State pensions around the world

GunJack

zagfles said:

and I think the other problem in the UK is we are quick to write people off with the "limited capacity for work" label. 

try telling that to the many, many people in this country who have extremely limiting conditions who had to jump through initial examination, then appeal and then tribunal to be awarded PIP, with the tribunal seeing what the DWP assessors were obviously incapable of seeing...

zagfles

GunJack said:

zagfles said:

and I think the other problem in the UK is we are quick to write people off with the "limited capacity for work" label. 

try telling that to the many, many people in this country who have extremely limiting conditions who had to jump through initial examination, then appeal and then tribunal to be awarded PIP, with the tribunal seeing what the DWP assessors were obviously incapable of seeing...

I didn't say PIP, I said the LCW (or LCWRA) label. They are different things. The disabled colleague I mentioned in the rest of that post you snipped gets PIP. But he's perfectly capable of working. He does have limited capacity, as does everyone. I couldn't do his job, nor could 95% of the population. So 95% have LCW in that they couldn't do his job. And he couldn't be eg a roofer.

We all have LCW. It's not a helpful label and writes people off. That was the point.

Pat38493

Part of the point of PIP is to enable people to continue working

Eldi_Dos

eastcorkram said:

arnoldy said:

The UK does have co-payments - for prescriptions

Not for pensioners it doesn't. Even for working age there are so many exclusions very few <<1 in 5 pay them.

Or for anyone at all in Scotland or Wales.

That's what we voted for in Scotland and is one of the reasons we pay higher tax here.

Rogerrabbit777

I live in spain and the state pension is dependent on what you contributed depending on what you earned Its not a flat rate where one size fits all. there is a large range.from non contribution pensions which is around €5,600 a year upto something like €2,000 a month if you are a very high earner and therefore pay more tax. One thing i notice from the people i know who are of many different europeans nationalities who live here is the bigger pensions, for the most part come from the high taxation countries such as in Scandinavia. They have serious money to burn and are buying up half the country (well not quite!) 

the UK has a high tax free allowance compaired to many, germans keep paying NI equivalent when retired. I always wonder why the media in the uk dont like to report on how things work in other countries as it is interesting seeing how things are run but I guess the uk public dont like to be told they don't pay enough tax inorder to fund better pensions??.Maybe they should question more the discrepancies between public sector pensions that are funded by those who have to live off the state pension.something that has gone on for way to long. For example on radio 4 today they were talking about the french protests and the person from france put the interviewer in her place as she tried to say what are the french moaning about when every other country has a higher age rate. The man explained its not about the age you retire its more  about the years needed. He said to retire at 62 on a full pension you need to pay in for over 41 years. So that puts it into perspective. 

I think alot of money is wasted on pen pushing jobs. Create so many different benefits so then you need the office staff to do the paperwork. Instead of insuring people have decent wages to start with where they dont have to work full time and still need to claim. . I have a friend in the uk whos grandkids are classed as having autism. Even their parents dont think they have it and are just typical hyper kids who have their heads stuck in their phones 24/7! (Like most today) but every child gets something like £20/40 a week benefit even though there is nothing wrong with them that requires monetary help and on top of that they get mobility which gives them a big brand new car every few year. The kids have no mobility issues. Their father says they are just abit odd like most teenagers but thanks very much we will take the money. No wonder so many have or want a diagnosis! 

As someone who lived/lives in spain during the height of the pandemic and saw how people acted there towards mask wearing etc the uk just gave the impression of a country of snowflakes where every other person claimed to be exempt because they supposedly had such a bad health condition that they couldnt wear a mask for five mins in a shop. Yet they didnt mind putting themselves at risk even though they had such a serious health condition!! Spot the contradiction?  Drs said here that if you were too ill to wear a mask you were to ill to go out! Pretty simple. Sorry im going off topic.

Flugelhorn

Eldi_Dos said:

eastcorkram said:

arnoldy said:

The UK does have co-payments - for prescriptions

Not for pensioners it doesn't. Even for working age there are so many exclusions very few <<1 in 5 pay them.

Or for anyone at all in Scotland or Wales.

That's what we voted for in Scotland and is one of the reasons we pay higher tax here.

how many people pay higher tax in Scotland? is it all tax payers?

Eldi_Dos

Flugelhorn said:

Eldi_Dos said:

eastcorkram said:

arnoldy said:

The UK does have co-payments - for prescriptions

Not for pensioners it doesn't. Even for working age there are so many exclusions very few <<1 in 5 pay them.

Or for anyone at all in Scotland or Wales.

That's what we voted for in Scotland and is one of the reasons we pay higher tax here.

how many people pay higher tax in Scotland? is it all tax payers?

Do not know them all, but know enough to confirm it comes up in discussions fairly regular.

zagfles

Eldi_Dos said:

Flugelhorn said:

Eldi_Dos said:

eastcorkram said:

arnoldy said:

The UK does have co-payments - for prescriptions

Not for pensioners it doesn't. Even for working age there are so many exclusions very few <<1 in 5 pay them.

Or for anyone at all in Scotland or Wales.

That's what we voted for in Scotland and is one of the reasons we pay higher tax here.

how many people pay higher tax in Scotland? is it all tax payers?

Do not know them all, but know enough to confirm it comes up in discussions fairly regular.

There's also the Barnett formula that allocates the Scottish and Welsh 20% more public spending per head than the English.

Eldi_Dos

zagfles said:

Eldi_Dos said:

Flugelhorn said:

Eldi_Dos said:

eastcorkram said:

arnoldy said:

The UK does have co-payments - for prescriptions

Not for pensioners it doesn't. Even for working age there are so many exclusions very few <<1 in 5 pay them.

Or for anyone at all in Scotland or Wales.

That's what we voted for in Scotland and is one of the reasons we pay higher tax here.

how many people pay higher tax in Scotland? is it all tax payers?

Do not know them all, but know enough to confirm it comes up in discussions fairly regular.

There's also the Barnett formula that allocates the Scottish and Welsh 20% more public spending per head than the English.

There is feeling that that should be revised upwards as it has not kept up with the increased costs of summer heating allowance.

Flugelhorn

Eldi_Dos said:

Flugelhorn said:

Eldi_Dos said:

eastcorkram said:

arnoldy said:

The UK does have co-payments - for prescriptions

Not for pensioners it doesn't. Even for working age there are so many exclusions very few <<1 in 5 pay them.

Or for anyone at all in Scotland or Wales.

That's what we voted for in Scotland and is one of the reasons we pay higher tax here.

how many people pay higher tax in Scotland? is it all tax payers?

Do not know them all, but know enough to confirm it comes up in discussions fairly regular.

I think it is a lower number than expected  (for the higher tax rate rate 42%  anyway) - perhaps many have moved to England.