Actually, the UK is rated* above Belgium, France, Spain, Poland and Austria. Pretty much in the middle, in fact. Plus, some are means tested- e.g.in Australia you can receive zero state pension if you have made your own provision. *2020 Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index by Country
@@Tensquaremetreworkshop The government of Margaret Thatcher removed the inflation link from pensions. The restoration of this in 2010 has, relatively, still not made up on that. "The State Pension is not remotely generous..."... from a spokesperson for Hargreaves Lansdowne ( UK Wealth Managers ). I'm a pensioner, and receive just the state pension. I can run an old car by dint of extraordinary frugality in other ways, eg almost every piece of clothing I wear, bar underwear, is secondhand, bought from either eBay or charity shops. That includes shoes. A year past October, my electric tariff increased by 8%. In May this year, there was another 8% increase. A few weeks ago, there was another increase, of 12%. Things have become ridiculous. And petrol costs have rocketed to their highest for many years. Inflation at 3.1% ? A sick joke, and a straightforward lie.
@@andrewpreston4127 It can be true without being useful. Inflation figures are a valid macroeconomic indicator, but do not (can not) apply to individuals. I remember the year student fees went up, so inflation went up, so I got a bigger pension. Huh? The state pension is not intended to be other than a floor. Governments and the industry have spent decades telling everyone that. My own state pension, with its grad pen and SERPs element, plus a one year deferment, is more than enough for my wife and I to live on. Indeed, it has increased by 26% against my costs over the last ten years. So it is a mixed bag. It is for each to make our own arrangements- we are all adults.
It is an absolute disgrace. There is nothing 'whopping' about 8% of the meagre amount of the state pension. I for one, will not be voting for this government again. They will pay at the next election
Thanks for the comment Valerie. Its a fair point of view, it was a measure put into place and when it became more extreme than they were comfortable with, they changed the rules... if only temporarily.
8% of nothing has always been nothing. As many here have already commented, UK has one of the lowest pensions in the developed world, lower than most of Europe, lower than the U.S. .
@john hopokins Politics is the art of the possible. All parties face increasing numbers of pensioners and limited number of contributors. It is going from a ratio of 4:1 to 3:1- how much tax will people pay? Do you upset the 1 or the 3?- not hard maths.
Never trust a Politician Tory or otherwise,They have all destroyed this country and it’s English way of Life for there own good.How thick people vote for them I’ll never understand.it’s a great pity that non Voters all have to suffer under them.
State pension £179 per week, council tax £60 per week, after paying for food, water, electric, gas, TV licence etc there's nothing left. Pensioners get about half the minimum working wage, try living on that people, this government should be ashamed.
I remember the time when people looked forward to retirement. Not any more, it's work until you drop. There are some of us that do not have a workplace pension and the thought of living on £185.00 per week is terrifying. Perhaps I'll get lucky and drop dead before I get to pensionable age (6 years from now).
@@ThePersian61 Not only that but if you draw the state pension at retirement age and continue to work you will have to pay 40% on earnings above £12.000 to the taxman. It's disgraceful but it's what the public accept because they've been broken by successive governments and their billionaire friends ownership of UK mainstream media.
Yes its surprising when placed up against other countries that the UK is one of the worst in the developed world for the replacement value of its state pension!
Yes that's correct!l UK pension is the Lowest in EUROPE and we in the UK are paid some of the lowest wages .On top of that we pay some on the highest taxes than most other European countries. Also fact is pensioners like yourself have repeatedly voted for Tory Governments, therefore you totally deserve what you have got coming.
@@cwwiss1 Fortunately many pensioners do Not suffer from Dementia, and can remember the way pensioners and workers have always been treated by Conservative Governments. Millionaires being allowed to rob pension funds etc.
So, they exclude 'volatile' salaries, but not the volatile Restaurant and Hotels CPI component. Anybody think restaurant prices have gone down? Thought not.
Thanks Maxine!! That’s very kind! Yes it will, if the NHS pension is in payment or if a deferred member. If a current member then CPI is not used but a different increase is applied based on treasury notes. Of course it couldn’t be simple!! 🤣
Hello, multi million £ contracts given to M Ps mates. £80 a week for the unemployed. Billions of £s for workers to sit on their arses at home. Pensioners not 1 penny. Thanks for that Tory government.
