State Pension Fund"could Start To Run Out Next Year"

[mikey4444]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/state-pension-cash-could-run-out-report-claims-9790258.html?origin=internalSearch

Worrying article in todays i paper. "Below inflation pay rise since the 2008 global financial crisis has drained the national insurance fund of cash at exactly the same time as increasing longevity of the populace"

This is non-Party political matter.....should we be worried ?

[anotheoldgit]

Yes time for a complete rethink on how our money is waisted on overseas problems, and look at ways on how to spend this money to look after our own.

[mikey4444]

Shows you have read the link carefully AOG !

[janbee]

Mikey, yes we should be worried.
AOG, We need to look after our own first. I agree. Stop all foreign aid and daily outgoings to the vile EU.
We here in the UK, must come first. When we are all hunky dory, THEN we should help others.
The tories are planning to increase FA by, it's rumoured, another £5b p.a. Don't know whether or not that's right, but it wouldn't surprise me.
Whatever,... It means our OAPS are at the bottom of the pile.

[ToraToraTora]

I always thought pensions etc are paid out of current funds anyway, there has never been ring fencing of tax monies regardless of their labelling at collection time.

[Booldawg]

'The report from the right- leaning CPS ' - they can't be that right leaning; they haven't blamed it on immigration!

[youngmafbog]

State pensions will eventually become means tested, I have already resigned myself to the fact that having 'paid in' I won't be getting a bean unless things go drastically wrong.

We do seem obsessd with giving our money away, it wont change though.

[mikey4444]

TTT...Old age pension is probably the hottest potato that any Government, of any political hue, has to handle. Any decision made now won't take effect for many years hence. That is why Labour and the Tories have not argued very much about the problem, both realising that something needs to be done.

To be fair to dave, his administration appears to carrying on with changes that Labour started. The age that the OAP kicks in has been put back and the anomaly about women getting a lesser pension than men has also been addressed. Women that have not worked for periods because they have been bringing up children, or looking after aged parents are now being treated much more fairly.

But this report from the Centre for Policy Studies seems to suggest that decreasing NICs are a problem for the future, and one of the reasons for this is low wage increases. We are now getting to be a low wage economy, with more people in low-paid, short-hours jobs, thus not paying enough NICs.
And people are living considerably longer than they were just a generation ago, with better health care and less smoking being the most important causes.

I think we should all be worried about this situation, because it will only get worse if we ignore the consequences.

[youngmafbog]

You appear to be assuming that NIC's pay for pensions, I doubt very much that money raised through this tax go directly to a National Insurance fund, just like car tax does not go on the roads.

It all disappears in one big pot and is then spent from that pot on whatever the current incumbents so happen to think fit.

Pensions, as I say, will eventually be means tested. I would suggest if you are over 60 you will be ok, under then you may well not get a bean. The numbers simply dont add up and the tax you woudl have to raise to pay for it comfortably woudl strangle any economy, good or bad.

[anotheoldgit]

mikey4444

/// We are now getting to be a low wage economy, with more people in low-paid, short-hours jobs, thus not paying enough NICs. ///

and a load more pensioners from overseas who have not paid into anything at all.

And what have we to thank for all these problems "MASS IMMIGRATION".

[mikey4444]

AOG...No surprise that you should mention immigrants in this serious discussion about the OAP ! Business as usual !

[jomifl]

Mikey, perhap the government will have to statr taxing people who have money...lots of it.

[Zeuhl]

People's pension expectations outstripped what they 'paid in' years ago.

That also applies to many private schemes that temporarily inflated pay outs in the boom years before crashing back to reality more recently.

The sad reality is that without significant continuous economic growth there is no magic pension tree that converts 40 years of meagre contributions into 25 years of half (or more)-salary

[anotheoldgit]

mikey4444

/// AOG...No surprise that you should mention immigrants in this serious discussion about the OAP ! Business as usual ! ///

That is because Immigration is also a serious issue,when it comes to economic discussions, (much as you would wish to dismiss it) it is all part and parcel of the strain on the resources and infrastructure of this very overcrowded country.

[Zeuhl]

/and a load more pensioners from overseas who have not paid into anything at all. /

perhaps aog could validate his comment with some numbers?

how many/what percentage of the pensioner population has 'come from overseas and not paid anything in'?

[mikey4444]

Don't confuse him when he is on a rant Zeulh !

[mushroom25]

this was always inevitable. the pension scheme, relying as it does on more and more new members joining to prop it up, is no more than the world's biggest ponzie. when and if immigration is slowed or stemmed, the whole thing will collapse into dust.

[ToraToraTora]

NICs are just one of a number of names we give to general taxation. Yes pensions liabilities will increase and the pot will get stretched but that's just another way of saying we need to cust costs and increase income and no I don;t mean increase tax rates I mean increase peoples desire to earn more and thus spend more and reap more. We should cut the public sector to the bone. Strip out the town halls, abolish devolution, abolish the lords, replace it with a 100 seat senate type chamber. Halve the number of MP's abolish all councils and replace with a management team. Stop paying WSS money, cut taxation for business to encourage them to come here, Leave the EU, cut direct taxation to the masses and focus on indirect taxation. Am I getting there yet?