Sunday, May 11, 2008
Lets get some perspective here
BBC: Warning over social care funding
Ministers are warning that England's social care system is heading towards a £6bn funding gap unless there is radical reform, the BBC has learned...............I know this is off topic and im sorry but this country gives out 50 Billion to bail out the banks and throws the vunerable to the dogs it makes me sick
Posted by titaniccaptain @ 10:30 PM (327 views) Add Comment
13 Comments
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1. Mytimeisnigh said...
So they are now saying, well actually we can't afford everything we promised. And a lot of what we gave, when we were portraying ourselves as the government who wanted to value the vulnerable, we are going to have to take back. Why are they choosing social care first? Because they know that promoting education, the police force and the NHS wins more votes than caring for older people who can no longer care for themselves and providing people with learning disabilities with everything they need that might provide more inclusion and choice.
2. wiltshire said...
RIOT!!!!!
3. shipbuilder said...
'Radical reform' will include creeping privatisation, as has every reform to public services carried out by this neo-Thatcherite government.
Anyway, this is the new economic frontier, right? It's hard times - globalisation and all that - we must accept the new economic reality - sink or swim. These people aren't 'economically active' to use the buzz phrase, so technically they're just leetches like all those other benefit scroungers - get them back to work - there's no reason why a pensioner couldn't be doing low-impact administration work, right? Isn't that the way we're meant to think these days?
When I hear, day after day, that we must all accept longer hours for less pay, less rights etc. to be 'competitive' in the global economy and that dreamers like the French and Germans must do the same - I wonder - who is benefiting if we are all sacrificing? Who is this country run for?
4. titaniccaptain said...
Well said shipbuilder
5. gone-to-colombia said...
That's right, lost your leg dynamite fishing (big thing down here a few years back), getting old, or a mother with a baby? Need money? No problem go out an beg, its the Colombian way. Coming to a town near you!
Globalization I guess.
6. titaniccaptain said...
All politicians can now do is blame those who arent putting pounds back into the system when they worked to create what they thought was a just system and placed their faith in it thinking that todays generation would then allow them the dignity to grow old in relative compfort.............not the case......today they are viewed as a burdon on society and then sell the family home when they need to go into care..............F#cking sick.........ALL politicians should be made to go into local authority care homes when they get old and all privaleges removed if its good for the goose its good for the gander. I have first hand experience of this with members of my family and both conservative and labour governments of the past 29 years should hang their heads in shame at the way that the system that people faithfully worked and payed taxes towards have let them down. One of the most heart breaking things I ever saw was an old lady outside Asda collecting money for a childerens charity she could hardly stand up because she was so frail and there she was collecting for the next generation whilst they would happily throw her on a rubbish tip. It is an image I will never forget till the day I die. The old, the sick and the desparate are now viewed as burdens............everyone has a story and a story is a life. Just look at the finger pointing in the house of commons its child like except children are innocent these people are meant to be responsable adults who are running the country yet Prime ministers questions gives the impression that the world is run by bullies and name callers.....oh I forgot it is. This cant go on. The day I hear a politician with real decency stand up with conviction against the way that society has been moulded is the day I will vote
7. Stupid_boy_pike said...
These funds should be channelled to those who need 'em like the aged.
Stop supporting all the welfare scroungers who smoke dope all day.
Stop financing one of the highest illegitimacy rates in the world.
Stop paying out tax payers money to those who think they're disabled. Etc.
I think with the financial situation we have round the corner, the old welfare state looks very shaky anyways.
8. confused76 said...
6m people on benefits in the UK also sounds a bit excessive
I would welcome some cuts there
9. mken said...
On the one hand the old are an increasing proportion of the voting population,
so they have real power.
On the other hand (and this in contrast to say central europe) there is no solidarity
and they are too polite to complain.
On still another hand the older generation is rich (there is a reason why those in their
20s or 30s are so poor) and should all easily be able to pay for home helps - (creating employment
by selling assets and bringing the price of housing down)
What is barely believable is that this problem is only coming to light now - in many
other countries taxes were raised to cover these foreseen costs 10 years ago.
Long term roof fixing while the sun was shining compared to "pragmatic" muddling along with golden bailouts
and tax relief for city friends.
The surprise is that this is the legacy of a "Labour" government in long term power.
10. Ingermany said...
Many oldies who have bought property as a "pension" will need to sell in order to purchase essential social care (as inflation will push these costs upwards faster than this year's oil prices). This will create a flood of property as a whole generation of homeowners seeks to offload their assets to get some liquidity. The demographics will create a huge property glut. The state will have blown so much cash writing off the banks' bad debts (from the property bubble) that it will be bankrupt and as a result the health and social care systems will fold. Indicators like infant mortality will rise for the first time in over a century. Jobs like "property developer" and "professional property investor" will be as irrelevant to the next generation as "wheel-tappers" and "shunters" are to ours.
Oh, and I forgot, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
11. bystander said...
Classic Nulab approach, goes well with the abolition of the 10p tax break, and then increase the minimum wage, so that more people feel better off until they realise that, as they earn more they pay more tax, therefore are significantly worse off. The employer suffers, the employee suffers and Gb's miracle economy continues on its fraudulent, mis-managed way. Whoever takes over from this bunch of morons will have their work cut out, but at least they couldn't do a worse job.
12. Zippys said...
how many migrants will recieve benefits/housing & medical as the lower paid jobs disappear? seems a little twisted that people who lead the fight against Germany and have made this (once) great country are now being stuffed by a goverment all too keen to grab short live headlines and line their own pockets.
It is time the Tories or the media (if they had guts) called a vote of no confiendence in 'new' labour continuing trashing of this country.
13. Dude said...
@mken
On the contrary, this problem has been known for a very long time (the population time bomb). However democracy has got in the way. Before climate change came along and took our minds off it, there were two issues that were looming -- social and health care for an ageing population, and how to pay the pensions of this ageing population.
The issue has always been difficult. The answer involves getting more money off today's earners to support the current OAPs. It is wrongly thought by many that the NICs you pay go towards your pension. They don't. They simply go to pay the pension of *today's* pensioners. You are not putting your money in a pot for your future, only paying for the bills of today's OAPs.
But because we have elections every 4 years or so, any government would never dare make the radical reforms that are needed, because they would be voted out of office by the next lot, and in any case neither lot would see the benefits of it. So it is always put off -- let another generation or government address it. Well we are getting nearer and nearer to the time when these painful decisions will have to be made.
If you've only earned £15-20k all your life, how do you feel about having to pay into your own pension pot? Or is is right that you get a pension? Should this be affordable, or be as poor as benefits because the working population (which really means the middle classes, earning £30k and upwards) want to keep the money for themselves?
If you are given a means tested benefit -- just think how disgusting that is. You've worked all your life and yet you are being asked to show some bureaucrat your bank statements. More and more people will fall into this trap. This is not the legacy of this Labour government but of all governments (remember Labour are the new Tories -- that's the only way they could keep the right-wing nutters out -- but the country is full of right wing nutters who only care for themselves, and have no social conscience).
Me, I'm ok. I earn well above the national average and contribute much to my pension. I'll not be well off when I retire but I'll be better than most. But there are many people already in deep do-do, and the number will keep growing unless something significant is done about it.