I think mine goes up to about £ 144. NEXT YEAR!! If you divide the this by 40 which is an average weeks working hours. It is £3.60 per hour. At present it is £3.50 per hour. So luckily for me at 75 (I was so looking forward to free tv). I have a part time job. 👠🍰shoes and cake. So on Jan 1st 60 years working. No bank holiday in those days. It’s about right really as my weekly wage in 1961 was £3.50 per week. Bingo
I like your videos, high on facts and nice and clear. Just as a suggestion, recommend you sit square in front of the camera. Keep it up and your subs will climb further as I think your informative finance videos are better than most.
Thanks for the kind words Graham, really appreciate it and feedback is always welcome. When working on this stuff its really hard to know how it will be viewed and whether anyone will want to know about this stuff when coming up with ideas. My primary aim is someone comes away having learnt something or found the answer to a question etc.
Sorry, no. Mexico is rated 35th, UK 15th.* Personally, my state pension alone covers all my wife and I's cost of living including running two cars. Leaving hers, and our occupational pensions, to pay for the luxuries. *2020 Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index by Country
@@gordonbradley3241 This is a complex issue, and it is best to quote your source. For example, in Mexico 6.5% of salary is invested, and the retiree can then take an annuity or drawdown. There is no guarantee of amount, it depends entirely on earnings. If life expectancy is lower (and it is, by six years!) then the annuity will, of course, be higher. Hardly something to celebrate... The cost of living is also important, and how many services are state supplied. All I can say is that my source rated Mexico much lower.
The four main costs for pensioners which probably amount to 75% of their weekly budget are 1) Council tax (5%+ ) 2) Heating (30% - 100% ) 3) Food (5%-10%) 4) Transport (10%+) . Even an 8% rise inline with wage inflation doesn't cover the increases. So 3.2% .... !
This is so true, and so misleading by people doing these videos, they always forget to mention that the state pension is taxed, and that very very few people get the full new amount of the state pension. If you had a contracted out pension scheme, as practically all public sector workers do, your state pension is reduced by quite a lot.
Thanks for the comments!! 👍 I’d agree that the utilities especially gas will massively outpace the increase of the State pension e.g. the rate of CPI. Do I think that is fair… no not at all, the use of CPI over RPI has flattened out the increases and reduced the overall cost. In terms of tax the state pension although taxable income is paid gross and typically sits in someone’s personal allowance. Thanks again for the comments.
Thanks for the comment. I think it would be impossible to factor in all the variations in terms of contracting out. Although a large chunk of retirees will be impacted by that, you can no longer contract out but ultimately the % increase is still the same.
@@EdmundBaileyUK Being ex-military I was contracted out I joined in 1971 and left in 95 I had no option but to be contracted out then in 2016 when they changed the goalposts again I had no option but to accept them clawing back money from my AOP which started this year.
@@shezant7 Since the full state pension is less than the personal income tax allowance, you won't be paying tax on it. What I can't understand is why the full state pension is about half the minimum living wage (for someone working 40 hrs/wk). Are pensioners supposed to live only part-time, perhaps live only every other day?
Thank you Edmund. I am using your information to learn and advise my accountancy clients. Most of my clients are not wealthy and have to consider them being on state benefits and how an annuity would effect that; i.e. often better to cash the pension in and clear any loans etc.
Thanks John and thank for the kind words. Yes its an area, that from the comments, i can tell i need to pay more attention to. The impact of pension saving, pension income and state pension has on benefits as it is very significant for some.
Thanks so much, a nice video albeit a little bit misleading. You point out that the new state pension is £9339 rising to £9627. Hardly anybody gets this full amount. If you have worked and have an occupational pension, (contracted out as they mostly are) then your state pension is reduced by quite a lot. After a lifetime of work, on the new pension, I get £8190 because I worked for a living. AFTER TAX. -. YES IT IS TAXED, I get £6552 (£126 per week). A 3% increase will raise this to £130 a week. WOW. It is quite derisory and nowhere near the minimum living wage, is it! Not intended to criticize you by the way , just the government! Keep up the information.
But if you were contracted out, you get a bigger occupational pension. You do NOT get taxed on an income of £8190- you get a personal allowance of £12500. If you are paying tax, it is because your occupational pension takes it over this amount. And they never tax the state pension- you receive it gross. It will, of course, affect your tax code...
