Equal Benefits for Pensioners

money24seven

The full state pension is £185.15 per week. £9627.80 in 2022/23 year. 

Pension Credit tops up weekly income to £182.60.  £9495.20 in 2022/23 year. 

The difference is £2.55 per week or £132.60 per year. 

If you get Pension Credit you can also get other help, such as:

• Housing Benefit if you rent the property you live in 
• Support for Mortgage Interest if you own the property you live in
• A free TV licence if you’re aged 75 or over
• Help with NHS dental treatment, glasses and transport costs for hospital appointments
• Help with your heating costs

My friend (Anne) gets Full State Pension of £185.15 per week while her friend (Ruth) on a lower income gets Pension Credit to bring her to £182.60 per week.  Both live in identical adjoining houses. Their rent is £650 per month. Anne is entitled to Housing Support of £470 per month so has a shortfall of £180 per month whereas Ruth’s rent is fully paid by the Housing Benefit.  

Anne recently borrowed from family to pay over £800 on dental work over 4 months. Ruth next door who is on Pension Credit had over £1100 of dental care and paid nothing. 

Ruth is therefore £2160 per year better off than Anne on Housing alone plus other costs in dental, optical or heating. 

This person (Ruth) gets optician costs all covered. She will also be entitled to extra heating payments this year while Anne will sit in her home shivering. 

I call on the Government to treat all Pensioners equally and give extra support if a Pensioner has no extra income over the Full Pension. This could be a means tested application and benefit assistance calculated accordingly. 

Please support all Pensioners (one day you will hopefully be one too) and call on your local MP to take action to URGENTLY to help Pensioners in this current crisis. 

dunstonh

I call on the Government to treat all Pensioners equally and give extra support if a Pensioner has no extra income over the Full Pension. This could be a means tested application and benefit assistance calculated accordingly. 

The whole point of the new state pension was to allow the old benefits to be removed over time.   So, you are asking for a change in the direction of travel.

Please support all Pensioners (one day you will hopefully be one too) and call on your local MP to take action to URGENTLY to help Pensioners in this current crisis. 

Alternatively, don't put yourself in a position where you expect the state to bail you out because you didn't save enough money whilst you were working.

Benefits should be for people who cannot provide for themselves or have been through unfortunate circumstances outside of their control.  Not for the feckless making a life choice.  I would prefer benefits to be increased to those that need them and reduced  for those that made their own life choices.

[Deleted User]

Benefits are great but is this really the best time for increasing benefits? Do you feel inflation is too low and the mini-budget  kerfuffle is something UK should repeat right away?

dealyboy

Just to note that the person on full new state pension, no other income and low or no savings who is therefore not eligible for pension credit need not be so comparatively disadvantaged.

They could qualify for full Council Tax Support, Housing Benefit up to the Local Housing Allowance plus Warm Home Discount, and dental costs through the NHS Low Income Scheme. They would also receive the Winter Fuel Payment (as would the Pension Credit pensioner). Note: The one off £650 benefits based cost of living allowance would only go to the Pension Credit pensioner if no other eligibility criterion.

I would encourage all pensioners (I am one) to claim the means tested benefits even if they are not not eligible for the passport ones, universal and pension credits. There are many people here on MSE and and in organisations in society who are only too happy to help.

Marcon

money24seven said:

The full state pension is £185.15 per week. £9627.80 in 2022/23 year. 

Pension Credit tops up weekly income to £182.60.  £9495.20 in 2022/23 year. 

The difference is £2.55 per week or £132.60 per year. 

If you get Pension Credit you can also get other help, such as:

• Housing Benefit if you rent the property you live in 
• Support for Mortgage Interest if you own the property you live in
• A free TV licence if you’re aged 75 or over
• Help with NHS dental treatment, glasses and transport costs for hospital appointments
• Help with your heating costs

My friend (Anne) gets Full State Pension of £185.15 per week while her friend (Ruth) on a lower income gets Pension Credit to bring her to £182.60 per week.  Both live in identical adjoining houses. Their rent is £650 per month. Anne is entitled to Housing Support of £470 per month so has a shortfall of £180 per month whereas Ruth’s rent is fully paid by the Housing Benefit.  

Anne recently borrowed from family to pay over £800 on dental work over 4 months. Ruth next door who is on Pension Credit had over £1100 of dental care and paid nothing. 

Ruth is therefore £2160 per year better off than Anne on Housing alone plus other costs in dental, optical or heating. 

This person (Ruth) gets optician costs all covered. She will also be entitled to extra heating payments this year while Anne will sit in her home shivering. 

I call on the Government to treat all Pensioners equally and give extra support if a Pensioner has no extra income over the Full Pension. This could be a means tested application and benefit assistance calculated accordingly. 

Please support all Pensioners (one day you will hopefully be one too) and call on your local MP to take action to URGENTLY to help Pensioners in this current crisis. 

