Shannon B

@JimJamSWFC94 @jm29810861 @db_fink You won't be better off if the state pension goes, thats the reality. You will only be worse off when you get old.

@AlbertWinWin @jm29810861 @db_fink Hypothetically speaking I’d be tens of thousands of pounds better off each year if I didn’t have to pay any tax, but obviously that’s not going to happen.

The problem with this boomer debate for me is that they're completely unwilling to understand how the economic context has changed over the past 40 years.

@JimJamSWFC94 @jm29810861 @db_fink How much money will you get in your pocket if the state pension is cut today? Do you really think NI will go down?

@AlbertWinWin @jm29810861 @db_fink If they saved as they supposedly claimed, they don’t need it do they? People would prefer to have money in their pockets instead of paying taxes for greedy boomers who don’t need it.

@JimJamSWFC94 @jm29810861 @db_fink Cut the state pension, go on. That will only make the future selves of the current working generation poorer. NI won't come down, no-one will be better off except the government. It's so short-sighted to even say that as if it's some kind of 'win' over the current pensioners.

@jm29810861 @db_fink If most of you “put away something for the future” then I don’t suppose you mind if pensions got cut all together?

@annaroseridgway Take away the triple lock and what do we gain as a society. If the younger working generation think they will suddenly pay less NI, I suspect they will be in for a surprise. It's just the young voting to make their future selves poorer thinking they will gain more now.

What fascinates me about the online debate around the triple lock is the strange coalitions it creates. I’m fairly libertarian and fiscally conservative, yet the moment I question giving an ever-rising universal benefit to millionaire pensioners, I’m called a “lefty”. At the same time, many people on the left agree with my position, as do many on the right. I think this is exactly what Steve Davies means by the “great realignment”: the old left/right divide has broken down. The argument is no longer really about economics. It is about identity, age, and status. Questioning whether a heavily indebted country should keep transferring more to one of its wealthiest age groups is not socialism. It is simply asking who pays, who benefits, and whether the system still makes sense.

@OliverJBradshaw ...I am not a boomer and I am not a pensioner but in my lifetime I have known 3 recessions (one as a child). My parents got laid off, I have been laid off, I may even be laid off again in the near future. I have applied for hundreds of jobs and got turned down. It's life.

@OliverJBradshaw ...yes it takes years not weeks to save a deposit to for a house, yes you now need to pay the mortgage even when interest rises, yes you do need to pay for food when inflation rises, no a degree does not guarantee a promotion, payrise, or even immediate respect in the workplace..

