Hundreds of thousands of elderly Brits unable to afford basic essentials as cost of living bites
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/thousands-elderly-brits-afford-basic-essentials-5HjdCwJ_2/
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
Hundreds of thousands of elderly Brits unable to afford basic essentials as cost of living bites
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/thousands-elderly-brits-afford-basic-essentials-5HjdCwJ_2/
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
44 Comments
Elderly always desperate to make themselves out as the victims. The boomer generation is the wealthiest all of generations in the UK. About 1/3 are millionaires and median has about £600k in assets. Even at the bottom, the rates of poverty amongst the elderly is about half of that of children.
If the Elderly is truly upset about poverty – they should pay NI on pension payments and end the tax free lump sum. Then use the money to help those at the bottom.
Well maybe they should have been better with their money and cut down on those netflix subscriptions and avocado toast
Total Pensioner Benefit Govt Spending**:** Forecast to be approximately £166 billion in 2024/25.
This problem will only get worse as cost of living means working age people won’t be able to save for retirement so will be more dependent on the state pension, and a falling birth rate means an ever increasing number of pensions relying on an ever decreasing number of workers paying tax
We must grow the economy and we must either massively increase birth rates or increase skilled migration to avoid this doom spiral
Unfortunately increasing migration will lead to cultural erosion and is deeply unpopular with the conservative right
Increasing birth rates will lead to a resurgence of traditional nuclear families, gender roles, and inevitable increase in gender wage gap, which is unacceptable to the liberal left
I don’t really see a way out beyond a technological miracle of automation and robotics, but that will have its own profound struggles around work and inequality
> It means almost half of the 533 pensioners polled have been forced to cut back on hobbies and entertainment, while nearly a quarter say they can rarely ever afford the non-essentials that ‘make life enjoyable’.
So.. the same as every other age demographic then? Not sure why LBC felt the need to focus on one particular age group for this study.
‘It means almost half of the 533 pensioners polled have been forced to cut back on hobbies and entertainment’
Same, lads. Same.
But weren’t we told in summer all pensioners are rich on super pension schemes
Maybe they should pull themselves up by the bootstraps
Ah we’ve gone from “it’s too hot and all the grannies are dying” season to “it’s too cold and all the grannies are dying” season.
ITT: redditors unable to fathom that the elderly people struggling with money are not the same elderly people as the ones who use their WFA to go on holiday.
The government needs to introduce an incentive or scheme for the elderly to downsize. No tax or a pension increase if selling property over 65 for single home owners or something.
Mass sale of family homes for families to actually buy will lower house prices and rents (which could be offset by a government incentive) which frees up spending money, which stimulates the economy and takes pressure of wages – as well as deter foreign “investment” in buying our housing stock.
This would solve so many problems in the UK AND align with the government/treasury’s own growth goals without compromising the stupid relentless alignment with the failed Neoliberalism experiment.
While I have sympathy for anyone struggling, as someone under 40, it’s a feeling of “Welcome to the club” rather than anything pro-active. It’s not like wages had a lock protection or our the government has invested in our assets in the same they’ve thrown billions at home upgrades in the last 15 years through solar panels, heat pumps etc, while children have been wilfully thrown into active poverty with only footballers to protect their basic needs.
This is the generation who had significantly more support, a stronger economy and has a much higher proportion of paid off home owners.
This is the start of the downhill ski slope.
If property rich people downsized as much as possible, they’d have enough money to keep warm and do hobbies and stuff. But what if they are already as far downsized as possible? then they need help.
Also don’t forget, some of these elderly people will be leaving their wealth to younger people, so don’t wish their money away or you won’t get so much.
Reality check a pensioner who is 67 now would have been 42 in the year 2000 and would have gone through austerity, high mortgage rates and several financial crisis during their peak earning years and it’s only going to get worse.
Try as you might, I simply can’t muster any sympathy for the generation that benefited from an economy running on easy mode
“Meanwhile, one in five 5 use their hard-earned savings to cover everyday expenses.” I though that a major rationale for saving is to offset reduced income in old age. Why shouldn’t older people spend some of their savings on everyday expenses? I am not denying the reality of poverty for some elderly people but I baulk at the suggestion that their “savings” should be sacrosanct.
The inequality (cost of living) crisis is really what the government should be focusing on but they keep wasting money and effort on small boats!
Millions of non-elderly brits having to skip days with food just to make ends meet – without being given £200+ a week from the government.
Yes, some elderly people have failed to plan properly for retirement, not, this isn’t a bigger issue than working people **starving** to pay rent and bills.
State pension is £1k a month and assuming you get pension credit you also get winter fuel, warm home discount, free travel, free TV licence, council tax discount, and discounted dental and glasses costs. You also pay no mortgage.