Treating all pensioners equally means giving too much to those who don't need it. A £500 winter fuel allowance for all, plus £400 off heating bills for all, more than covers the actual cost of likely bills for those pensioners who signed up to fixed energy deals just before the current round of price rises. Doesn't seem a great idea to me. What about single parents with small children? Those of working age who are working and still can't make ends meet?

The mythical shivering Anne needs to check her benefit entitlement - there is support there for those who need it, if their only income is the state pension.

Silvertabby

Marcon said:

money24seven said:

The full state pension is £185.15 per week. £9627.80 in 2022/23 year. 

Pension Credit tops up weekly income to £182.60.  £9495.20 in 2022/23 year. 

The difference is £2.55 per week or £132.60 per year. 

If you get Pension Credit you can also get other help, such as:

• Housing Benefit if you rent the property you live in 
• Support for Mortgage Interest if you own the property you live in
• A free TV licence if you’re aged 75 or over
• Help with NHS dental treatment, glasses and transport costs for hospital appointments
• Help with your heating costs

My friend (Anne) gets Full State Pension of £185.15 per week while her friend (Ruth) on a lower income gets Pension Credit to bring her to £182.60 per week.  Both live in identical adjoining houses. Their rent is £650 per month. Anne is entitled to Housing Support of £470 per month so has a shortfall of £180 per month whereas Ruth’s rent is fully paid by the Housing Benefit.  

Anne recently borrowed from family to pay over £800 on dental work over 4 months. Ruth next door who is on Pension Credit had over £1100 of dental care and paid nothing. 

Ruth is therefore £2160 per year better off than Anne on Housing alone plus other costs in dental, optical or heating. 

This person (Ruth) gets optician costs all covered. She will also be entitled to extra heating payments this year while Anne will sit in her home shivering. 

I call on the Government to treat all Pensioners equally and give extra support if a Pensioner has no extra income over the Full Pension. This could be a means tested application and benefit assistance calculated accordingly. 

Please support all Pensioners (one day you will hopefully be one too) and call on your local MP to take action to URGENTLY to help Pensioners in this current crisis. 

Treating all pensioners equally means giving too much to those who don't need it. A £500 winter fuel allowance for all, plus £400 off heating bills for all, more than covers the actual cost of likely bills for those pensioners who signed up to fixed energy deals just before the current round of price rises. Doesn't seem a great idea to me. What about single parents with small children? Those of working age who are working and still can't make ends meet?

The mythical shivering Anne needs to check her benefit entitlement - there is support there for those who need it, if their only income is the state pension.

Exactly.  Much better to target those in need rather than spray a load of benefits to those of us who have just passed a certain age.

We have always given our winter fuel allowance to two family members who need it more than we do, ditto this year's extra £300.

You only have to see me and my fellow pensioners shopping in our M&S foodhall to know that not all pensioners are hurting.

Linton

The trouble with differentiating between between needy and non-needy pensioners is that it applies the bureaucratic,  arbitrary and complex "computer says" means-testing decision making to a large group of people who currently are outside that system.  I would suggest we keep the cheap to administer payments to all but remove some of the tax benefits enjoyed by rich pensioners.  In particular (my hobby horse) NI should be cut and income tax raised so that working people are unaffected but those pensioners who can share the load.

Albermarle

 NI should be cut and income tax raised so that working people are unaffected but those pensioners who can share the load.
Sounds like a good idea, but I guess would cause a lot of screaming headlines in the Mail and Express about pensioners betrayed etc.

NedS

Albermarle said:

 NI should be cut and income tax raised so that working people are unaffected but those pensioners who can share the load.
Sounds like a good idea, but I guess would cause a lot of screaming headlines in the Mail and Express about pensioners betrayed etc.

But isn't that exactly what they have just done?

NI: raised and then reversed the headline rate from 12% to 13.25% and back again, whilst quietly raising the threshold to £12,570. Net effect is a cut in NI for most working people.

Income Tax: thresholds frozen at £12,570 meaning more people dragged into paying more tax, including pensioners.

arnoldy

dunstonh said:

Benefits should be for people who cannot provide for themselves or have been through unfortunate circumstances outside of their control.  Not for the feckless making a life choice.  I would prefer benefits to be increased to those that need them and reduced  for those that made their own life choices.

Dead right but when the system was introduced nearly 100 years ago moral standards and society were different. Now there seems to be a shrug of the shoulders and a sigh at those who claim who could have taken personal responsibility. We can't go on as we are creating an army of helpless dependency, and unfairness against those grafters who try and do the right thing as highlighted by OP. 

lisyloo

There may be good reasons, but it begs the question why didn't Anne and Ruth save for their retirement?
Of course things happen and some people can't help themselves but it raises the question - did they both make zero provision during their lives?