This weekend, boomers have been calling my generation entitled, ungrateful, and straight up lazy for questioning the state pension triple lock. Apart from a barrage of playground insults, the same old arguments kept coming: “We paid in our time,” “It’s your turn now,” “Just move somewhere cheaper,” “16% of you lot are out of work,” and “Stop buying coffee and going out.” Here’s the nasty truth they conveniently ignore. You talk about a fair “pay-it-forward” deal. But back when you worked, there were roughly five workers per pensioner. Today it’s 3.6. By the time we retire, it’ll be closer to 2.5. You had far more people sharing the load. That contract got stretched thin on our backs. You say you worked harder, faced 15% mortgages, had no luxuries, and Uni was basically free. Interest rates were brutal, sure. But you bought houses for 3-4 times your wages. Ours cost 8-10 times or more. Over-60s now hold 55% of the country’s entire housing wealth, nearly £3.84 trillion, mostly mortgage-free. Many of you enjoyed full mortgage interest tax relief (MIRAS) until 2000. We pay sky-high rents with zero tax relief while real wages have barely grown against inflation for 15 years. My generation was sold a lie, study hard, get the degree, land the good job, buy the house, pay your National Insurance, and the system will look after you. I know friends and colleagues who followed that script to the letter, straight-A students, graduate schemes, full time work from day one. Now in their late twenties, they’re still renting, saddled with £50k+ in loans, watching every spare pound vanish into rent and bills, while being called “entitled” for noticing the numbers don’t add up. “Just buy a house somewhere cheaper!” Sure, in towns where property is dirt cheap and jobs are non existent. Good careers don’t magically appear out of thin air. That advice is pure fantasy. “Just cut back on coffee and nights out”? As if skipping a £4 latte can magically fund a house deposit when homes cost 8-10 times our wages. Our money has far less purchasing power than yours ever did. We spend nearly 30% of our income on housing (up from 20% twenty years ago), and under-30s households devote 70% of their budget to essentials versus just 56% for over-65s. We’re not splashing on luxuries, we don’t want to live like hermits just to scrape by, and nor should we have to. You throw out the 16% youth unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds and call us bone idle. That’s not laziness, it’s a brutal job market. Job vacancies have tanked. We’re stuck in retail and hospitality roles that get cut first when times are tough, five times more likely to be on zero-hours contracts. Nearly a million of us (12.8%) are NEET simply because the jobs don't exist. Many of us are already paying National Insurance from the first insecure job we have, yet we’re still expected to bankroll your guaranteed above inflation rises. Work in Britain no long pays. The state pension already costs £138 billion a year, the second biggest single expense after the NHS. The triple lock alone will add £15.5 billion extra every year by 2030, three times the original forecast. Pension spending is heading from ~5% of GDP toward 7.7% in the coming decades, with more than half the extra burden coming directly from the triple lock itself. Waste exists elsewhere and public-sector pensions are far too generous, but this locked in, exploding cost is the elephant in the room, and they all need reviewing. I’m not pitting generations against each other or begrudging anyone a dignified retirement. But the system you defend hands one generation guaranteed rises no matter what the economy does, while the shrinking number of us paying the bill gets saddled with a heavier and heavier bag. I’m not against pensioners. I’m against a policy that’s mathematically doomed and dumps the heaviest load on fewer and fewer contributors. The truly entitled position is demanding a blank cheque forever while slapping down facts as “division” or “whining” or pretending our small treats are the problem. So go ahead, tell me exactly where I’m wrong. But this time skip the playground insults calling me and my generation entitled and lazy. I’m done being polite about a system that screws my generation while you demand a blank cheque.

@ZedongSecretary @geedeeaitch @BenedictSpence It is how it works. The state pension payment is calculated on contributions over a period of time which is NI contributions over a number of years. If you contribute NI payments for 35 years you qualify for a full state pension. Regardless of income.

@geedeeaitch @BenedictSpence Except that isn’t how it works lol

On my way to tell all the Boomers the UK state pension is a benefit.

@kokeshimum Ok. Remove the state pension. How much NI will you be saving per month?

I want pensioners to have a really nice comfortable retirement. And today the majority of them do and would continue to do so without the WFA and without the triple lock. Some would even do so without the state pension at all. Thats the point people are making.

@dstephenh99 @mandotheway100 @Jenny_1884 The state pension is based on contributions, full contributions = full pension payment (although that is going down). That's the deal. Anyone who has full contributions, aka 35years, gets a pension regardless of their income when working.

@mandotheway100 @Jenny_1884 At this stage I think the state pension collapses before I get there and would love the money to invest privately. The state pension isn’t an investment pot though, it’s a pyramid scheme. The money you paid was spent as soon as it hit the exchequer

Just remember after pensioners finished working hard all their working lives in order to receive a paltry small pension, these same pensioners are now helping to look after their own grandchildren free of charge so their children can work & not have to pay for childcare. Also these same pensioners are helping to look after their own elderly parents as they are living much longer. So to all these people out there that keep moaning about pensioners, they are still doing their bit to keep this country going.

@StoneAgeDodger @2LivesCid £5.50 a day for each day for someone who works 20 days a week = £110 a month. Over 5 years that comes to £6600. Now do the same with lunch vs packed lunch and bottle of soda vs multipack and soon you can save £10 per working day. That's £200 a month. It's not fantasy.

@2LivesCid Giving up a daily £5.50 coffee to save up for a 220K house deposit of 5% will take over 5.5 years. Just saying your post is mostly based in fantasy.

