How do the "Have Nots" get on in life?

Sorry, just to clarify I'm mid forties and have only 14 years service.

I've worked all my life in other very low paid jobs where I couldn't afford a private pension before joining the Civil Service. I applied for lots of better paid jobs/Government jobs for many years to better myself but it was years before I was successful.

They've raised the Civil Service pension age to claim it to 67. That's now. They're talking about and no doubt going to keep raising it to the point where nobody will live long enough to claim it imo. The amount is almost worthless anyway. The state pension's going the same way.

Jalima is right, you would have needed 40 years service and at a high level to have had a decent pension. It was much better years ago until they changed the rules. It's even worse for new recruits. Hardly an incentive!

It is not based on final salary either stayanotherday - which I found when I retired. It was an average of the previous three years pay.

However - I am not complaining and saying I am a 'Have Not' as we don't have as many outgoings now as we had for years.

Oh no Jalima, that's even worse. It's just as well your outgoings reduce as so has your income.

I retired from the civil service almost 9 years ago and I believe I was told that basing the pension on the previous 3 years could be an advantage if you'd worked overtime as it would be included, and any way wage rises were negligible at that time anyway so there wouldn't have been much difference in the salary. I was only an Admin Officer (just one grade higher than the lowest) and had only 18 years so my pension was small but just enough to prevent me getting pension credit There is still a persisting belief that all civil servants retire with a fantastic pension. As has been said its even worse nowadays than it was then.

If you are just over the Pension Guarantee level Smithy you may be able to get the Pension Savings Credit as it takes (very) small private pensions into account. If you are at that level you should also get some help with your Council Tax, rent and possibly the National Health Low Income Scheme. There is also - not a benefit but run by the companies - the Warm Home discount which could credit your electricity account with £140.

All worth looking at if for those who have an income that is very little above the point where much happens automatically and a small amount of savings.

Good point. It is a shame that those who've worked in low paid jobs and saved get punished when they're just above the limit, there's less and less incentive.

Well said Welsh wife.I think anyone who thinks life on benefits is easy should either volunteer in a homeless shelter or a food bank and hear people's stories as to what has brought them so low.Yes there'll always be the odd person taking advantage, the ones which rags like the Daily Mail use to demonise everyone who claims benefits, but mainly people who access these facilities are desperate.Then added to the stigma associated with being poor they are faced with such conspicuous consumption all around them that they must feel like such abject failures,I was born in the late forties in a fairly affluent family, but everyone lived much simpler lives.Highlights were youth clubs and when we were older going to the once fortnightly dance in the town hall, These cost very little and were attended by a very wide spectrum of society. As for holidays I remember that all the girls in my class at grammar school were so impressed when one of our number went on one of the first package holidays to Spain,Even girls from professional homes just went camping to Cornwall Devon or perhaps the Lakes.Everything was simple and not at all materialistic. Yes there was grinding poverty but unlike today the affluence of others wasn't pushed in the faces of poor people as it is today.

That's true. There are so few jobs with a lot of competition and most are low paid, part-time, temporary and zero hours contracts. It's seen as shameful now and there's pressure to be successful. If somebody isn't through no fault of their own, they're regarded as a failure.

There's a twitter storm on now about the government's failings.
Hashtag #no confidence.

Yes there was grinding poverty but unlike today the affluence of others wasn't pushed in the faces of poor people as it is today.

I agree gormenghast but we are only really aware (and envious?) of that affluence today because of advances in reporting. Technology and social media highlight the great divides between the rich, poor and the majority who just tick over from cradle to grave.

No one reported on my eating bread and dripping with holes in my hand-me-down cardigan back in the early '60s.

I wasn't aware people had cars and went on holidays because on our estate no one did. We all were destined for the comp because that's what our progressive Labour council deemed best for us. Grammar schools didn't enter our radar.

It's as I said before, keeping up with the Joneses was what it was all about back then and the Joneses had bread and jam, not dripping.

We all see a better life for ourselves today as we peer at our screens and see how obscenely rich some people are. We do the Lottery. My Dad did the Pools.

Those who go without remain. Sad but true.

I'd like someone to suggest how we fix that?

As for holidays I remember that all the girls in my class at grammar school were so impressed when one of our number went on one of the first package holidays to Spain,Even girls from professional homes just went camping to Cornwall Devon or perhaps the Lakes.

See, being taken on a modest camping holiday in the '50s and '60s if you were from a professional home would have been an out of the world experience for the poor folk on the estate. A picnic in the park had to suffice as a day out. As for going on a plane....

It's all relative, isn't it?

If you came from a poor background all you had was the charity of the local factories organising a day out at Whipsnade zoo for the workers' children, and you felt blessed.

Today they'd have had appeals and crowd funding for us!

Is poverty as abject today? It is all relative. Lots of working families cannot afford to take the kids on holiday. I think most wealth today is obscene however. The gap has widened and there seem to be no brakes to press.