Pensioner Bonds Guide 9 December 2014 at 7:15PM in Savings & investments 428 replies 74.5K views

MSE_Helen_S

Hi!

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Thanks, folks

Thanks folks,

Archi_Bald

Or, you could get 3-5% on your savings in a bank account (though you'll need to work).

I don't work, I have all those accounts, I do read T&Cs, I have never come across any current account that required me to work.

MSE_Helen_S

Thanks, Archi Bald.

We're just doing our final checks on the guide, and we've amended that to say "...work for it"

Nuuk

I would advise extreme caution when investing with NS&I. Their website qualifies as one of the most unreliable on the Internet, and some of their staff clearly don't understand plain English.

2010

A good article that covers all you need to know but of course the crunch will come this Friday when the rates are announced.
2.6% and 4% seems a bit too optomistic.
But even 2% and 2.75% is better than anything currently on offer excepting current accounts.

If the rates are lower than originally stated then I might just go for a two year fix with Shawbrook paying 2.25% gross.

moneyistooshorttomention

The very first thing that struck me is that some pensioners are excluded from this.

I'm a pensioner, but will be excluded for instance.

Now I could just about understand this if it were one of those things whereby "Ah....but you aren't going to be deemed to be a pensioner until you reach your revised State Pension Age" (courtesy of me being a woman who retired at 60 as per plan).


BUT....I will reach that revised State Pension Age of mine next year and will then receive the State part of my pension and be a pensioner according to any definition going of pensioner and I'll have my full pensioner income. That being the case - how come I'll apparently be expected to wait about 2 more years (ie until I reach 65) before I can have these?

Dear Government - Thanks a bunch for expecting me to spend about 2 years of being a "fully-fledged" pensioner but not getting everything due to a pensioner.

System

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

but not getting everything due to a pensioner.

That's because they aren't pensioner bonds. They are investor bonds for the over 65s.

Read the label before criticising the contents of the tin.

dc1350

Clifford_Pope wrote: »

That's because they aren't pensioner bonds. They are investor bonds for the over 65s.

Read the label before criticising the contents of the tin.

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I think she has a valid point. Furthermore there are other very unfair aspects with this. First of all the cap is way too high. The richest pensioners will gobble up all of their 20K allocations and anyone slow off the mark (probably the poorer and less informed) will not get any. Plus there should be an annual allocation. How in a fair society can it be right that some people, by virtue of their date of birth, are eligible for favourable treatment? You don't want to become a pensioner in the next two years. You won't get this and you won't get the new £155 per week flat rate even if you have paid years more contributions than others who will get it. And, yes I am bitter!

System

dc1350 wrote: »

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How in a fair society can it be right that some people, by virtue of their date of birth, are eligible for favourable treatment?

Because society has decided that in general, age should be one determinant of who gets what.
Thus older people get a winter fuel allowance, younger people get student loans or apprentice places. Older people, and the very young get offered flu jabs. Only people over 55 are allowed to draw their pensions.
Only people over 18 (or perhaps soon 16) get the vote. You have to be 17 before you are allowed to join the army and get killed. If you are over 70 you have to renew your driving licence.

Life is full of "unfair" distinctions based on age. Would you sweep them all away?

mgdavid

For MSE Helen -
seems there could be a need for a 'Who is eligible' paragraph up front; many will be misled by 'Pensioner' Bonds and miss the 65+ bit.

Ken68

Thank you Helen. here's hoping 4%.