@@Tensquaremetreworkshop you are quite, the point I was making is that the state pension IS taxable income, something that is often overlooked, and is paid gross because HMRC are unable to deduct tax from it through the PAYE system. Whichever way you like to word it, it is taxable. For example, when I started getting my state pension, the amount of occupational pension I received reduced by approximately £140 per month. This is because my state pension was offset against my personal allowance. People often think that because it is paid gross that it isn't taxed, which of course, isnt always the case, Of course, if your total income is below the personal allowance you don't pay tax.
@@shezant7 Your occupational pension is taxable because you got tax relief on your contributions. You chose to pay tax on the way out, rather than on the way in. If you (as I partly did) save after tax money for your pension, returns from that (in an ISA) are tax free. It was your choice. The fact that some of it (the rest of your personal allowance) is tax free is a bonus.
@@Tensquaremetreworkshop thank you for your comments again, although not quite correct. This will be my last comment on the matter. When I sent Edmund comment on his video I was talking specifically about the state pension which is taxable income and is not a flat rate which everybody gets. The fact that I pay tax on an occupational pension is because it is classed as taxable income. When I started contributing to my occupational pension 45 years ago, there was no such thing as an ISA.
@@shezant7 State pension is taxable because it is income and therefore income tax applies. How else could it work? Pension savings are only taxable if you claimed tax relief on them. Seems fair to me. You pay tax on income, either now or later.
Thanks for an informative video. I am a little confused by the info covering qualifying time before 2016. I qualified for my first Pension in 2014. Iam I to understand that I will receive LESS than somone startin the Pension claim later than me? Is it only £141.85 a week for me? Thanks so much for yur upload. I have subscribed for later updates etc.
Thank you for the kind comment Alan. In terms of a percentage the basic state pension will also increase by 3.1% but this is from a lower base as the basic state pension was more complex in it was a combination of basic and additional whilst requiring fewer qualifying years, 30 for basic and 35 for new state pension and an earlier pension age. The basic state pension increased to £7,377. But in essence it was still a 3.1% increase but from a different base level. Hope that helps Alan.
@@EdmundBaileyUK Hi Edmund. Thanks for the response. I qualified for a FULL pension as I worked for over 40 years and retired at 65. I currently receive £192.91 a week. So I assume that will increase by 3.1%.. Is that correct?
Thanks for your very informative information. A question please I left the UK forty years ago and think I've only paid in for nine years. Can I buy a year to make up the ten years require and if yes how much would it be. Many thanks
Yes, you can buy years. I have a friend that moved to Canada at age 22 - he paid for each year after, and now draws a full state pension- on top of his Canadian pension.
My state pension equates to little over £1.00 per hour. £175 divided by 168 hours per week. To live comfortably I need £2.00 per hour. (£50.00 per day). To live in luxury I need £4.00 per hour (£100 per day). Therefore although I have worked since I was sixteen, I am having to work after retirement and what do they do? Bring in NI for working retirees next year..
Like in the day road tax thinking it's going to road repairs, as all the money you paid in for your pension successive governments have spent it always someone else's problem, if your lucky to get to pension age it appears your now treated as unemployed on benefits, a liability, they spent our inheritance now they need to be reminded oaps vote in large numbers
Thanks Wayne, it will be interesting to see whether this has an impact on how people vote, its certainly looks that way based on a lot of the comments i have read.
I reached 65 in 2017 , when my pension was 155 per week . But living in Thailand since 2015 , it has been frozen at that figure . I paid my N I C and taxes since leaving school in 1968 and this is how many of of us are treated . Trebles all round ...NOT.
Edmund, I believe from checking the HMRC site that I am eligible for 35 years PROVIDED I pay some 4 years of NI. Some of those years are part paid, some not paid at all. I want to pay this, how do I go about it?
It was blindingly obvious state pensions would not go up by 8% as it was an artificial "big dipper" in earnings caused by covid, and there's no downside on the measurement. We have average pensions but we pay very little in, and are often not renting property in retirement. To get a UK state pension you'd need £230k in a private scheme which hugely exceeds what most people ever pay in. If I earn £60k for 35 years and you earn £20k for 35 years you get the same pension as me, and what you're likely to get has been a known quantity for years.
