BS: State pension increase

Subject: BS: State pension increase
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 24 Mar 18 - 05:11 PM

My £6.60 increase per week is not too bad!!!

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Mar 18 - 05:20 PM

Trump gave me an increase of $70 a month. Temporarily. They'll take it back in a couple of years.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Mar 18 - 05:57 PM

Good old triple lock. Thing is, the UK state pension is one of the worst in the developed world.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 24 Mar 18 - 06:29 PM

But it's better than nothing.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: rich-joy
Date: 24 Mar 18 - 07:07 PM

Oz just gave me AU $12 per fortnight increase to last 6 months ....

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Mar 18 - 07:12 PM

My VA and Social Security went up $2.09 -- EACH!! I'm going to buy a Ferrarri and a place on the Riviera and a private jet and....

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: GUEST,Senoufou
Date: 25 Mar 18 - 04:03 AM

Wasn't there a farcical increase last year for older UK pensioners of 25p a week?

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 25 Mar 18 - 03:33 PM

Under the new system, from April 2016, the actual amount will depend on your National Insurance record. You could receive a higher or lower amount.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 25 Mar 18 - 03:38 PM

what's the deal now then for paying a lump sum to top up NI...???

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Iains
Date: 25 Mar 18 - 03:53 PM

For UK
https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Mar 18 - 05:02 PM

i suppose it depends on what you're used to earning. i never did earn very much - so it works fine for me.

all those other countries didn't have to pay for the interest on two world war loans. i think the government does its best to take of me. probably better than i deserve personally, and that there is still some semblance of honouring the promises made to the generation that fought the war, to take care of their kids - amongst which i number myself.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Raedwulf
Date: 25 Mar 18 - 05:23 PM

Pretty good reasoning, Al. The biggest problem here is that an awful lot of folk still labour under the misapprehension that National Insurance is an investment fund. It isn't, and it never was.

You paid in then so the government could pay out then. The problem now is that people are living longer. Proportionately, fewer are paying in, so less money to pay out. The state pension was never an investment fund.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Jos
Date: 25 Mar 18 - 05:38 PM

It always was supposed to depend on your National Insurance record, but unfortunately some of the records were lost - they don't admit this but a bank manager confirmed that it is true, when I mentioned it.
They tried to pay me only about half what I as entitled to because they didn't have full records of my payments but fortunately I had asked them for a pension forecast some ten years earlier, which proved that I was/am entitled to the full state pension. It goes up by several pounds a year (about enough each week to buy a pint).
I think the teensy-weensy increase Sen mentioned is the extra top-up they give you if you are over 80 (that's something to look forward to, isn't it).

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 25 Mar 18 - 06:00 PM

At the moment I may well be working until I am 80!!!

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 26 Mar 18 - 05:55 AM

i suppose it depends on what you did for work. i worked as an entertainer and i would have loved to work full time , christmas day days included til i was 80 and beyond, but my health didn't hold out. i still do the occasional sedentary gig in a pub - but its not as much fun as throwing yourself about all over the place.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Mar 18 - 06:33 AM

I enjoyed doing a bit of cleaning in a holiday barn alongside my husband, 5hrs per week. Very satisfying (I love cleaning!) and kept me on the move. But sadly we no longer do this as they got an agency in for all their holiday properties. I do wish I had TEFL qualification and could take on foreign students to help them learn English. But of course, the Taxman would be dipping in to whatever I earned.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Mar 18 - 07:08 AM

If your income is high enough you pay tax. In the overall scheme of things I don't think that there's much room for criticism of that principle.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Mar 18 - 07:13 AM

I wasn't criticising Steve, it's necessary that we all pay Tax. I was merely saying it would have to be taken into account when considering earning a bit extra by working in old age.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Mar 18 - 07:43 AM

I'm in the same boat as traditionally crewed by wives...

Getting middle aged and becoming unemployable for various reasons...,
I was denied benefits because the wife earns a meagre local authority Education dept salary..

But lucky me, I would be entitled to sign on for nothing more than NI credits
if I'd spend each and every week jumping through the same full time hoops,
and attending the same time and soul destroying 'training' schemes
as a claimant getting full benefits..

