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Post by cabbyjohn on Feb 23, 2011 14:07:27 GMT -1
Putting the pinch on pensioners adds insult to injury
Damian Wilson
Feb 23rd 2011 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Financial Crisis, Retirement, Work & Careers
Those boffins over at the Institute of Economic Affairs really are taking the biscuit – and it's a plain digestive dipped in sweet milky tea at that!
In figures out today, they are arguing that the elderly aren't feeling the pinch enough from the Government's spending cuts.
They go on to suggest that scrapping the freebies given to those of pensionable age – such as a bus pass, free television licence and winter fuel allowance – would save the Government a further £16 billion as it aims to make a hole in the £156 billion mountain of debt we face.
So we take those things away from pensioners and what do we have? Around 10% of our financial problem solved while stranded pensioners freeze to death while listening to the crackling radio wireless in their icy homes.
Great.
As if pensioners haven't already done enough for us. Taken at its most obvious, if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be here. And to suggest they haven't felt the pinch of the financial crisis enough is ludicrous.
Not only have plunging, now stagnant, interest rates decimated any income from their life savings, but the Government's cynical switcheroo on which index they use to determine pension rises – preferring a lower indicator – has meant the need to make more from less from now on in.
With just 25 pensioners to every 100 people of workable age, the UK has it pretty good and its disgraceful if we have to penny-pinch from them because no-one else is prepared to take a hit. Just thank our lucky stars that we don't have the same problem as Japan where the ratio is 75 pensioners to every 100 people of workable age.
All things considered, it would be a pretty brave politician to take up the IEA on its suggestions and I can't see its recommendations being taken on board too soon.
No, they'll probably wait until I start claiming a pension before any of that happens.
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Post by jnealedroylsden on Feb 23, 2011 15:38:56 GMT -1
John
I think people would be extremely reluctant to support any major cuts in the benefits we give to our pensioners. Most if not all have worked all their lives and deserve some comforts in their old age.The bus pass is a life saver for most pensioners..............some use their pass to get out through the day so as to save on heating etc:
When you think of what some younger people get and probably haven't worked and get benefits, it's diisgusting...... to even think of cutting back on pensioners "perks"
And also could you honestly see the blue rinse Conservative supporters being in favour............I think not.........you're right it would have to be a brave politician to even consider this......
having said that I still cannot see why winter fuel payments are made to those who do not reside in the UK..........
In China for example,ok, I know, where with the single child policy and the (still) expanding population, the cost of caring for the elderly is larger.............However the culture in China is of the deepest respect for your elders and that continues, every person in China over 60+ gets free health care and many other perks, not sure if they get a free flat either, and that is a serious proportion of the Chinese Welfare Budget.........and no they are not contemplating taking any of their "perks"away from them...........and yes it's a strict regime but that doesn't stop them looking after their elders
SO IN GENERAL LEAVE THE PENSIONERS ALONE.........
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Post by OLLY on Feb 23, 2011 17:56:27 GMT -1
HERE ! HERE ! JEAN.........WELL PUT........  |
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Post by cabbyjohn on Feb 23, 2011 20:14:54 GMT -1
John I think people would be extremely reluctant to support any major cuts in the benefits we give to our pensioners. Most if not all have worked all their lives and deserve some comforts in their old age.The bus pass is a life saver for most pensioners..............some use their pass to get out through the day so as to save on heating etc: When you think of what some younger people get and probably haven't worked and get benefits, it's diisgusting...... to even think of cutting back on pensioners "perks" And also could you honestly see the blue rinse Conservative supporters being in favour............I think not.........you're right it would have to be a brave politician to even consider this...... having said that I still cannot see why winter fuel payments are made to those who do not reside in the UK.......... In China for example,ok, I know, where with the single child policy and the (still) expanding population, the cost of caring for the elderly is larger.............However the culture in China is of the deepest respect for your elders and that continues, every person in China over 60+ gets free health care and many other perks, not sure if they get a free flat either, and that is a serious proportion of the Chinese Welfare Budget.........and no they are not contemplating taking any of their "perks"away from them...........and yes it's a strict regime but that doesn't stop them looking after their elders SO IN GENERAL LEAVE THE PENSIONERS ALONE.........Hiya Jean. They were not my quotes but something that I read on the internet today. I am inclined to believe that it's just a rich quango, made up of people who have no idea what it's like to be truly poor who spouted this rubbish. However when has that ever stopped the Plutocracy from dictating to us Plebs what they consider is best for us? They have no idea what the real world is about, nor do they care. We are here to serve, "Our masters". We may think that we are equals, and the days of tugging our forelocks are long gone. However you only have to look at how many good and loyal employees have been thrown out of work in the past few years with worse to come, because it's cheaper to farm out a lot of "OUR" jobs to India and other such places. To use but one example. The Olympic games building sites are employing 90% overseas labour, FACT! Yet we were told in the bid process how it would bring in thousands of jobs for BRITISH WORKERS! This turned out to be a blatant lie! We may not have been lied to as such, but the powers that be were certainly "Economical with the truth". What is happening in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen etc, we believe will not and can not happen here in this country. However we have to ask ourselves who is right, and who is wrong? Them for saying, "Enough is enough"? Or us for standing idly by and watching our once proud country turned into the dustbin of the world, at the cost of everything that we were brought up to believe was the fair way of doing things? How can anybody hand on heart refuse asylum to any GENUINE asylum seekers, yet think that it's okay to sit by and watch our country being overrun by economic migrants who have no more loyalty to this country and it's standards, the standards that we fought for in two world wars, and wars before, than the man in the moon? How many times have we read of idiots, idiots for whom the nearest to poverty that they have ever been, is when they have been unable to buy themselves a weekend retreat in the country. (At the cost of somebody born and bred in that particular place, who has found themselves priced out of the market)? Who have tried and almost succeeded to wipe out a thousand years of English heritage in the name of political correctness, whilst we have stood by and done nothing? It was as recently as the last four or five years that the Guardianista's would have us believe that there was more stigma in being called a racist than a rapist. Some people were brainwashed into being frightened to speak the language of us, the silent majority. That thankfully is changing. I don't want to be classed as a racist. However I DO want to be classed as an English citizen and proud of it. If I want Sharia law, or to live in an Islamic state, I shall sod off to a country that preaches and advocates it. I was born British, I want to die British. Am I asking to much of my country of birth? |
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