No party will means test pensioner benefits after the triple lock fiasco
In 2050 we are looking at two workers paying for one pensioner.
They are going to have to increase the pension age as cuts to pensioner benefits are politically impossible.
ComprehensiveSet3729 on
Well I haven’t seen any of it and I’ve lost loads of money under Labour
Desperate_Caramel_10 on
Quite absurd we spend so much on such a wealthy generation.
Boycott-all-Rats on
Spending money on those that got free housing is dumb. Let them all sell their homes. Rent a wee flat xo
Salty-Bid1597 on
> research shows that spending on old age has increased from 6.5 per cent as a share of GDP cent 30 years ago to 8.5 per cent.
It doesn’t link to the research that I can see but this honestly sounds like less than the old people population has risen. The per capita figures would be more useful.
> Health spending, which marks up around a fifth of total government expenditure, was just 4.9 per cent of GDP in 1995 but it came to 8.8 per cent in 2024.
Somehow inversely correlated with A&E waiting times.
Deepmidwinter2025 on
Folk forever cite the benefit bill – when most goes to pensions.
Pensioners cite “I’ve paid my dues”, when what they paid no way comes close to the cost of a pension that, being blunt, didn’t assume living for decades beyond retirement. Also the absurdity of the health bill for constant hospital admissions to be treated – then shipped back home – for a constant rinse and repeat cycle.
Even during covid – an entire country shut down to protect granny who may have another five years on the clock – yet we starve maternity services of proper funding! Ditto catch up for kids for missed schooling.
venktesh on
This is a lost cause, no political party will ever abandon their rich ass boomer base labour, Tory, reform alike.
They’d rather throw workers under the bus.
Everyone should get sipp and try to max out their ISAs every year in order to have a slight hope for a decent retirement.
Sonchay on
They need to even out the taxes on pensions. With our demographics, it makes no sense that a median full-time employee pays about £2100 in employee NI per year and pensioners with the same income don’t. Taxes are a more fair and straightforward alternative to means testing.
Saliiim on
I’m at the point where I think the pension should be entirely scrapped. You have you whole life to prepare for retirement, relying on recieving a meager state pension is idiotic.
Connect-Flatworm5297 on
My grandfather lived in a 6 bedroom detached house with an acre of beautiful garden in Essex. He was a teacher, my grandmother never worked a day in her life. He got emphysema from smoking at 70, and dementia at 80. The last 10 years of his life he was treated for prostate cancer and lung cancer.
The local authority paid for his care in a nursing home for 7 years as my grandmother stayed living in the 6 bedroom house. I think this in itself amounted to around £400,000 alone, ignoring the NHS treatments.
It would have been fine if he had quality of life, but he had none. He was just being kept like a living corpse for the final decade of his life, at a cost of close to half a million pounds for one person.
We have managed to extend people’s lives, but we never thought about what their quality of life would be like. I see so much mental and physical pain, loneliness and suffering amongst the elderly, and the wasted struggle of their families giving the good years of their lives up so that a 92 year old can sit in front of daytime television day after day, not knowing what they are watching, for another 5 years. Just go to /r/AgingParents to see the uncensored reality.
JackStrawWitchita on
We’ll see benefits cut for disabled and parents before politicians cut benefits for OAPs. There will be ragged children begging for food in front of our supermarkets while politicians debate moving pension ages up a year or two.
IgamOg on
What is this source? Another billionaire owned paper or far right think tank trying to shave off taxes and regulations so that the uber wealthy can amass even more at r e expense of all of us?
Dragon_Sluts on
We have to fess up to the fact that we are currently paying the triple lock pension to the generation that had free tuition and very cheap housing that they could then sell off to pay for retirement.
Of course that’s not true for the entire generation but there’s a lot of retired people getting a lot of government support (state pension) despite being among the most financially comfortable in the whole country.
13 Comments
No party will means test pensioner benefits after the triple lock fiasco
In 2050 we are looking at two workers paying for one pensioner.
They are going to have to increase the pension age as cuts to pensioner benefits are politically impossible.
Well I haven’t seen any of it and I’ve lost loads of money under Labour
Quite absurd we spend so much on such a wealthy generation.
Spending money on those that got free housing is dumb. Let them all sell their homes. Rent a wee flat xo
> research shows that spending on old age has increased from 6.5 per cent as a share of GDP cent 30 years ago to 8.5 per cent.
It doesn’t link to the research that I can see but this honestly sounds like less than the old people population has risen. The per capita figures would be more useful.
> Health spending, which marks up around a fifth of total government expenditure, was just 4.9 per cent of GDP in 1995 but it came to 8.8 per cent in 2024.
Somehow inversely correlated with A&E waiting times.
Folk forever cite the benefit bill – when most goes to pensions.
Pensioners cite “I’ve paid my dues”, when what they paid no way comes close to the cost of a pension that, being blunt, didn’t assume living for decades beyond retirement. Also the absurdity of the health bill for constant hospital admissions to be treated – then shipped back home – for a constant rinse and repeat cycle.
Even during covid – an entire country shut down to protect granny who may have another five years on the clock – yet we starve maternity services of proper funding! Ditto catch up for kids for missed schooling.
This is a lost cause, no political party will ever abandon their rich ass boomer base labour, Tory, reform alike.
They’d rather throw workers under the bus.
Everyone should get sipp and try to max out their ISAs every year in order to have a slight hope for a decent retirement.
They need to even out the taxes on pensions. With our demographics, it makes no sense that a median full-time employee pays about £2100 in employee NI per year and pensioners with the same income don’t. Taxes are a more fair and straightforward alternative to means testing.
I’m at the point where I think the pension should be entirely scrapped. You have you whole life to prepare for retirement, relying on recieving a meager state pension is idiotic.
My grandfather lived in a 6 bedroom detached house with an acre of beautiful garden in Essex. He was a teacher, my grandmother never worked a day in her life. He got emphysema from smoking at 70, and dementia at 80. The last 10 years of his life he was treated for prostate cancer and lung cancer.
The local authority paid for his care in a nursing home for 7 years as my grandmother stayed living in the 6 bedroom house. I think this in itself amounted to around £400,000 alone, ignoring the NHS treatments.
It would have been fine if he had quality of life, but he had none. He was just being kept like a living corpse for the final decade of his life, at a cost of close to half a million pounds for one person.
We have managed to extend people’s lives, but we never thought about what their quality of life would be like. I see so much mental and physical pain, loneliness and suffering amongst the elderly, and the wasted struggle of their families giving the good years of their lives up so that a 92 year old can sit in front of daytime television day after day, not knowing what they are watching, for another 5 years. Just go to /r/AgingParents to see the uncensored reality.
We’ll see benefits cut for disabled and parents before politicians cut benefits for OAPs. There will be ragged children begging for food in front of our supermarkets while politicians debate moving pension ages up a year or two.
What is this source? Another billionaire owned paper or far right think tank trying to shave off taxes and regulations so that the uber wealthy can amass even more at r e expense of all of us?
We have to fess up to the fact that we are currently paying the triple lock pension to the generation that had free tuition and very cheap housing that they could then sell off to pay for retirement.
Of course that’s not true for the entire generation but there’s a lot of retired people getting a lot of government support (state pension) despite being among the most financially comfortable in the whole country.