For the sake of my own blood pressure and sanity I had to bale out of that vindictive merry go round....

Hence I dropped off the radar, and stopped existing in the eyes of the tax system....

Not even working in the black economy - any music and culture I became more involved in didn't pay a single penny..
..ok a few pints of rough cider at most...

If I recall the irony, the last money I could call my own was a tax rebate some long time ago...

I'll be 60 this year so need to start thinking seriously about all this again...

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Mar 18 - 07:57 AM

I do recall being instructed by one sympathetic benefits officer to 'go on the sick'
if I wanted to escape the intimidation and imposition of full time mickey mouse traing schemes,
and actually do an adult education course of my own desire
that would be genuinely to my benefit..

But my Doctor refused to sign me on as sick, even though I was clearly very stressed and at the end of my tether..
Guess he might have had tory principles...!!!???

So that was the final straw .. bye bye helpful and nurturing benefits system...
hello full time long term pennyless house husbandry..

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 26 Mar 18 - 08:43 AM

hmmmm....sounds to me pfr as though you need a second opinion. some doctors seem to think they are superintending the exchequer for the nation.

one mad bastard told me that i should be digging holes in the road - this with an abnormally sited artery that was getting a fraction of the oxygen to the heart that it needed. i was stuck with that opinion for three years, it never occurred to me that different doctors saw things differently. luckily the tosser had a day off, and someone else saw me, and told me the score - it transformed my life - suddenly i understood why i'd never been the PE teachers favourite.

and since then i've allowances in my lifestyle and diet.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Jos
Date: 26 Mar 18 - 09:57 AM

Many years ago when I found myself bringing up children on my own, I tried to sign on at the job centre (or whatever it was called in those days) but was told that with children under 16 I had to apply for Supplementary Benefit instead - signing on was not allowed (probably to keep the unemployment figures down).
I went to the National Theatre to see 'The Mysteries' but was refused a concessionary price ticket because those were only for the genuine unemployed who were signing on, not for other benefit recipients. Their attitude made it quite clear to me, and to anyone else within hearing, that I was regarded as a scrounger, even though I had tried to sign on and had not been allowed to.
I haven't been to the National Theatre since, even though I have been earning a living and paying taxes now for well over 30 years.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: BobL
Date: 27 Mar 18 - 02:50 AM

TBH I can see the logic behind that, Jos - raising children could be seen as a full-time job in itself, and if you'd been able to sign on as unemployed then arguably half the housewives in the country could do the same.

A bit unfortunate about the NT, perhaps that comes under the heading of "unintended consequences". The unwelcoming attitude was totally out of order, but sounds to me like that of some front-of-house jerk rather than being official policy. Some people would have written & complained - whether it would have done any good is, of course, debatable.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: JHW
Date: 27 Mar 18 - 06:27 AM

"what's the deal now then for paying a lump sum to top up NI...???"

I had letters time and again telling me I could buy missed years. Eventually (and it took some hassling) they replied admitting that despite these I had as full a record as was necessary. Perhaps they were trying it on or more probably rampant robots were sending the letters.

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Mar 18 - 12:23 PM

I've always paid my tax on the PAYE system. I used to get letters telling me my code was being changed due to an underpayment. (It was never an overpayment). Trying to get them on the phone was a nightmare, and the wait was ridiculous. How the flying can one not have paid enough tax when the silly buggers themselves calculated it and took it out of my pay?

I'm also miffed that they tax my Teacher's Pension when I paid tax on my earnings already all my working life. But luckily they refrain from nibbling at my State Pension.

My poor dear husband even pays a bit of tax on his pitiful minimum wage (at present £7-50 an hour), which just creeps over the Personal Allowance. Next month the minimum wage will go up by 33p - wow!

Subject: RE: BS: State pension increase
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Mar 18 - 07:30 PM

Your teacher's pension is taxed for administrative reasons only. HMRC calculate your overall tax liability and, for simplicity, take what you owe from just one of your income sources. So your teacher's pension takes the total hit of your liability so that your state pension can be left alone. It's all fair enough. I also get letters telling me that I have underpaid. My affairs are incredibly simple and I can see no excuse for the HMRC to get it wrong, yet they do.