Many People are losing their Access to Pension Credit.

Mustbeananswer??

SouthCoastBoy said:

sgx2000 said:

The biggest question has been missed...

Why is the UK (6th richest country in the world, by gdp)  soo far down the global pension table???

Imo we are not a particularly wealthy country, as others have said you need to look at the per capita value. I can only see us slipping down the gdp per capita table, unfortunately we run a deficit on a yearly basis, personally I see the future as being quite bleak, especially if we try and sustain benefit levels.

Good point....well made!!!

booneruk

There are not many advanced economic countries running a surplus, and plenty of them have higher debt as % of GDP levels, and similar pressures of an aging population. I'm looking at Japan and France in particular.

There are challenges ahead for plenty!

Mustbeananswer??

booneruk said:

There are not many advanced economic countries running a surplus, and plenty of them have higher debt as % of GDP levels, and similar pressures of an aging population. I'm looking at Japan and France in particular.

There are challenges ahead for plenty!

Another excellent point......and now we hjave civil unrest in a lot of cointries.

Something to consider.There are a lot of elderly people...who do not wish to be here.They have lost their dignity and stare at the same spot on the ceiling for years.I know this as it has happened to my Mum.When I visited my Mum towards the end she used to discuss ways I could help her pass...Mum had no life at all.I tried everything to get her interested in things....but she had just had enough.In the end  she died alone during the Covid period...we were not allowed to be there.She had signed a DNR.She is missed by so many.    .

ouraggie

This is a genuine question, so please don’t shoot me down.
 I don’t understand why so many who are in receipt of only the state pension would actually end up in that situation. Presumably they could have taken out a private pension to supplement their future retirement, or put away a little fund over the years for their retirement? I can see there would be people who struggled all their life to make ends meet on a low wage, with no cash to spare (the target audience for pension credit, i guess) but i know some people who seem to have had good jobs all their life and still have no other income than their state pension (and pension credit.) 

MallyGirl

Some people are just 'jam now' or they believe all the scaremongering that anything they put by will be worthless/stolen by government/whatever. Then there are those who know there is a state pension but have never investigated just how little it is. Many jobs didn't use to offer pensions and there was always the option to opt out

Nebulous2

ouraggie said:

This is a genuine question, so please don’t shoot me down.
 I don’t understand why so many who are in receipt of only the state pension would actually end up in that situation. Presumably they could have taken out a private pension to supplement their future retirement, or put away a little fund over the years for their retirement? I can see there would be people who struggled all their life to make ends meet on a low wage, with no cash to spare (the target audience for pension credit, i guess) but i know some people who seem to have had good jobs all their life and still have no other income than their state pension (and pension credit.) 

I've known people who wouldn't pay pensions, who lived for today. We regularly see people on here who wont invest because of the risk, who are cutting themselves off from the best chance they have of improving their future. 

I've known people who've been all in on spending, who've had a major life event, death of a breadwinner, major health change and have gone from a high earner lifestyle to a much lower one very quickly and struggled to adapt. 

I have no personal experience of people retiring and hitting that same cliff. They must be out there, but I don't know them. If you earn £40k, how do you cope on £12k from  the state pension? If two of you are earning £30k each, how do you go from £60k to the £24k of two state pensions? 

I suspect a lot of them continue some economic activity. A part-time job, helping out a local business for cash. A phased reduction rather than a sudden withdrawal of earnings. 

barnstar2077

I know a guy who isn't in the company pension because the small print said he may get less money than he pays in.   I explained to him how unlikely that was to happen after the company's generous contribution, about salary sacrifice and the government uplift to no avail, he'd already made up his mind.

dealyboy

@"Mustbeananswer??" ?? said:

booneruk said:

There are not many advanced economic countries running a surplus, and plenty of them have higher debt as % of GDP levels, and similar pressures of an aging population. I'm looking at Japan and France in particular.

There are challenges ahead for plenty!

Another excellent point......and now we hjave civil unrest in a lot of cointries.

Something to consider.There are a lot of elderly people...who do not wish to be here.They have lost their dignity and stare at the same spot on the ceiling for years.I know this as it has happened to my Mum.When I visited my Mum towards the end she used to discuss ways I could help her pass...Mum had no life at all.I tried everything to get her interested in things....but she had just had enough.In the end  she died alone during the Covid period...we were not allowed to be there.She had signed a DNR.She is missed by so many.    .

.... a thanks is not enough or appropriate really ... I am so sorry to read that 

JoeCrystal

barnstar2077 said:

I know a guy who isn't in the company pension because the small print said he may get less money than he pays in.   I explained to him how unlikely that was to happen after the company's generous contribution, about salary sacrifice and the government uplift to no avail, he'd already made up his mind.

*facepalm* Likewise, I got into an emotional argument with a close family member when I found out that he did not bother paying into a DB pension when it was available for over a decade at his job because he does not trust the pension scheme, and it is all the scams anyway according to him. He is only contributing to a DC pension scheme now because he got auto-enrolled. Think how much more dire it would be if auto-enrollment had not been around for the last ten years! 



You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink....   

Silvertabby

I've already listed some of the most memorable reasons people gave for opting out of the LGPS (public sector DB scheme), but for those who missed my earlier post:

It's just another council tax, and if I don't have to pay it I'm not going to.

The money is better in my pocket than the council's.

My husband has a good pension so I don't need this one as well.

The LGPS is a rip off - you are charging me over £100 per month, but I can get a stakeholder pension for just £20 per month.