Economic Exile

I'm not referring to the reality in scotland in my response to ccc. Yes, the result shows that 62% in scotland do want to be in the eu. I've mentioned a couple of times that I didn't think support for the eu was as strong in scotland as was being predicted. Obviously I was wrong which is fine. The short exchange between ccc and myself was regarding the eu itself not about how many people in scotland want to be in it. IMO the eu will disintegrate. As the future unfolds I'll find out if I'm right or wrong about that.

Yes, it's a ridiculous idea. Sturgeon is displaying that she has no wisdom at all and is out of touch with the growing dissatisfaction among eu member's populations. If she wants an independent scotland she perhaps better go back to the drawing board and work out how scotland would fare standing alone in the world.

I have spoken to 6 (all decent) people I know today when out and about who voted Yes in the Scottish Referendum and they've all said for some time they were voting out in the EU referendum. The chats revealed that none of them will vote Yes if there is another Scottish referendum (which will not be anytime soon IMO) as coming out the EU is their priority. I also thought the leave EU vote would have been higher in Scotland.

I agree, the future is bleak for the majority. Everything seems to be pointing to major social unrest in the UK. As the cuts continue I think more people will want to protest. It's much easier these days for groups to mobilise through social media. Good luck with job searching. It's also pretty bleak job wise down here in Dumfries & Galloway. I still have my doubts though that the cretins in charge will manage to get Universal Credit up and running

Setting aside someone going on, IMO, a dismal cheap holiday to a Spanish resort. Where are the full time jobs with enough money to live off without subsidies for the masses going to come from? In addition with the other problem of everyone expected to work longer before getting a state pension. I have no answer to that, maybe you have?

My take on how things are is that it goes back to the 90's when Thatcher/Reagan "opened up the markets". Then the New Labour Project deregulated the banks further with the aim of redistributing wealth (the classless society!) from banking profits through tax credits. What a mess now! UK is in a prolonged downturn regarding social mobility for the majority IMO.

This comment on the article caught my eye:- "My son has just got another job, 0 contract hours, minimum wage! Even if he worked 50 hours a week he could not afford to pay rent, bills and eat without support. Hopefully when he finishes studying, he will get a better paid job. However I can remember being at Uni, 25 years ago, doing a part time easy job in a part sales department of a big company, and I was getting £5.50 a hour, 25 years ago!! Same job now £6.50 an hour - disgusting!!!" This seems to me how things have panned out. Cost of housing, council tax and heating have all increased far far more than wages for the majority! Yes, disgusting!

Very similar to my life position. Divorced when my youngest was 4. I had to pay him some money (much less than half) to buy him out which I added to the mortgage. It was back in 1998 and was affordable for me. My family helped with childcare. The succession of shit low paid jobs topped up with tax credits I done had to fit in with my circumstances and I hated them all. I can relate to your feelings of your circumstances being a real struggle! I moved twice and am now in a modest, paid up two bed semi. I'm currently drawing a smallish occupational pension and have a modest nest egg so my financial situation is better. Son still at home and paying dig money. I'm also very thrifty which helps. Alas, because of two increases to my state pension age I still have 8 years to go and will get it when I'm 66. I can't wait. It'll be a relief!

I got an online forecast and apparently I'm being granted the full new pension of £155 and whatever pence from my 42 years NI. Due to be collected in 2024 when I'm 66. That'll do me nicely thank you! I'm currently being paid a Royal Bank of Scotland pension which I started drawing early 5 years ago. In the blurb it says it will be reduced by about £5 per month at State Pension age. It's almost £240 pm and increases every year. As a thrifty, divorced single parent with a modest paid up house I feel very lucky. compared to younger generations. Edited to add. My pension from Royal Bank is based on 8 years employment with them so I'm very pleased with that monthly amount that increases each year. What a gift! I also got a 16k redundancy payment from them in 1993 which was based on 16 years as I ended up at Royal Bank due to a takeover. Hated working there and detest them even more since learning more about the economic system. I'm enjoying receiving my "compensation" from them each month until my death. Sweet! I've no other pensions but have a modest nest egg and I'm thrifty and creative so overall very lucky compared to many others out there.

No.I wish! I took an occupational pension early. About 6 years ago I had a rough spell and had the misfortune of having to attend the job centre for a spell. The pension is roughly JSA amount so if the worst comes to the worst I can get by without having to go back there. As for retiral. No chance until drawing state pension at age 66 for me...currently. Or if 22 year old son leaves home.....but there is little chance of that.

An interesting article about the increasing State Pension Age. https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-d03e-Government-readies-to-pick-pensioners-pockets#.VvWSm-KLTIV I'm 58 and lumped in the boomer category. I know I'm lucky because I own a 1940's built modest 2 bed semi bungalow in a nice rural area of Scotland. I'll be eternally grateful for that. I've always struggled financially in low paid work, been a single parent since 1998 when ex husband left home. I took a smallish occupational pension when I was 56 as a hedge to avoid the nightmare of ever having to attend the job centre again. IMO I have lots of life skills but nothing that will command an average or higher wage. Struggled over the years with health problems also. The thought that I would be forced to work until I was 70+ fills me with dread......66 is bad enough! I have a 21 & 22 year old and would like them to have a safety net for later life.....and all younger people. I'm pessimistic about the mention in the article about the NI fund being in credit. Pessimistic is an understatement! Seems to me that we are currently heading towards a society where the low paid work till they drop. IMO the low paid are increasing in number. Poland and Germany have recently said they are reducing their SPA (can't find articles). Will Britain get away with the increases in SPA? Probably, unless there is enough public pressure to stop it.