@@EdmundBaileyUK just as a footnote, My company was taken over in 2000 but we were guaranteed RPI pensions but in 2016 when I was due to retire the pension admin said the terms had changed and I’d only be entitled to CPI but I had kept any pension correspondence in a folder and won my case, So never ever discard documents pension or tax related
of course we must not forger that allowances are not going to rise so any one with pension income more than 12500 a year will lose 20% of the increase so nett the new state pension increase is more like 2.4%
@@EdmundBaileyUK I rang them constantly,got through and finally made a fuss,complaints,e-mailed my MP and told them I had last week. They rang me on Monday 25th Oct and will be getting back payment on the 1st Nov and then on the 7th . I was given a tip to start ringing just about 7.59am put it down ring and repeat. I think they got fed up with me ringing constantly. But we shouldn't have to do this. I couldn't apply on-line because I didn't have the required ID.
So sorry to read that, it’s utterly unacceptable and we are finding administration and service levels are poor across most providers and continue to be bad. It really shouldn’t be like this when looking to get your State Pension!
All is a big shame because everything is upsetted now from work to planning. At the moment I see my partner can barely live on his pension, so I save as much as I can but I am loosing my job now, so how will I get to pension age, it's 12 years to get there for me!?? if I start using my saving, then nothing will be left for pension time!??! I worked hard so far even with 2-3 jobs and made savings but none of these jobs do me for daily life now. If we have some saving my partner says, we are not entitled to benefits?!?!?! I want to give up, give in altogether because I am toooo tired now to try to do my best and see no hope. In this country one needs to be super wealthy or super poor, but in between I have exhausted all my hopes, let my health to the work and yet won't be recognised by the government when I loose the job with 12 years to go which seems impossible with all 0 hour contact out there!?!? They make you believe on jobs but this is just tons of email for nothing. In my field my job has gone to Philippines, so this is not just my job, it's all efforts that have gone as well. Transferable skills is a joke coz we can't compete with Asian salaries with the bills we have to pay here!?!!1
Thanks for the comment. That was one of the recommendations by the OECD when reviewing the UK state Pension. Especially as there are a number of individuals on low incomes that simply have no personal pension provision.
If your income is over 12,570 then you are only going to receive 80% of the 3.1% increase, so in reality a 2.48% increase, well below inflation. The Chancellor has frozen the personnel tax free allowance for the next 5 years at £10,570, so any increase related to inflation will lose 20% automatically for the next 5 years. My state pension is currently £140.75 per week, based on a 38 hour week, that is only £3.70 per hour against a national minimum wage per hour of £9.50. I was lucky, I have other pensions and savings, but pity anyone trying to manage on this meagre amount.
Boris and his rich mates showing, yet again, that their manifesto wasn't worth the paper it was written on. They must have used Andrex so that it could be easily flushed away.
Yes, the mess at DWP is appalling and I think the conservatives have been surprised by the backlash to this suspension, however it would be surprising if it is overturned!
ITS ALRIGHT IF YOU ARE SELF EMPLOYED AND GET PAID IN CASH THEN YOU CAN BE SELECTIVE ABOUT WHAT YOU DECLARE. ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT IF I DO THAT THEN ITS ILLEGAL. IF THE GOVERNMENT DO IT THEN ITS OK
OK IAN! WHY ARE WE SHOUTING?! Although I would be absolutely amazed if the gov doesn’t win the vote to keep the suspension in place and that the Lords get their way… I’ll guess we’ll see! 🤷♂️
I hope u know that our illegal immigrants are housed in £250per week( night) hotels and there are 20,000 of them so far this year, but can’t pay people who have paid into the system for 50 years
A lot of moaning in the comments about the triple lock not being maintained. It demonstrates a lot of naivety. The only reason average wages growth over the year it is usually calculated was such a high number was due to a statistical anomaly, the base effect, triggered by an unprecedented intervention into all of our lives - deliberately shutting down the economy. Peoples' wages have not grown that much in reality, not those who worked through. If the government had foolishly stuck to the policy, we'd all be paying, for the rest of our lives (those who still pay taxes). There is a vast amount that the civil service and the politicians can be legitimately criticised for over the last 2 years, but suspending the triple lock commitment on this one occasion was one of the few sensible things they have done.
