This flying of flags malarkey

[kent_white]

20 minutes ago, BobyBrno said:

The pension is the only benefit that you have to earn. ie. if you don’t pay in you don’t get it. There are many more benefits that are claimed without having to pay a penny in. Start there if we are skint. 

Don't you get the state pension irrespective of what you've paid into it over the years?

[Duck Egg]

Just now, BobyBrno said:

You need 35 years of NI contributions to get a full pension. Other benefits are available as I said for those that haven’t paid in a penny. 

They'd get Guaranteed Pension credit? Not looking for a row just getting it right in my own head. Not that i know anyone in such circs. 

[kent_white]

2 minutes ago, BobyBrno said:

Not sure why genuine hardworking pensioners keep cropping up but there you go. 

On this occasion - because you brought them up! 😁

[Duck Egg]

31 minutes ago, Duck Egg said:

I'm pretty sure this oft repeated statistic has been proven to be way off.  I'll have a dig around but iirc the figures are nothing like as frightening. Something like 1 in 4 in the 1960s and 1 in 3 now. Still an issue like and not one painting a roundabout or shouting "rag head" at passing pedestrians is going to solve.

@kent_white

It was Campbell that said it last time on QT. 1 in 4 in the 1960s when he was growing up. 1 in 3 now.

https://pa.media/blogs/fact-check/fact-check-there-were-four-working-age-adults-per-pensioner-in-1961/

[kent_white]

1 minute ago, Duck Egg said:

@kent_white

It was Campbell that said it last time on QT. 1 in 4 in the 1960s when he was growing up. 1 in 3 now.

https://pa.media/blogs/fact-check/fact-check-there-were-four-working-age-adults-per-pensioner-in-1961/

Thanks mate! 👍

[Lt. Aldo Raine]

I really don't know why anyone would think Alastair Campbell is a reliable source on anything 

[Lt. Aldo Raine]

Things are unlikely to improve as long as the Boomer voting bloc remains as dominant as it is

[Not in Crawley]

20 minutes ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

I really don't know why anyone would think Alastair Campbell is a reliable source on anything 

Maybe because he was at the heart of government for 10 years?

[Not in Crawley]

17 minutes ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

Things are unlikely to improve as long as the Boomer voting bloc remains as dominant as it is

I have faith in the kids - they know what guff their grandparents have done.

[Lt. Aldo Raine]

1 minute ago, Not in Crawley said:

Maybe because he was at the heart of government for 10 years?

Where he was, of course, a bastion of truth

[Ani]

2 hours ago, Duck Egg said:

That's not right is it or am I missing something amidst the semantics? Someone who's been unemployed all their working life will still get a state pension at 66, no?

Certain benefits include payment of your NI. My missus was made redundant due to ill health (Lyme Disease) as she answered the questions honestly despite her work saying she could not work she was denied PIP, but they do pay her NI if she works less than 16 hours a week.

On Pensioners and tax, the full state pension basically uses up you tax allowance so anything you draw down is taxed. Say you draw down £30k, this will give you£24k after tax. So add in the Pension you have about £36k per year, but the Govt via the Pension is paying you £12.5k but you ‘paying back’ £6k per year.

Situation a bit more complex as you can get 25% of your pension tax free but I think a lot use that to pay off lump sum on the mortgage. 
 

Private Pensions are largely paid out via PAYE type schemes so the tax is taken as you get the money. 

[royal white]

3 hours ago, Winchester White said:

This is what annoys me so much. Immigration is 90+ % legal, folk coming here because we allow them to do so. Yet what do all the headlines concentrate on, what is Farage whipping up, on the news (including the BBC) all about? Boat folk.

They have taken over from single mothers and benefit cheats for the gammons (just for Boby 😁)

 

You’ve answered your Own question.

[bolty58]

9 hours ago, paulhanley said:

I don't understand how anybody could have a problem with people flying the flag of the nation in which they were born. Pride in your home country is something that is so normal abroad that it goes without comment. The three countries in which I have travelled most are the USA, Turkey and France. In each of those countries you are never a few steps away from seeing the national flag on show somewhere. 

This is a campaign against those who want to silence people with whom they disagree/don't share a world view. Same old tactic: Call them racist/label them far-right and thus avoid having to have a debate with them, whether that be on border/immigration policy or anything else. JD Vance is right.

People are absolutely sick and tired of wokery and a Labour party so immersed in it that it hasn't just forgotten its working class roots but it actively reviles them.

If seeing Union flags and the St George's cross everywhere irritates the wokes - then it is doing its job. We do not share your values, we do not share your world views and that is never going to change. We are not an homogenised woke society, we are a plurality with a culture of free speech. If you don't like hearing views alternative to your own you have one hell of a lot of growing up to do.

Very well said sir.

[bolty58]

8 hours ago, only1swanny said:

Looks like the smoke screen of "put up flags to show pride" is working. 

I mean nothing says pride like spray painting a roundabout that everyone's going to drive over. 

