Pensions

pension rises have never been linked to minimum wage rise.

 

Pensioner mostly put their pension money straight back into the economy
pensioners are a great investment

 

All this levelling up, high wage, high skill economy is absolute garbage...unless what happens is a massive reduction in inequality at the same time.

Otherwise, all other things being equal, we will get rampant inflation.

However, as soon as there is a suggestion of a redistribution of income to reduce inequality the press start screaming about communism and no serious debate can be held.

Inflation will hit the poorest in society the hardest, it always does.

I'm annoyed. I went to see my parents yesterday, in their eighties, worried about putting their heating on because of the increase in their bills. The winter fuel payment will dent that a bit, but not much. Without doubt, old people will die this winter because they cannot afford to heat their homes. That is what inequality does.

 

whereas other years they have had above inflation rises. They didn’t take a cut last year when loads of people were earning less due to furlough, which then caused the large increase this year to average wages

 

Pensions are probably complicated enough with the triple lock (in normal times) without just randomly adding other factors into it.

 

When Johnson said levelling up at the party conference it must have been near impossible for the delegates in the auditorium to hold back their snorts of laughter. Damn autocorrect on Johnsons autocue, what it meant to say was 'feck the poor'.

 

Are you joining us commies? Welcome, brother. We are the means of production.

 

Don't listen to him RT,.... work, save and invest is the way to go....!!

 

Depends how and what you compare. If you just come state pension to total pension income in other countries yes. But if you compare total average pension income then no.
But again if you are just comparing state pension income then our contributions are a lot less than everyone else

 

Problem is you Tony and Hoochy all make valid points. And there is a good argument to encourage getting off your backside and rewarding hard work. But as this track and trace saga has shown we have a government complicit in mass fraud. The same government that would threaten to send the goons round if you so much as missed a tax payment. But then I see a country where food banks usage has gone through the roof and there is a real concern that things like ulitities essential to everyday life such as energy and water are being priced as to make life difficult for the less well off.
I hate the Labour Party but jeez this current Tory lot are a different level of pond life.

 

Hang on, that sounds like what's happening right here, right now.

 

It's only communism if you spend other people's money on state-funded projects that benefit millions of people.
If you just hand it out to all your mates to set up incompetent Covid labs that misdiagnose thousands of cases, or start track and trace companies that don't have the first idea how to do it, it's absolutely fine, apparently. It's the inherent efficiency of the private sector, don't you know?

 

The big issue is that while your characterisation of the PM and a few other is absolutely bang on.

The problem is that all the political brains are all on one side of the house as Sunak is showing at the moment. Johnson is there for show and has his place is purely as a figurehead, the Labour party can't compete with his notoriety and his personality but they also can't compete with the meat put on the bones by the people under him. He gives the rhetoric, others give the substance and Labour can't compete on either.

In terms specifically of pensions - I hate the comparison with the other European countries as they're all misleading. They compare our base state pension with 'maximums' in other countries where people actually pay more into them. They're a complex comparison and there's no way to make it simple.

 

Oh I do miss Maggie