Alright For Some!!!!

[-SharonA-]

The civil servant responsible for increasing the state pension age to 67 is Retiring at 61 with a £1.8 million pension pot. He will receive £85,000 a year and a lump sum of £245,000
He's the secretary for the Department for Works and Pensions
His name: Sir Robert Devereux.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sir-robert-devereux-plans-to-retire-as-dwp-permanent-secretary-in-january

[fender62]

i would resent people who have hardly worked if at all, getting the same state pension, as someone who has grafted all their life.

[naomi24]

//....Hammond wants to plunder the pensions of those who have contributed to their own well being,'

isn't that a bit maxwell-like? //

Sounds a bit Gordon Brown-like.

[gulliver1]

Maxwell is dead, Gordon Brown is not in charge.
Hammond is the present chancellor .
Sounds a bit Con- like //.

[Old_Geezer]

One cannot practically uncover whether someone who worked little did so out of a desire to sponge or whether they found no opportunities in life. It makes no sense to fund trying to find out when a civilized society will look after those in need anyway. Criteria should be, being a citizen.

Also those who did contribute will have had the opportunity to supplement with pension savings of their own. State pension isn't there to keep folk in luxury.

[Deskdiary]

If it was truly a pension rather than a continuation of benefits for those who haven't contributed or contributed enough, then surely it should be linked to how much you have put in, shouldn't it?

As it stands for those that haven't contributed or haven't contributed enough the word 'pension' is a misnomer. It should correctly be called 'old age benefits'.

It is a national disgrace that those who are fully paid up can receive less than those that have paid the square root of F All.

[Old_Geezer]

According to the definition, such a regular payout is a pension. You can call it a benefit pension if you wish.

[Deskdiary]

I'll stick to calling it a continuation of benefits.

Morally and logically those that have paid in full should receive more than those that haven't.

[Deskdiary]

Even though the OP didn't pose a question, I would say bloody good for him. He's done well out of life. Personally I'm pleased for people that have done because in the cast majority of cases they have done so through hard work.

Any sneering is borne out of jealousy.

[Old_Geezer]

That's always the excuse, but clearly unfair treatment, where one is offered more then another, can not or should not be dismissed as jealousy.

[Old_Geezer]

... THAN...

[Deskdiary]

It's a sad fact that some people think that those that do well out of life are somehow undeserving of their sucess even though it is those people who pay those who have not done quite so well out of life

It is jealously.

[jno]

I don't really see a problem with this. He won't get his state pension until 67, the same as anyone else. What he'll be getting now is just his workplace pension, and for an extremely senior civil servant £85,000 doesn't sound too much at all. More than mine but not vastly more considering he ran bits of the government and I was a lowly worm.

[New Judge]

"I'm definitely no expert but I thought the state pension was officially classified a state benefit."

I'm no expert either, just an enthusiastic amateur. One distinction worth a mention is that every other payment made by the State is paid tax free and does not form part of one's taxable income. By contrast, the State Pension, whilst paid free of tax (because the DWP cannot devise a system to pay it with tax deducted or indeed on a calendar month basis) forms part of your taxable income.

The State Pension may well fit the dictionary definition of a pension (which itself may have been contrived to include it). But it does not fit the definition in any other way.

[Deskdiary]

I couldn't agree more with jno if I tried.

[Old_Geezer]

That figures.

[vetuste_ennemi]

There's a moral case, a bad luck case. And of course a "what can I get away with?" case.

Sir Robert is entitled to his pension to which he and his employer contributed.

I've been a victim of the Maxwell pension theft and, later on, the Equitable Life Pension mismanagement. Eventually I got a little back from both. That puts me in the bad luck category.

Bad things happen and I don't spend a lot of time worrying or complaining about the "injustice" which has been inflicted on me. Nor searching the guilty and demanding reparation.

I'm somewhat disgusted by the parasites and their provisioners.

[vetuste_ennemi]

I do understand my morality is a quaint historical relic which should be exhibited in the Natural History Museum alongside today's biggest dinosaur.

You can take school kids around to gape in awe and wonder at both. "Gosh, did something that big with four feet once walk the earth? Gosh, did people with two feet fewer once believe they should stand on them?"

O tempora! O mores!

[RobNorth]

I don't begrudge this man his pension as he's probably earned it. These Permanent Secretaries are in effect the full-time minister's of their particular department and carry the can for years on end, unlike their transient political "masters" who can be and are, in one ministry one week and another the next. These ministers may like to think that they take decisions but in reality they can't, because often they are not in the job long enough to know where the department is, let alone know how it works or even what it does. They are presented with choices like six or two threes and it couldn't be otherwise, when you think of a new government which can be comprised (and no doubt has been) of people with absolutely no skills at all beyond being good at arguing.
Then there's the time thing - subtract the 6 month's holiday, factor in the short week, account for Party and constituency time and you are left with 20% of fa to learn about the job and to carry it out...

[Deskdiary]

All opinions are valid, but somtimes one's opinion is just simply wrong. This is one of those times old_geezer.

[THECORBYLOON]

NJ, there are a fair few benefits that are taxable and this is from the government's website,

"most common benefits that you pay Income Tax on are:

the State Pension
Jobseeker’s Allowance
Carer’s Allowance
Employment and Support Allowance (contribution based)
Incapacity Benefit (from the 29th week you get it)
Bereavement Allowance
pensions paid by the Industrial Death Benefit scheme
Widowed Parent’s Allowance
Widow’s pension"