I remember when a coffee cost 25p in the local spit and sawdust cafe The young today are happy to pay £5.50 for a hazelnut latte in Starbucks than save up to buy a house. Thick as pig mince..

@turnbullissimo @exRAF_Al I'm Gen X and I didn't get totally free Uni, had a loan. My parents who are boomers didn't go to University. My Mum who passed the 11+ exams didn't actually go to Grammar school as the family couldn't afford the uniform. I only personally know 1 boomer who went to Uni.

@exRAF_Al Did you get free uni?

I bought my first home in the early 90s, the mortgage absorbed half of my salary. I had a number of young children, and part-time jobs. I couldn’t afford a car big enough to put pushchairs in. What I didn’t do was sneer about the generation before me. They had also grafted.

@Azul_76 @Anonotabot @SandyofSuffolk 👌

@AlbertWinWin @Anonotabot @SandyofSuffolk Where did I say don’t try? So much preaching needs a little more realism

You can buy a nice little house like this in Suffolk with a 5% deposit of £6,000. Nationwide, Barclays and others are offering good deals for first time buyers with only a 5% deposit. But then you'd have to forego your gap year in the Far East and Antipodes or your fancy wedding. Poor you. Boo hoo. 🤣

@Azul_76 @Anonotabot @SandyofSuffolk What is your point? Don't try because house prices might rise? You can have £6000 in 5 years or £0 in 5 years. Make your choice. Everyone who has saved up a deposit in the last 30 years has done so in a rising market.

@AlbertWinWin @Anonotabot @SandyofSuffolk Do you think in five years time the amount of deposit required will still be £6,000?

@og_69x @BruceHBond @SandyofSuffolk Why the drama? I used to live in Chester and travelled to London, even that only took 2hrs20mins. I don't know where people are commuting for 8 hours a day are travelling from for their 'career' except in your head.

@Longtallhel23 @BruceHBond @SandyofSuffolk You've conveniently ignored the point about people and their careers though, is it feasible to commute 8 hours a day, yes or no? 🫵🏼

Excuse after pathetic lame excuse. These youngsters want everything for nothing.🙄

@Anonotabot @SandyofSuffolk That is where I started. On warmer days I walk and don't get the bus (£1.75 each way).

@Anonotabot @SandyofSuffolk People make cuts of their choosing if they want to and can. I have a mortgage but want to pay it off in the next 7 years. All my spare cash goes towards that goal. I looked at my spends and saved £10 a day. I get off the tube outside of zone 1 and walk, no coffees, packed lunch.

@Anonotabot @SandyofSuffolk £6k can be saved with £100 a month for 5 years. Or if part of a couple £50 a month each for 5 years. Even better if a couple can find £100 a month each then 2.5 years.

@SandyofSuffolk Yes because they can easily save up 6 grand while paying extortionate rents,council tax,petrol and food prices Sandy… Fuck all the way off Boomer.

@Chaosx_chaos @THEREALWARDINO @Tekeee When I was in my 20s I shared with friends. At 26 I moved in with my boyfriend in a rental. My parents (Boomers) worked in the hotel industry and lived in staff rooms on the premises. My granddad worked on the railways and had lodgings with an elderly lady.

@THEREALWARDINO @Tekeee Most generations didn't "need to get roommates", why should you live with strangers to get a place? Your parents didn't. Your parents parents didn't.

Rent for one bedroom is $1,700. That means you need over $4,600 a month just to qualify. Show me the 24 year old making $71,000 a year for a starter apartment. I’ll wait

@pharo12g Gen Z have had the best childhood of any generation. They now realise they can't keep themselves in the way their parents did, and yes it takes some graft over a period of time to do achieve that.

@0xleegenz GenZ wants the life of their parents without having to work and sacrifice the 30 yrs to get it.

GenZ is looking at 600k+ houses for 20k cars, a degree that puts you in debt for a job that pay 45k All to being told this is normal