Retirement Pension (whether at the traditional c. £145 a week or the modern £175 a week) certainly wouldn't be enough to live on. Especially not if there are housing costs to meet.
And that's why it's such a good job that UK workers do so well in occupational pensions, such that RP is typically only about 33% of retirement income.
“We all know what to do, but we don’t know how to get re-elected once we have done it.” J-C Juncker
Indeed. The present-day Africans are the descendants of those who didn't get up and walk away to somewhere cooler.
# Stewart Lee - "They Come Over Here..."
Bullshit currently.
Bullshit currently.
Because he was useless.
Agreed, nothing to do with education.
No one does.
No.
Fantasy.
Bullshit.
More bullshit. Plenty pay better than the legal minimum wage.
Even sillier than you usually manage and that's saying something.
Sure, but most of that effect is in their genes and the upbringing they get.
Edward Hernandez, the Astraweb nym-shifting forger is trolling off-topic and other posts with someone else's ID, then replies to its post, strangely, as if it were replying to someone else.
See also... Edward H. <dtgamer99 gmail.com>
Edward Hernandez <dtgamer99 gmail.com>
Peter Weiner <dtgamer99 gmail.com>
John Doe <always.look message.header> (Astraweb, Aioe.org) Judge Dredd snipped-for-privacy@post.header (Astraweb) John snipped-for-privacy@post.header (Astraweb)
Not every UK pensioner is a home-owner. Since the ratio is usually reckoned at 2:1 (homeowners v. renters), it would be reasonable to expect something like one new pensioner in three to have continuing housing costs to meet. In other words, renters over retirement age still have rent to pay - obviously. And then there's the little matter of Council Tax (typically something between £1500 and £2000 pa, depending on area and type of dwelling - and it can be a lot higher).
Not all owner-occupiers have paid off their mortgage by the age of retirement (and can, if qualified, receive mortgage interest as an element of the means-tested benefit known as "Pension Credit").
The implication seemed to be that pensioners automatically have no housing costs to meet.
FCVO "quite well off", they would not be in need of means-tested assistance with anything.
It still has to be paid. And the way that the means-testing scale rates are set up means that assistance with housing costs must leave the recipient with the Pension Credit needs allowance (higher than flat Retirement Pension).
Er... quite.
But if their only income is Retirement Pension - all of that percentage will or may be entitled to some furether (albeit means-tested) weekly income. If someone's only income is RP, and if they have savings of less than a certain amount, they'll be entitled to Pension Credit (a supplementary benefit). That's in addition to any housing benefit to which they may be entitled. And help with Council Tax. And in addition (as noted below) to any help with outstanding mortgage interest by way of a component of that Pension Credit (not Housing Benefit).
Fair enough.
Perhaps a significant proportion are non-householders (members of a household in which someone else is head of household), then. I suppose that would include those in care homes and retirement homes as well as those living with relatives as a member of their household.
It is really *very* straightforward.
The current weekly amount of Retirement Pension for someone who retired before 2016 with an adequate contribution record is £141.85 a week. That's what they get.
But...
... the weekly amount (it's called a needs allowance) of Pension Credit (the newest and current name for Supplementary Benefit paid to pensioners) is £185.15 a week. That income is guaranteed to any pensioner and if they don't have that much income (subject to capital rules), the income they do have - and retirement pension at a lower rate would be one such - would be topped up to £185.15 a week minimum.
It could be more. They might still have mortgage interest to pay. If that is so, they will get an additional weekly allowance which is the equivalent of that interest, paid as part of Pension Credit.
If they have rent to pay (as a householder, to a landlord), they will get an allowance by way of Housing Benefit.
And in either case, assistance with Council Tax.
This is the way that the UK means-tested benefit system works for people over pension age. It may at first seem complicated, but it really isn't. Some of the terms have evolved, but the principle has been in place since the late 1940s (and arguably before that).
That is a legal term of art, not a matter calling for individual judgment. "Enough to live on" in this precise context means £185.15 a week *after* housing costs and Council tax are met. Next year that will increase.
The government actually uses the terminology "What the law says you need to live on" in notification letters.
By legal definition, yes. Whether you,... I or anyone else agrees with that is another matter. Another matter which doesn't matter IYSWIM.
*If* they have £185.15 a week *after* meeting their housing costs and council Tax - yes.That's how "enough to live on" is defined in law (for pensioners).
*If* they have £185.15 a week *after* meeting their housing costs and council Tax - yes.That's how "enough to live on" is defined in law (for pensioners).
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