In my opinion this petition is badly worded. The word disability evokes images in the mind, for example, of people in wheelchairs, born with an illness or enduring a long recovery from being involved in a car crash or coming to terms with the onset of a life changing illness. Yes Employment and Support Allowance is available to claim for all those life events. However, life is a lottery and in the grand scheme of things few can be confident about having total financial security to deal with what life throws at you. Anyone can become ill and temporarily unable to work for a number of months for many reasons. Employment and Support Allowance is a safety net benefit to give people some income when they don't have any other income due to illness when it becomes difficult to work. Yes, I can think of people over the years in my town who have abused sick money, incapacity benefit, ESA, DLA or whatever it's currently called. However I also know that there are many genuine claimants. Consider this. In a world where job security is hard to attain, well paid work is hard to secure, statutory sick pay is not always a condition of employment, it's hard to build up savings, family don't have spare money to help and the rent etc needs paid. How will a lot of people manage if they become ill? How many people can afford not to sign this petition?

Interesting blog post about state pension review. http://www.paulfdonovan.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/back-to-future-world-reflected-in.html

Really enjoyed listening to that. BTL tax changes very clearly articulated. I hope you get a bigger platform soon.

Yes spring and longer daylight is coming and that is a great reason for optimism to me. I've taken inspiration from a long gone philosopher called schopenhauer. He reasoned that the world he inhabited was sh*t so the best option was to largely ignore it, meet basic needs and take solace in the wonders of nature. Another way of thinking that helped his worldly toil was the buddhist view that everything changes so the sensible thing to do was to learn to live in the moment regardless of the wider sh*t going on around you. This idea of learning to accept and live in the moment is also useful when encountering severe personal sh*t ....I would add that it's also useful to hang on to the idea that situations will change or can be improved. Regarding brexit IMO the establishment wants a yes vote to stay in so for that reason I will vote no. I see the lead up to an eu referendum and the ensuing fallout whatever the result only as a source of amusement in a fu*cked up world. Is anyone running things? Can anyone? If there are smart people running the world well IMO they've made an ar*se of it. I don't care if I'm in the uk, eu or whatever because at personal level it amounts to making the best of your moments.

I would guess that both will be worse. Who or what can stop that happening? IMO...no one and nothing is the answer.

I would love it if a poll with leave the eu came out on top in the final days just to see a repeat of establishment front people groveling and making false promises to the electorate to try and get the "correct" result. You never know...we might even see merkel urging german residents to fly the eu flag to show us brits how much they love us and want us to stay. LOL. In my world it matters not who wins elections or referendums as overall the world is f*cked up IMO. But these days the shenanigans are much more amusing to observe than the two horse race that dominated for a while.

I'm hoping not to be destitute but I know I'm going to be skint. No change there as I've been skint for 17 years since ex husband ran off with someone else when kids were aged 4 & 5. The pension age increases issue IMO is not going to go away among the population. As the years pass there will be plenty of hardship stories. Also, soon when the new flat rate pension comes in lots more people are going to find they are not going to get what they expected. Interesting article about former pensions campaigner now pensions minister Baroness Altmann. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/how-could-this-one-time-fearless-campaigner-let-down-thousands-o/

Well yes that's what we are being told to accept. I suppose it's an acceptable way to see things for the clever? intelligent? adaptable? rich? i take care of my health? hard working? lucky? cunning? people that currently don't think they will ever end up in financial hardship or even destitution in their later years of life. In an age of global surplus labour with increasing automation should we be looking to creating a society where old, ill and jobless people have to work till they drop or face the ordeal of trying to claim paltry working age benefits because, for whatever reason, they haven't managed to accrue independent financial resources to survive old age? One of the current government's responses is that the WASPI women who are jobless or ill or caring for others have a raft of benefits in place to help them. Claiming job seekers or sickness benefit is not an easy option and carers allowance won't keep you. Have you ever had to claim a benefit? People with debilitating and terminal illnesses are being declared fit to work and being put through terrible stress taking it to appeal with a very high percentage winning...if they haven't died while they were waiting. Others are trying to get jobs but can't get one because they just aren't readily available to all. I'm referring to people who have worked all their life but fall ill or those who lose their job not people who have never worked. Not all jobs have handsome redundancy payments! I'd be fine about pension age increases as long as those who hit hard times through redundancy or illness were looked after. The reality is that they are not.

