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George Osborne is saying "no pensioner will lose in cash terms"

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chaptazbru | 20:22 Wed 21st Mar 2012 | Business & Finance
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So how then will he be raising the £3bn from pensions if no pensioner will lose cash? I need to explain this to my Dad who is totally confused (and so am I)! Can anybody help?
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They won't lose in cash terms but they will in real terms lose some of the benefit of the age allowance which will be frozen rather than uprated in line with inflation. Pensioners will still benefit from the increase in basic personal allowances
That's encouraging, factor. Please explain your second sentence.
Sorry, you need to look at teh 'how it affects you' for pensioners. A pensioner who earns £10000pa for example will pay less tax
It is future cash that the government would have had to spend (or budget) on the allowances, not current £ in the pensioners' pockets.....then over time, as factor says, the tax allowance comes in line with what existing pensioners get....
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Thank you for your response factor, I'm still not sure I'll be able to explain it to my Dad, bless him.
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Thank you DT. I don't feel that my Dad who worked from age 15 to his 70's should have less money in his pocket and this Budget has been worrying me.
There is an added complication.

At present the personal allowance is £7,475pa. This will increase to £8,105 for 2012-13 and to £9,205 for 2013-14. The over-65s personal allowance is currently £10,500 and this is to be frozen. Furthermore, people reaching 65 from April 2013 will not be eligible for the increased allowance, so their allowance will be £9,205 when someone who reached 65 a little earlier will be allowed £10,500. So they will be £259 (£10,500-£9,205 = £1,295 x 20% = £259) worse off. Of course, over 65s who can take advantage of the £10,500 allowance might properly have expected that allowance to increase to cope with inflation, so they too will be worse off, but to a lesser degree. (This incidentally creates yet another layer of unequally treated pensioners. We already have those who draw their pension under the 44/39 year NI contribution rule who are often worse off than those only required to contribute 30 years. The new guaranteed pension of £140 per week, said to be introduced by 2015, will only be available to new pensioners.)


Of course the usual spin is imposed on this. Intriguingly it is reported that the new measure will “save” the government £1bn by 2015. This of course is designed to give the impression that the government is being prudent. In fact quite the reverse is true. The £1bn will not be “saved”. That amount will be an additional burden on pensioner taxpayers and the sum so taken from them, far from being saved, will be added to the amount the government wastes each year. The proper report should read "This will give the government an additional £1bn a year to squander which will be taken exclusively from older people".

It will be interesting to see how the over 65 vote for this apology for a government holds up by the time it has “saved” its precious £1bn.
The problem the over 65's have, and no doubt a lot of the under 65's, is who do you vote for when each successive government is no better then the previous. The elderly are no longer important, they have just become another source of income.
I don't know about you vulcan but I've always been a source of income for successive governments. Now I draw my pensions I'm probably a drain on them, that's the problem.
You're not a burden on them, ladybirder (though their "spin" will have you believe so).

If you've always been a source of income for them I assume you've paid your taxes and NI. Your pension is what you paid you're NI for. Just because successive administrations have pee'd your contributions up the wall instead of investing them on your behalf ready for you to draw, is hardly your fault.
Perhaps to point out to Boy George that to say "no pensioner loses in cash terms" is utterly vacuous and meaningless, we should insist that all MPs receive the same salary "in cash terms" as they did in 1946 ... approximately £1000 - or even (since I'm in a generous mood) they can have what they got in 1979 - £9450.
as a pensioner i seem to be successfully worse off every year. don't know why i worked and saved for all thse years. i only ever managed to save a widow's mite but they have always taxed that and now . . . . i agree with sunny dave. perhaps all politicians with other means should give up their salaries for the good of the country (that means just about all of them) or even better they shoule have to manage all the time on what we get so they really can be in it with us all together.
Just seen your response new Judge, thank you. Yes I paid in for 50 years and you're right, it should have been invested instead we have a Ponzi scheme which is outrageous.
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New Judge - so when Osborne states "No pensioner will lose in cash terms" that is in fact a lie?? So in effect My Dad (and millions of others) will be anything up to £260 p.a. down, meaning over £21 a month less cash in his pocket ?? That's a lot for a pensioner. I despise this Government they also took £100 of his fuel allowance away. Do they just want pensiones to go away and die ....
<i agree with sunny dave. perhaps all politicians with other means should give up their salaries for the good of the country (that means just about all of them) or even better they shoule have to manage all the time on what we get >

Problem with that is that then only rich people would want to become MPs and so would be even more likely to enact measures favouring the rich at the expense of the rest of us.

<Do they just want pensioners to go away and die >

Do you really need to ask that question?
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It's all very well saying what we think all politicians should do, but let's face it they never will! They are NEVER going to put themselves in penury. I despise what they have done to pensioners in this budget. I hate seeing the look on my hardworking Dad's face as I try to explain it all to him.
I didn't want them in, but was prepared to give them a chance. In all honestly I can say that this Government is the worst I have ever experienced and so transparent.

I absolutely detest Cameron!!
I am a pensioner living with another pensioner as from next Friday!!!
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"I absolutely detest Cameron!!" SO DO I !!!!!

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