i am now officially a benefits scrounger

[big-all]

Have you had your first payment yet BA? They messed mine up and I got 8 weeks in one hit as an initial payment. That was a nice amount to have I recall.

DWD

first payment due on the 29th leaving enough cash in my account to cover all bills for two further weeks

[big-all]

Nice one BA,I’ve still got 7 years to go lol, I can get free prescriptions in a couple of weeks lol

dont forget you can get a pensioners rail card for £30 at 60 as well

[Cannyfixit]

Nice one BA,I’ve still got 7 years to go lol, I can get free prescriptions in a couple of weeks lol

dont forget you can get a pensioners rail card for £30 at 60 as well

thanks Al

[Rorschach]

Nice one BA,I’ve still got 7 years to go lol, I can get free prescriptions in a couple of weeks lol

dont forget you can get a pensioners rail card for £30 at 60 as well

That's useful, it makes an unaffordable train ticket, slightly less unaffordable.

[Job and Knock]

Nice one BA,I’ve still got 7 years to go lol, I can get free prescriptions in a couple of weeks lol

dont forget you can get a pensioners rail card for £30 at 60 as well

That's useful, it makes an unaffordable train ticket, slightly less unaffordable.

I reckon it saves me £500 to £1000 a year - but then I tend to travel a lot more by public transport

[Chippo1]

I use my railcard all the time for work as well , charge them the £30 as well

[Rorschach]

I reckon it saves me £500 to £1000 a year - but then I tend to travel a lot more by public transport

public transport not really an option. Bus service is far too expensive and slow and trains only affordable if I book months in advance and only travel alone. All other scenarios I can travel by car, and park for less than the cost of public transport. Sometimes it breaks even if I travel alone but if I travel with my partner or family then the car is definitely the cheapest option.

Priced up a cheap trip to London, we usually go once or twice a year. Even booking in advance the train ticket was so expensive that not only did we travel for less by car including petrol and parking etc, but it was faster to go by car and the money saved paid for a cheap hotel room on the journey allowing us to split the travel and get an extra day to enjoy the city with much less stress. Not to mention the benefits of having the car for luggage etc.

[big-all]

yehahh first pension payment in £455 part month
from now on £532 every four weeks so £133 weekly

[dewaltdisney]

It is a nice feeling to get something back that you paid for when there are so many around who get money from a fund they never paid in to. I know a married woman who gets half state pension and she never worked a stroke in her life and to add insult to injury she was one of the last who qualified at 60. Mrs D was always miffed at her, as she worked all her life and had to wait until she was 65 for her pension.

DWD

[big-all]

ironically because i had more than 35 years stamps was entiitled to the full £164 or what ever it is
buuut because i didn't realise living off my railway pension and savings for 6 years and 4 months and leaving a big gap in the stamp contribution would reduce my pension to £128
now had the option to pay around 1k on stamps and bump it up to £143 that i was going to do about february

anyway the the railway pension is linked to the state pension to a small percent as in every year iff the inflation is greater than say 2.5% the government will make up the difference to the say 2.8% or what ever rpi is
i chose the level pension option so was expecting around an increase from £78 a week to around £80

now i got a letter on my birthday saying something like because you where opted out off the full pension your weekly pension will now be £111 or £31-33 more so almost exactly the difference between the £128 and £163

now i chose not to bother paying the 1k iin stamps as there is a fair chance the increase in state pension would reduce my railway pension by the same amount

any way the main point i am making is although you can make up some shortfalls in contributions dont assume the full 35 years will give you the full new pension if you choose to retire and live off another pension source and not pay insurance contributions for a few years

[Argyll]

The UK pension is the worst in the developed world.

We've been screwed over by successive Labour and Conservative governments.

[big-all]

its certainly better than it used to be 5 years ago from about £113 to £163

[etaf]

i was told by the pension dept , that I had paid enough contributions 33 years and would get a full pension 2010
NOW i find they changed the rules and that i have a shortfall on NI contributions !!!!!!! between 2010 & 2016 when I retired at 60
and now paying the NI again
so if you check the pension, remember it can change - I may challenge this when I'm at retirement age now 66+ as i had a letter to say i would get full pension.
I think i worked out i would need to live till 84 to break even on the shortfall and what I had to pay to make it up !!!!
my poor partner missed out on 60 by a few months and now she is having to wait till 66+

so be warned , need to check and don't rely on previous promises !!!

[Hitch]

Roll on 2050

[Dave54]

Roll on 2050

Sounds a long way off, but it's not.
Me and my missus were only talking about something last night that happened in the late 80s.
It doesn't seem that long ago looking back. It's scary really.