I'm enjoying how this core group of 5 women have gathered momentum and are making a big impact in the media and government. https://www.facebook.com/WASPI-Women-Against-State-Pension-Inequality-Campaign-877054125688402/ Nobody in the campaign is questioning that pension ages for males and females should be the same but more should the aim be e.g.70 years old for both and if this is deemed reasonable how quickly should it be implemented? Surely we would have to have a society where suitable work is available for all? I was born in 1958 and expected to retire at 60 until I realised around the year 2000 that I would be 65. I just thought f*ck f*ck f*ck f*ck...another 5 years to go before I can get that. No letter from DWP to inform me of this until after 2011 when I got one more year added. Double f*ck f*ck f*ck f*ck. So I believe that unless you were the type of women that looked into politics, news etc you genuinely wouldn't know you would be affected. Yes I hear a lot of men saying oh you women don't like it now when you have to be equal! Personally I don't think women and men are equal and they never will be because we are different. Women born in the 1950's lived in a world that is very different to now and not all boomers are rich! If you had children you didn't have a career unless you had a family member to take on your childcare duties or enough money to pay for it. 1950's women have asked for state pension forecasts and been given conflicting info e.g. you need 30 years contributions and based on this they've retired then been told they need 35 years. Some have divorced and settlements have been based on them getting SP at 60 so they have been left with a shortfall because of the escalation in reaching state pension age. Others have taken ill health retirement from government departments based on their belief and the belief of the government dept that they would retire at aged 60. Take from the whole shambles what you will but I'll state I'm against this fast escalation in reaching State Pension Age at say age 70 simply because we don't live in a world with suitable jobs for all ages and circumstances where everyone is fit and able to work till age 70. The WASPI'S are currently getting a choir together (can't wait to see what they come up with), emailing MP's en mass, campaigning, leaflet dropping and making appointments to see their MP. There have already been 2 debates with cross party support and next up is a house of commons full debate. That's the focus just now but they have crowd funded and are consulting a barrister re a legal challenge. Oh, and apparently they're bullying poor Ros Altmann ex head of SAGA who was against the way pension age increases were being implemented. Now she has been appointed Baroness Altmann and sitting in the House of Lords she has totally changed her mind and thinks pension age increases in general is just what we all need! I can't see her coming out well in all this.

Yes. I was just talking to someone today who is going to rent a room out in their home. She's a financially struggling single parent of 2 grown up but not yet independent girls and the lodger has hit hard times with reduced hours. https://www.gov.uk/rent-room-in-your-home/the-rent-a-room-scheme

Is this what you think? If you do are you really so naive that you could label anyone who wanted to vote to leave the eu as poorly educated? People vote in given ways for a variety of reasons. I know many well educated who will be voting to leave but for a variety of reasons. I've lived through the scottish referendum and the wide ranging insults that were directed at me because I voted Yes for independence. Personally I don't care what the UK's or the wider worlds arrangements are now or what anyone says about my vote. But when I see a chance that my vote might add to the dissatisfaction ordinary people are feeling I like to vote to cause problems for our rulers....whoever they are?. The enjoyment and laughs I experienced from the obvious desperation of the rulers when there was a threat that scotland might vote yes for independence really can't be put into words. It still makes me laugh because I don't think that problem will go away and there will be more amusement in the future. I don't care about the snp in general and that they want to stay in the eu. I only voted for them to try and break the liblabcon and stir up the political landscape. My research and instincts are saying to me that I should vote no to staying in the eu but it's mainly because that isn't what the rulers want. If a referendum is organised I look forward to laughing at the game with all the warnings from so called important people like baroness mone,harry potter author, obama, merkell etc etc etc that the sky will fall in if we don't vote to stay in the eu. If it's a uk no vote for an exit and scotland have a majority to stay in well in my opinion it will just get more amusing. There's nothing I can do about how the world is because it's totally out of my control. For about 10 years I spoiled my voting paper but I'm enjoying voting these days.

I live in a rural and fairly low population area. Thinking back I remember ditches around fields and at each side of roads. Most of them are gone now. Driving today on the A75, again I've thought....why have all the ditches gone? What method of getting rid of the water has replaced ditches? When I think of the ongoing expansion and drainage issues in more built up areas it just makes me think it's unsurprising that there is more flooding during extreme rainy spells.

I hope so. Hopefully a lot of people are waking up like many posters on HPC, I think that the expectation is that the population is spending money on new clothes for attending parties at venues, buying prepacked food for entertaining guests at home, splashing out on gifts and buying extravagant treats for christmas in the home etc. And don't forget that we're bombarded with advertisements to get that new sofa and carpet etc to make christmas even better.. Even better, according to all the hard sell, why not have a new car to throw in to make it all fantastic. Just a few weeks ago a local estate agent was banging on about there still being time to get moved to your perfect home for christmas. For many years I've viewed christmas day and the run up as just normal days. Years ago when my kids were about 12 after some discussion I convinced them to not have presents on christmas day but just have cash and then wait for the January sales to get more for their money. You don't have to wait till january now to get discounts but personally I would still wait until january going by the pre christmas discounts.I've seen. What next in January?....get your easter eggs early when they're on offer to have a great time! Madness.

Is anyone else unable to access the off topic forum from the forum list? It says site unavailable due to maintenance. However I can access it from new content with the filter set to off topic.