re the £400 a month, I'm afraid that this doesn't allow much for housing repairs. I have paid £3000 plus on new radiators this last year, and more for other plumbing problems. These weren't vanity projects, there were leaks. People still have to maintain their houses. I do have my own house - I bought in 2000 (so not in the 60's or 70's) and paid it off 9 years later. In that time I have managed to boost up my company pension (final pension schemes disappeared a few years before I joined the Company, and I have a little amount in Pound terms from my South African days. If I could manage this, I don't understand why people of the next generation can't - 2000 is only 12 years ago.

Re the next comment in bold, I'm sorry I just don't understand this. Firstly, how do you know? Secondly, surely all the increases in the State Pension now move the whole future pot forward?

I realise that we didn't get much in the last couple of years (can't be bothered to get any links, but the state pension may have increased a bit, but the odds and ends (eg the 'deferred' and additional bits didn't increase at all in a couple of years back, and my private pension didn't increase last year, and hasn't been increased by the inflation rate this year). But the current 5.2% (CPI based) increases not just my pension but your future one.

Also, please remember that currently any pensioner on an income of £25,400 plus gets penalised at the rate of £1 for every £2 on the amount above £25,400.

SecondLegDownIsTheBigOne

ukcarper wrote: »

Just to put the cost of living into perspective since 1970 the average wage has increased almost 22x while RPI has increased just over 12x.

Average house price x32.

ruggedtoast

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

If I could manage this, I don't understand why people of the next generation can't - 2000 is only 12 years ago.

Well, house prices have almost doubled since then, do you think that may have something to do with ut?

I give up, you lot just believe what you want to anyway.

I'm going off to spread the good news to all the men I see that the average male salary in the SE is £43k a year...

ukcarper

SecondLegDownIsTheBigOne wrote: »

Average house price x32.

Since 1970 it's actually worse than that at 35x but 1970 was the bottom of a crash and they had double by 1973 and wages had gone up about 1.4x.

ukcarper

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Well, house prices have almost doubled since then, do you think that may have something to do with ut?

I give up, you lot just believe what you want to anyway.

I'm going off to spread the good news to all the men I see that the average male salary in the SE is £43k a year...

Seems high to me but that's ONS figures.

thorsoak

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I sympathise with your position, and you obviously aren't wealthy.

Nevertheless, the average family is trying to get by on a net average income of around £1700. If they live in the South East about £1000 of this will be going straight out again in rent.

Your £400 a month with no rent or mortgage to pay, for a single person, looks quite attractive. Especially when downsizing would free up a lot of capital for someone lucky enough to have been born in a time when owning a modest 2 up 2 down wasn't considered beyond the wildest dreams of avarice.

Remember, many of these people no matter how hard they work, feel like they have no realistic hope of ever buying somewhere, nor will the state pension be as high as it is for you when they retire, and nor is there much chance of there being any benefits like fuel allowances or free bus travel.

I don't really want to go into the individual anecdotes you gave, some of them seem to have got lucky, some of them seem to be the victims of their own poor planning. In any case, there is always someone worse off you can point to to highlight the general inequality in British life.

• Council tax per month (no pc, no c/tx relief - just 25% single occupant) £115
• Water rates per month (water meter) £ 20
• Electricity per month £ 45
• House insurance per month £ 20
• Oil per month - allow £ 50

...want me to carry on?

Oh yes, life's dandy:cool:

ruggedtoast

thorsoak wrote: »

• Council tax per month (no pc, no c/tx relief - just 25% single occupant) £115
• Water rates per month (water meter) £ 20
• Electricity per month £ 45
• House insurance per month £ 20
• Oil per month - allow £ 50

...want me to carry on?

Oh yes, life's dandy:cool:

You can always downsize to a comfortable flat.