The State Pension

[Bedfordblue]

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It’s the 50+ demographic who seem to be most in favour of that sort of thing. That 29% for Reform in the 65+ band are the definition of turkeys voting for Christmas.

What are the actual number of voters in each demographic for that poll though? Means little without that context, although I suspect your point will likely be right.

 

[Woolverhampton_Blue]

Really? You REALLY are talking out of your backside here. To say that people over 50 subscribe to that view you have stated in your last paragraph shows that you may have had a good education to be doing the job you are presently employed in, but you show almost no common sense or intelligence...

I think you’ve got some sort of skewed impression about me, because I’m not well educated or in a high flying job. The over 50’s bit was a reference to the fact that a larger percentage of people over 50 have been voting Conservative and Reform. I’m well aware this does not mean everybody over 50 voted that way or holds those views.

 

[chrismpw]

I am on the left and would happily pay more tax for a better welfare state. I’m also not arguing we take money from the enfeebled, I’m saying there should be a cut off, as there is with most benefits.

My dream scenario would be a government who go after the incredibly wealthy and ensure they are paying a bigger share for the good of society, but unfortunately for us there is no mainstream political party willing to do that.

There are however parties who want the wealthy to pay less tax, to bury their head in the sand when it comes to climate change, and to stop funding and ultimately privatise the NHS. For some reason they are very popular with people over 50.

I'm over 50, I'll never be right wing, because,to put it as simply as I can, I like to think I'm not a sociopathic moron.

Although I will admit - a fair few old people are right wing ... something to do with cognitive break down is my guess.

 

[Rita_Poon]

We're on the road here...

 

[Old Blue 2]

People aren’t thick or self important just because they make points you don’t like or agree with.

I’m not going to look it up. My understanding is that it means there are conditions around whether you qualify based on your income or assets i.e. your means. If I’ve got that wrong then apologies.

Again, you shoot yourself in the foot. Not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing. It's a case of you making statements that simply are not tenable.

Prove me wrong in what I have said in my posts. And jeez, you MENTION it in your post, and you don't even know what 'means-testing' is! And you think you are not thick, or self-important? Do me, and all of us, a favour. Don't dig a bigger hole for yourself than you already have.

 

[blulouie]

We're on the road here...

No mate that was 1969

We are hurtling towards 1984 here .

 

[Rita_Poon]

 

[Rita_Poon]

With the way the league is setting up, Everton playing everyday works as the daily hate....

 

[Old Blue 2]

I think you’ve got some sort of skewed impression about me, because I’m not well educated or in a high flying job. The over 50’s bit was a reference to the fact that a larger percentage of people over 50 have been voting Conservative and Reform. I’m well aware this does not mean everybody over 50 voted that way or holds those views.

But you stated it was, FFS!!!

Without going into the minute details of the legal training I had in the Government Department I worked in, there is a legal tenet of: 'He who asserts must prove'. You have failed in satisfying that simple point. Don't bother, you're out of your depth, as you have already conclusively shown...

 

[Woolverhampton_Blue]

You pay into National Insurance for a minimum of 35 years to fund your own state pension. If I'd had the opportunity to opt out and put that money in a private pension and not get a state pension I would have taken it because I don't trust the government. Any party that tries to abolish the state pension will lose straight away and quite right too. The state pension is about £12000 a year, could you live on that? As you say we should tax the rich more, but we certainly shouldn't prevent people who've paid in to a system for 35 years from getting the pension they're entitled to.

The National Insurance contributions buy you enough credits to be entitled to it but they don’t ‘fund’ your own State Pension. It is funded by the National Insurance contributions received from those currently working. Lots of those currently ‘paying in’ will not receive a State Pension despite years of contributions, so somebody will definitely get shafted, it just seems to be acceptable for it to be the younger generation and not those close to or in receipt of it.

I don’t think I’ve once suggested taking it away from people who rely on it to survive, just that there are people receiving it who if we’re being honest don’t really need it, but want it anyway because it’s their entitlement.

 

[Old Blue 2]

With the way the league is setting up, Everton playing everyday works as the daily hate....

And if we beat Ipswich, we'll be above Wolverererererampton, don'tcha know!

 

[Rita_Poon]

strewth another arms dealer...

 

[Rita_Poon]

And if we beat Ipswich, we'll be above Wolverererererampton, don'tcha know!

 

[Old Blue 2]

The National Insurance contributions buy you enough credits to be entitled to it but they don’t ‘fund’ your own State Pension. It is funded by the National Insurance contributions received from those currently working. Lots of those currently ‘paying in’ will not receive a State Pension despite years of contributions, so somebody will definitely get shafted, it just seems to be acceptable for it to be the younger generation and not those close to or in receipt of it.

I don’t think I’ve once suggested taking it away from people who rely on it to survive, just that there are people receiving it who if we’re being honest don’t really need it, but want it anyway because it’s their entitlement.

So tell us something new! That has been known forever and a day. I knew that what I paying was funding those already retired. So what, it's the way it has always been.

 

[peteblue]

Can you fill me in on the whole Brown fiasco? It was a bit before my time.

I don’t generally groan about it, Pete, I get on with my life and do work very hard. But it’s more than fair to question the thinking of people when on the one hand they are voting for a more selfish and uncaring society, yet cry murder when someone younger than them suggests something selfish and uncaring because on this particular occasion it directly affects them.

No problem, and I appreciate you may not have seen what happened. Brown raided pension funds which caused the collapse of final salary pensions. I was a Director within a very large Telecomms company, with the usual benefits of large salary, LTIP’s, and with hundreds of thousands of shares. Brown then decided to extract money from BT and other telecom providers by having an auction for 3G licences which reached about 20Bn. This of course meant that our customers, BT etc, stopped purchasing equipment which we provided while they replenished their cash. The net result was that the U.K. telecommunications manufacturers had to lay off tens of thousands of jobs both in the U.K. and USA, such that eventually the provision of equipment was given to China and Huawei, the U.K. Telecomms industry effectively died. Pensions were lost, pensions based on shares both in the U.K. and USA (via 407K) disappeared almost overnight. It was a complete shambles and cost the jobs and future pensions of tens of thousands of people lost their pensions and expected savings with shares. I don’t mean this as any sort of political statement, but that man single handedly ruined a profitable high technology company and basically gave it to the Chinese…..