George Osborne Will Ignore Pensioners At His Peril

[The Masked Tulip]

After promising to look after older people, the chancellor has cut their fuel benefit and denied them tax perks

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/mar/27/george-osborne-ignore-pensioners-peril

I can't help wondering why the chancellor has been so cavalier about Britain's 12 million pensioners. They are one of the most powerful voting blocks in the country and are three and a half times more likely to vote than 18- to 24-year-olds. Politicians who take them for granted may live to regret it.

Perhaps we will find out in May?

[SarahBell]

Cut heating allowances and pray for some cold winters?

[mightytharg]

After promising to look after older people, the chancellor has cut their fuel benefit and denied them tax perks

You realise that this would be a good thing don't you? Pensioners are second only to the public sector in destroying the country with their insane greed.

Cancel their SMI now.

[SarahBell]

You realise that this would be a good thing don't you? Pensioners are second only to the public sector in destroying the country with their insane greed.

Cancel their SMI now.

+1

Old age is the ultimate rainy day.

Some seem to be determined to pass it on to their kids rather than live warmly and safely.

[billybong]

First, omitted completely from the small print was Osborne's decision to cut pensioners' winter fuel allowance – by £100 to £300 for everyone over 80 and by £50 to £200 for the under-80s – despite having made a promise to protect all such pensioner benefits.

They just can't help themselves lying and thieving - about just about everything.

[johnny5thumbs]

The writer of the article Ros Altmann is the D.G. of Saga, so her position on pensioners is not totally unbiased.

[Orsino]

I have considerable sympathy for the older generation of pensioners. As for the boomers, they can go to hell. There's no money left to bankroll their self-indulgent lifestyles.

[porca misèria]

I have considerable sympathy for the older generation of pensioners. As for the boomers, they can go to hell. There's no money left to bankroll their self-indulgent lifestyles.

The older generation are the ones with the really generous pensions.

Those who got their annuities back before the Equitable collapse got more than twice as much for their money as any boomer will get.

[miko]

I have considerable sympathy for the older generation of pensioners. As for the boomers, they can go to hell. There's no money left to bankroll their self-indulgent lifestyles.

The boomers paid £20k for a house that is now worth £250k , the pre boomers paid £2k and saw their mortgages wiped out by wage inflation while the boomers were still saving up their £2k deposit . My Dad is a pre boomer and after a few years paying his mortgage it was no more than a CC bill. He also got far more pension and endowment payouts that the boomers , his endowment was in the golden pay out years 3 x the original insured amount .

[exiges]

To be fair, every sector other than savers was considered in the last budget.

[papag]

The boomers paid £20k for a house that is now worth £250k , the pre boomers paid £2k and saw their mortgages wiped out by wage inflation while the boomers were still saving up their £2k deposit . My Dad is a pre boomer and after a few years paying his mortgage it was no more than a CC bill. He also got far more pension and endowment payouts that the boomers , his endowment was in the golden pay out years 3 x the original insured amount .

HEY

not all of us some have houses we paid 120K for and are now only worth 180K so don't tar us all with the same brush, mind you quite a lot of us have houses abroad paid for by downsizing in the Uk so we can spend the winters in the sun helped by the winter fuel allowance, granted we do have or some of us do gold plated pensions rising by 5% a year but they were the rules at the time we only took advantage of being able to take 2/3 of our pay at the age of 54, anyway off to golf now and a nice lunch . Life is a bitch sometimes

[fluffy666]

The boomers paid £20k for a house that is now worth £250k , the pre boomers paid £2k and saw their mortgages wiped out by wage inflation while the boomers were still saving up their £2k deposit . My Dad is a pre boomer and after a few years paying his mortgage it was no more than a CC bill. He also got far more pension and endowment payouts that the boomers , his endowment was in the golden pay out years 3 x the original insured amount .

My Father-In-Law retired almost 20 years ago with a nice big index linked pension, and is now 70..

But in many ways pensioners are not being ignored. Compared to the absolute stiffing being handed out to the young (tuition fees, education spending cut, mass unemployment), they are not doing too badly. Indeed, you could say that by raising pensions with inflation and ring fencing the NHS, we are basically strip mining Defence, Education and local government to pay pensions, and keep the elderly alive for a couple more years. Pensioners vote..

Personally I think that the state retirement age should be linked to years of work done (with allowance given for childcare but not being at Uni); this would act in favour of the left-school-at-16-for-manual-work people, who could retire at 65 compared to 70 for those with degrees (and to stereotype, an office based job).

[mitchbux]

The boomers paid £20k for a house that is now worth £250k , the pre boomers paid £2k and saw their mortgages wiped out by wage inflation while the boomers were still saving up their £2k deposit . My Dad is a pre boomer and after a few years paying his mortgage it was no more than a CC bill. He also got far more pension and endowment payouts that the boomers , his endowment was in the golden pay out years 3 x the original insured amount .

+1

Though my mother, who is younger than him, is only a pre-boomer by a matter of weeks. It's her that's got a horrendous sense of entitlement. Dad at least recognises that Gen Y and below are being screwed.

[SarahBell]

Personally I think that the state retirement age should be linked to years of work done (with allowance given for childcare but not being at Uni); this would act in favour of the left-school-at-16-for-manual-work people, who could retire at 65 compared to 70 for those with degrees (and to stereotype, an office based job).

at 55 it's possible to have worked 40 years.

That's the current pension goal total isn't it?

Sadly you can now live til 95 which means you'll be retired as long as you worked. That doesn't make sense.

But without a crystal ball knowing when you'll keel over it will be impossible to make this fairer for everyone.