"pensioner" vs "retired person" Aren't they overlapping? Really, who is who?

Question

From the BBC Grandma with Alzheimer

"A pensioner with Alzheimer's faces being split from her family and deported to the UK from Sweden, after nearly two decades in the country."

"A pensioner..." I understand that this person has worked and then retired, but then I wonder why the BBC would want to emphasize her official occupational state, because the news is about an old lady being deported, regardless she is retired or not.

Then I thought maybe "a pensioner" means simply “an old person who is retired” But when I looked it up, Cambridge Dictionary says:

"an amount of money paid regularly by the government or a private company to a person who does not work any more because they are too old or have become ill."*

Then I understand that pensioners must be the same as retired people.

Then “old age pension” caught my attention. I looked it up too. For old age pension Cambridge Dictionary says:

“a pension that is paid by the state to people who have stopped working because they have reached a particular age.”

So I understand these people are actually pensioners, in other words they are retired people, and the reason for which they retired is that they are too old to continue working. So, they must still count as retired, mustn't they? But then, why use another term for the money that they get, which is old age pension, instead of simply a pension.

Another term is senior citizen for a person who receives an old age pension. Collins Dictionary says:

A senior citizen is an older person who has retired or receives an old age pension.

As you see, the dictionary calls the retired people or people who receive old age pension as senior citizen not a pensioner. So, I wonder what about a person who is not getting any money? Do they not count as a senior citizen?

I think all of these terms somehow overlap. So, I need to clarify my questions:

1. Are "pension" and "old age pension" not the same thing?

2. If they are the same, why different names?

3. If they are not the same thing, what are those who get "old age pension" called? Are they still called "a pensioner" or "an old age pensioner"?

4. In English, if a person says, “I am a pensioner”, does it mean I am a retired person and I am getting paid every month. or does it mean I am not retired, but I am not working either, but I am still being paid for some other reasons other than getting retired (poor, disabled, etc).

Answer 1

In Britain, pensioner normally implies old-age pensioner (the abbreviation OAP used to be common, but it's officially called the State pension nowadays). Pensioner is just a synonym for person who is above the usual retirement age.

Answer 2

The generic term 'pensioner' is just newspaperese for someone of advanced age. It is not a precise definition.
They tend to apply it to anyone they wish to invoke sympathy for. By implication, they are too old to 'defend themselves', so the newspaper must enlist the help of the British populace to supply a large fluffy cushion of sympathy to the cause.

Sure, I'm being cynical, but this is emotive language, not technically descriptive.

It doesn't define whether they still work, receive a state pension, or have their own retirement fund to draw on. [It's quite possible in the UK to do all three simultaneously.] There's not even any single defining line any more. The age to qualify for state pension used to be 60 for women, 65 for men, but now seems to go up every other year. By broad definition, once you reach that age you qualify as a 'pensioner', whether you actually retire at that point or not.

To add anecdote, which really serves to emphasise the potential for confusion if you're not used to British terminology and/or 'newspaperese'…
I'm retired from one industry, though currently work in another. I have not yet reached state pension age. I'm therefore [semi-]retired but not strictly a 'pensioner' in newspaper terms.

Answer 3

In the United States, we don't usually use the term "old age pension". (It sounds like the equivalent of what we call "Social Security". A person who receives it may be called a Social Security recipient.) The other terms, however, are pretty clear:

Retiree: someone who has retired from work (although the person might still work part-time, as a volunteer, etc.).

Pensioner: someone who receives a pension, usually from his or her former employer. (While "pension" is common in the U.S., Americans do not often use the term "pensioner".)

Senior citizen: a person above a certain advanced age, often 65.

Of course, people often fall into multiple categories simultaneously and thus can be referred to by multiple terms.

I'll leave it to others to answer your first three questions, since I'm not very familiar with the term "old age pension". Regarding your fourth question, "I am a pensioner" simply means that the person receives a pension. Such people are usually retired, but not necessarily, since some pensions might be paid out before a person is fully retired.

The BBC presumably used the word "pensioner" to portray the woman sympathetically, since that word implies that she is probably old and no longer earning a full salary or wage.

Answer 4

The current official retirement age in the UK is 66. Once you reach 66 years of age, you receive a government pension, even if you decide to carry on working. So you can be a pensioner but not retired. (Or you can be retired but not a pensioner if you decide to retire early.)

Edited to add: As Michael Harvey points out in the comments, "retirement age" is not an official term. These days they call it State Pension age.

Answer 5

“Pensioner” and “retired person” are nearly synonyms. It’s possible that someone might retire without any pension, but rare. The difference between them is regional: Americans do not say, “pensioner.” “Retired person” and “retiree” can be used in either British or American English.

Answer 6

Receiving the old age pension and being retired (no longer working) are two independent variables. A person may be pensioner, retired pensioner, retired (and no pension) or none. Not all this may be permitted by law but this is highly time and country dependent. Same as "jailed murderer".

Answer 7

First, we often have multiple words that refer to the same, or virtually the same, concept. For example, if you wanted to describe a person over seventy-five, you could say:

• Senior
• Senior citizen
• Old person
• Older person
• Elderly person
• Old timer
• Old folk (this should only refer to multiple people)
• Person of advanced age

This is to say, it's possible that in some contexts, there is no difference of meaning between pension and old age pension. It's just two different ways of saying the same thing.

In this case, though, there are some contexts where the two terms could have a different meaning. A pension is typically a way of making payments to a person who is no longer working. But a person might have stopped working for some reason other than that they're too old. A person might stop working because they have become too ill, or otherwise physically incapable of working. A person might also retire at a young age. There are pension plans that allow sick or disabled people to access the funds before they've reached "old age", and there are pension plans that do not.

Answer 8

One historical note to add to the answers above, regarding the difference between "pension" and "old age pension" ... until the early 1900s, a "pension" was only paid to retired public servants, typically the Armed Forces. One example of this lasted until modern times - the Chelsea Pensioners were veterans of World War 1.

Sometime around 1910 - I think the Liberal government of Lloyd George reformed the situation of people too old to work, with the Old Age Pension allowing retired people to live in relative dignity compared with the Victorian poorhouse. (actually 1908)

So older sources will refer to the Old Age Pension, and those receiving it as OAPs, to distinguish it from military pensions, though nowadays this distinction can safely be forgotten, it it officially the State Pension.

There is a charming story among Neil Munro's "Para Handy Tales" from that era, where the gallant crew of the Vital Spark (a shabby coastal cargo steamboat in W Scotland : warning - English learners may find the language difficult!) are giving a ride to a very unhappy woman on her way to the poorhouse, saving her a 25 km walk, when they discover she has completely missed the news about the old age pension!

On discovering she is wealthier than she thought (by 5 shillings or £0.25 a week), she can return to her comfortable home ... this time by fast passenger steamer!

Answer 9

To be a pensioner in the UK unambiguously refers to those eligible by their age to receive the state retirement pension.

In the post-war period, the threshold ages were 60 for women and 65 for men, and most corporate workforce policies enforced retirement at these ages too.

Except possibly in special usage (such as when an actuary is discussing the beneficiaries of a pension fund), pensioner does not specifically refer to those actually in receipt of a pension, whether the state pension or a private occupational pension. It is an age category.

Once upon a time, the correlation between being of a particular age, being retired from employment, and being in receipt of state or occupational pensions, was almost total. Nowadays, the correlation is far looser, but the term pensioner has continued to mean a particular age group, rather than status as a pension recipient.

The terms retirement and retiree would be used to generally refer to those of any age who are actually retired and in receipt of a pension - including the early retired. There is implicitly no concept of "retirement" without being in receipt of a pension.