Older People Have Never Had It So Good

[Gromit]

// Pensioners in their 60s and 70s have seen their incomes rise steadily during the recession years - and now they are less likely to be poor than any other group in society, according to a new report.

A senior Church of England cleric, Bishop of London the Right Reverend Richard Chartres, said the ‘fortunate generation’ in their 60s are soaking up too much taxpayers’ money and that state spending on older people ‘raises questions of intergenerational equity’. //

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2341553/Older-people-good-New-report-says-60s-seen-incomes-rise-recession.html#ixzz2WYp1jtcy

Why are we still paying £billions to them to pay for free travel and winter fuel, which were after all, just Tony Blair's election bribes?

[Jeza]

We paid a mortgage when interest rates were very high. We are now getting next to nothing back on our savings. You make me laugh. It's the young one's who have never had it so good. Family Allowance, Tax credits. etc .etc. Not available in my working life.

[viv38]

You cheeky, cheeky git Gromit. Pensioners have paid NI all their working lives in order that they would have a pension when they retire and it isn't exactly a fortune either! And many pensioners STILL pay tax anyway despite having done so all their working lives. A bus pass for many is a lifeline as is the winter fuel allowance. I don't know - silly, selfish pensioners living longer and becoming a drain on society - what should they do - DIE ????? Don't care if I get banned - drop dead Gromit ....

User Was Suspended For This Post

[Canary42]

Whereas the poor old bankers of course are suffering bonus reductions - give them the bus passes, poor bu99ers.

[Everhelpful]

Not often I get to boiling point about a question but,I have paid Tax and National Insurance since 1955, so think I am entitled to a little bit of comfort in Old-Age,or perhaps people like Gromit think we should just crawl away and die, then we would be no drain on the resources,they can then give all the Pensioners'"Perks" to help the Immigrants and probably afford to give more to Foreign Aid and MP's Expenses.

[Peter Pedant]

Oh God the Bishop of London should talk:
The Church commissisoners who manage the Divine Pensions,
screwed up over property and lost £100m

so the Bishop may be in clover but the rest of the retired reverends eek out on about 3.5p a week

[shaneystar2]

Without my pass bus I would never go anywhere .It's a lifeline for me as we have no car .Yes ,we in our sixties are a fortunate generation but we worked damned hard for what we now have and provided for ourselves .
We still pay tax on our pensions .The few perks we get are peanuts really compared to what's shelled out on waging war in other countries,foreign aid and propping up the feckless who don't want to work and keeping people like Abu whathisname in a life of luxury .
Perhaps we should all be put up against the wall and shot when we reach a certain age.
The Bishop of London is a hypocrite .
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/6337853/Church-of-England-bishops-spend-1.3million-in-a-year-on-travel.html

[Gromit]

How did pensioners managed to live before 2008 and Gordon Brown's introduction of a free bus pass? It was a promise in the 2005 General election and he delivered. So this benefit has been with us for less than 5 years and yet it would be cruel and heartless to take it away because we can no longer afford it.

Odd how no one has a good word for Brown yet this gift he bestowed is so universally loved.

[Kromovaracun]

"And you know Gromits mindset how? I must confess, the signals that they were speaking ironically or sarcastically or sardonically or tongue in cheek completely eluded me...."

I don't know, it just seems obvious. :/ The quote about 'election bribes' seems like a very specific reference to an equally spurious claim made about benefits to immigrants someone on AB made a short while ago (I can't remember who).

[LazyGun]

@Kromo - Reading Gromits post immediately before yours, I still fail to see the cues :) Its fast becoming one of the more pointless and drawn out pranks if so...

It matters nowt when the WFA and free bus pass were introduced. The WFA has saved pointless deaths and the free bus pass offers greater independence for pensioners. It is nonsense to suggest that such benefits should be removed from pensioners.

However, moving forward, for those pensioners that can afford it, whose income exceeds, say 40K a year it seems to me only fair and equitable to claw back at least some of the cost to the state by classing them as a taxable benefit.

And I still think Gromit is being needlessly cynical in suggesting that introducing universal WFA etc was merely an election bribe.

[New Judge]

A couple of points worth remembering:

A huge number of those in receipt of a State “pension” do not receive a pension at all. They receive State support in the same way as they would if they were of working age, having made little or no contribution to their “pension pot”. Ironically those “pensioners” usually receive far more in cash and sundry benefits than do genuine pensioners who have made all the required contributions.

The sundry benefits (winter fuel allowance, free travel, etc.) are simply fringe benefits of the State pension system - part of the package for which those who have contributed have paid and no different to, say, free or cheap health insurance which some people receive from a private pension providers.

The State pension scheme, apart from having to support those who have not made the required contributions, makes current payments from current contributions - a giant Ponzi scheme, in fact. The true pension payments (including sundry fringe benefits) should be made from investments of funds made by pensioners during their working life.

As for “The world's poor need the money. Pensioners don't need this subsidy” the government (or more importantly the electorate) needs to decide what it is paying tax and NI for. It is dishonest to take money from people who expect it to be used for their retirement only later to say it is to be given to “the worlds poor” because they need it more. Pensions are not about need, they are about contributions made for funds later paid.

There needs to be a clear difference made between genuine State pensions and other retirement age benefits which have not been funded by the recipients. Genuine pensions and fringe benefits can then be made on the basis of contribution, not need. The country can then decide whether it wants to spend its general taxation on unfunded retirement age benefits for the UK's "poor" or supporting the poor of the rest of the world..

[chrisgel]

It seems fairly straightforward to me and apparently several others.

*** Gordon Brown off for giving pensioners a bit of our hard earned money back.
Praise Cameron for giving our hard earned money to other countries.

[boxtops]

Hmm, there might be more income but there's a damned sign more going out, council tax, fuel, food, and so on.... not much left at the end of the week.

[LoftyLottie]

I 100% agree with Jeza. We have lived relatively frugally and our expectations in life were very much less than the young generation. We had very little and had to work very hard for everything. Nowadays it would seem that we have to indulge the young and feel sorry for them. The majority of pensioners I know are very far from comfortably off. We were paying out on mortgages with up to 12 or 13% interest rates for most of our working lives - and when we eventually need to be looked after we will have to sell our assets to pay for our care.

Cut benefits for those who are not prepared to work, don't penalise those of us that have worked hard and paid our way.

I have no problem with admitting to being a Grumpy Old Woman!

[tamborine]

Pour as much as you can into World Poor and you never satisfy it. We are NOT responsible for the WP.

Pensioners built todays UK and their payoff is a pittance to facilities available to those living here.

[fbg40]

What will you do when you reach pension age Gromit ? Refuse it ?
FBG40

[boxtops]

Lottie, there was one period in the late 1970s when the interest rate on our mortgage was 17%.....

[fbg40]

Boxtops
I remember paying 17% as well - I even think at one stage it reached 18% - perhaps someone can put me right on this ?
FBG40

[baza]

paid income tax whilst working and still paying in retirement, yes I have a bus pass but can only use it after 09.30 M-F and before 23.00 otherwise it turns into a pumpkin.

[Gromit]

Labour Party Election 2005 Manifesto:

We will give all over-60s, and disabled people, free off-peak local bus travel and give local authorities the freedom to provide more generous schemes.

Page 25
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/13_04_05_labour_manifesto.pdf

I don't need to remind you that Labour got a healthy majority, partly thanks to the grey vote.

We could afford to spend the odd £billion on this in 2008. Now, thanks to the bankers,  money is far more scarce.