Re: State pension scandal …

They are "Tax Payers".

Re: State pension scandal …

I get over £190 per week pension, it's more than I used to earn as a skilled engineer....
I class that as a reward for never claiming dole and never being out of work. Bugger the young folk, they shouldn't spend half their life at university and expect everyone else to pay for them. I had earned a wage and paid tax for six years before most of them have stopped making nuisance of themselves protesting about useless stuff. Having no responsibilities produces wasters and wusses.

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Some of us have been paying in all our lives (me for 50 years) into the state pot . Not only that but also saved and invested for our old age when some are not always fit and able to work any more. The pension we are getting is our own money we already paid in.

Re: State pension scandal …

It's an interesting point you make OGF.

Leaving aside the idea that graduates tend to end up getting higher paid jobs which more than pay (in taxes) for the cost of their education, and indeed the student repayment scheme also offsets any debt....

Your argument also seems to suggest that maybe the school leaving age and/or curriculum needs to be reviewed to enable youngsters seek employment with less generic knowledge at a far more tender age.

This may have legs, on the assumption that there are sufficient jobs available to keep them off the street.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not (entirely) knocking it and have felt for some time that schools and 6th form colleges ought to have courses with specific career skillsets in mind for those who have an idea of what field they hope to end up in.

Re: State pension scandal …

TAT's point about releasing assets to pay for one's post-working-life time is an interesting one, and perhaps not entirely without merit.

The two main issues that spring to (my) mind are:

1/. Many parents hope to leave their hard earned equity to their children to help them along their way in life, which in many cases enables them to buy houses and/or pay off debt etc; no matter how you look at it, it leaves their offspring with more money to buy things which contributes towards a country's generic wealth via taxes and job creation.

2/. It goes against the grain that along the road to purchase one's own main pension asset (ie a house), one has to pay interest to private companies (banks etc) via mortgages. Not exactly the greatest of savings account concepts.

Re: State pension scandal …

The DWP would or should have given NI credits to your record, so those 7yrs would have been the same as if you were working and making NI contributions. It's exactly the same for those who accept early retirement on health grounds.

Re: State pension scandal …

Thanks for this, LD....I wasn't aware of it until very recently, which is why I'm complaining that they can't backdate them, or for me to raise my NI contributions to make amends. At least that's what I've been told by the DWP, but I will make further enquiries. It didn't even occur to me to apply at the time because a) I was ill, and b) Mr P has a full time job. I'm going to look into this again because it isn't fair for when I reach retirement age.

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My partner is in the same position. Some years ago she got an offer to make up for missed contributions by paying a sizeable 4 figure sum which she declined. Her pension is £91.25 per week.

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Yes, Scot I got one of those letters too about 4 years before I got ill. I should have paid it then because it was only a small sum and naively I thought I would pay it some other time since I was still working. Clearly now I am a lot more behind, and it bothers me. £91.25 is not a lot to live on, and I daresay when I get to pension age, it will be substantially less, the way things are going

Re: State pension scandal …

years ago, I gave up my job for a couple of years so that I could look after my mum who was ill, eventually she had to go into a nursing home, I went to the job centre looking for work,I didn't get any money, but I got my insurance stamp paid...then I got a cleaning job, less that 16 hours a week but I took it, I was earning after all, and nobody told me that if I was working less than 16 hours a week, I could still sign on and I would get my stamp .the result was that I lost 6 years ,so when I retired I didn't get the full pension.