80 this year so get pension boost

[blythburgh]

Someone I know will be 80 in May and get an increase in their state pension.

Pensioners aged 80 and over receive an addition of 25 pence to their state pension. The age addition was introduced in 1971, in recognition of “the special claims of very elderly people who on the whole need help rather more than others”.

Yes, that is correct she will get an extra 25p which was worth having in 1971. It would have bought stuff in 1971 but I am not sure just how much she can get even in Aldi for the extra 25p.

Just one more example of how the poorest in society get ripped off by successive Govt's. The amount of savings for anyone on any type of benefit never goes up but the amount you can get before you have to pay capital gains tax goes up in every budget.

Take Pension Credit for example. £10,000 savings before they start taking £1 off for every £500 over that amount. When it was introduced Mr and Mrs Joe Bloggs could both have had a decent funeral + wake and still left some money to their children. Now we are almost at the stage when even £10,000 will notcover the cost of 2 decent funerals let alone a wake.

[jaytee]

How many bus tickets would 25p have bought in 1971? Perhaps one or two return tickets a week to your nearby town/city? I remember in 1977 I had to pay 9p each way to travel the 5 miles to and from school, at a reduced rate for under 14s

Today pensioners you can travel all day from 9.30am for free. A 'perk' introduced since 2007.

You win some, you lose some!

[blythburgh]

I agree jaytee todays pensioners do have perks. But the 80+ are the ones most likely to be the very poorest. Most will not have a private pension to top up the state one. And anyone who retired before 2016 will be on a far lower pension than those who retired before that year. A gap that increases year on year.

But my point is how the money in savings/earnings for those on benefits of any kind never get increased but those who are rich enough to pay capital gains tax get the free amount raised every year.

On law for the rich who are often using legal ways to avoid paying tax but another law for the poorest in society.

But to be fair, pensioners do get a better deal than those on other benefits. Pensions will be going up by a bigger percentage than those on universal credit. The ones most likely to have a mortgage/rent rise and children. The ones most likely to have to use a food bank

And as to how far 25p would go then compared to today. I did "A" levels as a mature student including economics. One fact has stayed in my brain ever since. In earning terms £1 in 1960 was worth 14p in 1980. Mainly due to the raging inflation of from 1974. Inflation the Callaghan Govt. was starting to get down. Then Thatcher came to power and kept her promise not to double the rate of VAT. She raised it from 8% to 15% and set inflation rocketing again.