/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>50820597
>muh benefit cheats
The state pension is the largest single item of welfare spending, making up 41 per cent of the total in 2020-21 (£101b).This is excluding disability benefits, the majority of which also goes to pensioners).
The state pension is uprated each year in line with the ‘triple lock’. This is a more generous uprating policy than for working-age benefits and tax credits or child benefit.

The problem is that we're thinking of pensioners as some 90 year old widow who can't afford to heat her house and survives on cans on beans.
The reality is very different. Between the tax burden on workers and the rentier housing market, working people end up subsidising pensioners to enjoy a life of luxury.

Unemployment benefits made up £1b of welfare spending. Meanwhile, we've got the government subsidising companies paying low wages, with record numbers of full-time workers earning so little that they're entitled to benefits.
Plus more job vacancies than unemployed people.

And to your other post, the point is that pensioner are both a massive voting bloc (the boom being a big demographic bulge which wasn't replicated) who vote along similar lines. They also aren't working, so have a lot more time to be active politically and to stymie anything they don't like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuXzvjBYW8A
Here's a talk from a Tory Peer (also a boomer) who says all of the above in more detail, if you fancy watching it.