The image is that old people are sat in some bleak shack on top of a hill while the wind howls around them, nothing but an agar for warmth and their only blanket is ancient and has holes. The flickering lightbulb they use to do the crossword cuts out so they rummage in their purse through a few coins, eventually finding enough to slot into the meter after which the light bulb coughs its way back on. “Four down, in need of help, 2 letters….hmmm… *ME*” they say to themselves, while their dog yelps. Outside the wind howls on. But if they listen carefully, putting their overgrown thinning hair on the back of the moth-shared armchair they also use as a bed, in the distance they can hear the soft growl of the millennials in their Lamborghinis. Maybe one of them will stop by.
Is it my fault they didn’t plan for retirement like I have had to?
Millions of Brits of all ages are in the same boat.
Arguably the elderly, with a guaranteed pension and a host of top up benefits if that’s their sole income have the greatest level of support against poverty.
Then sell your f**king massive, price inflated house, the absolute front of Boomers
So are the elderly hoarding all the wealth or in destitute poverty…I’m getting mixed signals from the media…
A lot of it is down to a lack of planning and lack of pension/retirement education.
Go down to your local high street. Stop and ask ten random people about their pensions.
1. Ask how much their pot is worth?
2. What is the projected value at their intended retirement age?
3. How much do they think they will need to live on at retirement?
Bonus questions.
1. What is the pension invested in?
2. Growth rate?
How many will be able to confidently answer all?
= I can’t have my heating blasting 24/7 whilst wearing shorts and tank top. Why can’t I have steak everynight?
Ok? Millions of not elderly Brits are the same 🤷♂️
Can we set up a quadruple lock? Make every youngster give 20 percent of their wages to the old lady in the 4 bedroom detached house.
A lot of these boomers were shitty parents. We don’t need them encouraging other unequipped people to have more kids.
Don’t force people, it’s not a necessity and totally normal to just cohabit with a loved one or friends. Or fly solo.
Capitalism is causing a mental health crisis in our children due to harsh parenting practises and crushing women forcing them to do even more than our mothers or grandmothers did. One wage per household should be sufficient to live a decent life in our society. The boomers are facilitating the crumbling of this lifestyle they built, lived and pulled up the ladder behind them.
Its such a hard one as clearly dont want to see anyone suffer of any age, but the pension is not and never has been something that was meant to be the sole income for a household. This is (partially) self inflicted – if someone failed to save anything during the biggest growth period the country has ever seen, then, Im not here to bail them out. The real question is what is the exact level the pension should be to act as the benefit/ safety net it is meant to be? Its certainly not £20k. And dare i say i, should it be means tested? But does that then penalise those who do both to save? Tough questions need strong answers.
there’s millions of adults with children unable to afford basic essentials.
Why do we always cry about pensioners that have had a lifetime to prepare for adulthood but never about children who are forced into a life of poverty
It is A JOKE all these people (not so much pensioners ) who can not afford a loaf of bread, a packet of cereal or are so poor they can not afford to heat their homes or put their lights on all can afford netflix, playstations, x boxes, tablets , laptops, and about four i phones to one house. The usual whine from mummies ” I cannot afford to feed my kids” . they message it on their new galaxy samsungs to say so.
Meanwhile…[https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/25463468.new-homes-bucks-provided-ukrainian-afghan-refugees/](https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/25463468.new-homes-bucks-provided-ukrainian-afghan-refugees/)
Then why are we spending 20 billion on channel illegals every year?
Sad to see that class or generation hostility is taking hold so much. There are rich pensioners and poor pensioners, means testing universal benefits would have helped reduce the amount of money going to those that don’t need it.
The debate should be about wealth extraction by hedge funds and venture capitalists! People being rich isn’t an issue if they pay taxes in the UK and employ UK citizens via UK supply chains.
When our essential services exist to provide profit for other countries or those that don’t pay taxes the wealth leaves the economy. Who gets squeezed? Everyone else. Then the papers or social media generates strife between classes to distract us.
I’m.pretty sure they are the demographic that voted for sequential cycles of Conservative rule and for Brexit. This, surely, is the sweet, sweet fruit of that strategy.
Still, big corporations make record profits after record profit….
They should stop paying for their tv and phone land line. When they stop wasting money we can have a chat about fiscal responsibility and how to apply for a job online.
Meanwhile, tens millions of others are unable to afford basic necessities
If you think the pensioners are struggling imagine all the young people trying to start their lives and can’t get any jobs that don’t pay minimum wage
It is this and the cost of living that people should be protesting about!!!
The same as literally everybody else then.
They had plenty of time to save and prepare for the future, they just didn’t because they thought it looked too bright. Not sure why all the current generations have to sit and swallow it, but the elderly believe they don’t.
We’re in the shit soup together.
That’s alright. There’s an easy government solution to this. Just keep squeezing the poorest in society until they have nothing left. That will save billions.
Scrap pensioners voting rights, they won’t live long enough to see the progress we could make after scrapping the triple lock so why do they get a say in things?
Maybe instead of clinging onto a three bedroom house they should downsize