Go litter picking dressed in a flag and I'll change my mind. 

At Radcliffe there are flags on the bridge with writing on. I'm popping that way later as I want to see what it says.. what do we reckon..

Pride would be your thing?

[bolty58]

4 hours ago, Casino said:

Id think shes worth a lot less than Farage

A proper hater of the UK, that cunt

So would you be if you were born in Stockport.

[MancWanderer]

Am I wrong for absolutely not giving one single shit if someone puts a flag up? Of whatever colour or nationality. In their garden, out of their bedroom window, on a lamppost, on a bridge or wherever 

I’ve far more important things currently vexing me

[Zico]

9 hours ago, Not in Crawley said:

On my street there are only 5 bed houses (not ours) and all have 80 year old single or couples in them. They shouldn't have to move out but they want to stay in the area, but the gardens and upkeep of their homes are too much.

Our next door neighbours would.love to move into a flat local to the area and the house be sold to a family, but there isnt the properties and there isnt loads of families who can now afford the property.

And still they are building 5/6 bed homes locally because thats what makes the money.

As a nation we need to seriously sort this out, other nations do but for some reason we seem to be incapable.

Sounds perfect for some HMOs all that

[only1swanny]

7 hours ago, bolty58 said:

Pride would be your thing?

Not quite, but i'll stand up for peoples right to celebrate it properly. 

I'd be saying the exact same thing if people put pride flags on lamp posts and half arsed sprayed rainbows on street furniture.. 

 

[BobyBrno]

10 hours ago, kent_white said:

Don't you get the state pension irrespective of what you've paid into it over the years?

No. 

[BobyBrno]

11 hours ago, Duck Egg said:

They'd get Guaranteed Pension credit? Not looking for a row just getting it right in my own head. Not that i know anyone in such circs. 

No such thing as guaranteed pension credit. It’s there if anyone fits the criteria and has to be applied for. It’s one of the ‘other’ benefits I mentioned. 

Edited August 26, 2025 by BobyBrno

[BobyBrno]

11 hours ago, Duck Egg said:

@kent_white

It was Campbell that said it last time on QT. 1 in 4 in the 1960s when he was growing up. 1 in 3 now.

https://pa.media/blogs/fact-check/fact-check-there-were-four-working-age-adults-per-pensioner-in-1961/

I also mentioned that pensioners now pay more tax now than they did in the sixties. This is the best I can find.

 

Pensioners paid significantly less tax in the sixties than they do now, due to the elimination of the higher tax-free allowance for older people, increased reliance on private pensions, and a freeze in tax thresholds. In the sixties, a much smaller proportion of pensioners paid tax, but by 2022–23, 62% of those aged 65 and over paid income tax, a rise from just 36% in 1990–91, with this trend expected to continue. 

 

 

 

[Duck Egg]

13 minutes ago, BobyBrno said:

No such thing as guaranteed pension credit. It’s there if anyone fits the criteria and has to be applied for. It’s one on the ‘other’ benefits I mentioned. 

Eh?

'Guaranteed Pension Credit is a UK Government benefit that tops up the income of low income people who have reached state pension age'

 

[BobyBrno]

21 minutes ago, Duck Egg said:

Eh?

'Guaranteed Pension Credit is a UK Government benefit that tops up the income of low income people who have reached state pension age'

 

😊 Nice edit. It isn’t guaranteed. It’s means tested and depends on lots of things. It has to be applied for and will include partners income as well as savings.

The State Pension is GUARANTEED if a person has the qualifying years NI payments. I don’t get the full pension as I ‘opted out’ during my time in the company pension scheme. I am not entitled to pension credit. 

[Duck Egg]

14 minutes ago, BobyBrno said:

😊 Nice edit. It isn’t guaranteed. It’s means tested and depends on lots of things. It has to be applied for and will include partners income as well as savings.

The State Pension is GUARANTEED if a person has the qualifying years NI payments. I don’t get the full pension as I ‘opted out’ during my time in the company pension scheme. I am not entitled to pension credit. 

I'd not edited anything? 

What I was getting at in the original post and what Guaranteed Pension Credit does, is give a minimum state pension to those who may have had a lifetime or long periods of unemployment for whatever reason.

 

[crawshawbooth]

10 minutes ago, BobyBrno said:

😊 Nice edit. It isn’t guaranteed. It’s means tested and depends on lots of things. It has to be applied for and will include partners income as well as savings.

The State Pension is GUARANTEED if a person has the qualifying years NI payments. I don’t get the full pension as I ‘opted out’ during my time in the company pension scheme. I am not entitled to pension credit. 

If i got here on a boat this weekend , am 65 years old, do i have to live in a hotel until my pension comes though at 67 ?

PS i dont have any savings cos i gave them to the man holding the dingy still, in the water when i got in.

I am looking for reassurance before i Whatsapp my mates in France , will i end up destitute and living on the streets?

Or will the state provide for me until the end of my days?

My National Insurance contributions are a little low!