asterix
Comrade Member
- Location
- Limoges or York
Pensions
- Thread starter compo
- Start date
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swee'pea99
Squire
[QUOTE 2131938, member: 9609"]Considering that I have paid more in than was originally planned, I guess your 1/10th is probably more accurate.
And looking at the latest news LINK it would appear that they are still promising us a lot more than we will ever likely receive - could see a drop of another 30+%
I worry that when we eventually come to retire we may owe the pension companies money.[/quote]
My reading of your link is that the pension companies are saying that it is actually our fault as we believed the illustrations they gave us, and consequently haven't put enough in. A particularly twisted logic, even from financial services.
And looking at the latest news LINK it would appear that they are still promising us a lot more than we will ever likely receive - could see a drop of another 30+%
I worry that when we eventually come to retire we may owe the pension companies money.[/quote]
My reading of your link is that the pension companies are saying that it is actually our fault as we believed the illustrations they gave us, and consequently haven't put enough in. A particularly twisted logic, even from financial services.
The really shocking statistic is that Israel spends about £1000 a year on weaponry for every man, woman and child. I thought the UK was bad enough with £170.
Canrider
Guru
Then it's a good thing they didn't have just the two on duty when 21 other couples arrived over the next 8-10 hours...
- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
At which point they should've had the minimum number of staff to deal with those.
Primal Scream
Get your rocks off
- Location
- On the road to hell
Silly statement, women can hardly decide when to go into labour or are you suggesting staff should be on no hours contracts waiting to be called in when required
swee'pea99
Squire
This is getting very silly. Obviously there are demands which fluctuate, but can only be met by fixed capacities, which will mean periods of over-stretch and periods of slack. That's unavoidable. But that doesn't mean there aren't inefficiencies in public sector organisations which would not occur in private ones - there are. Nor does it mean that public sector workers are skivers, or lacking in dedication - they aren't. But to get back to Compo's original point...
"Most civilised countries expect their workers to work for x amount of years then have a few years of leisure before popping their clogs. I understand the reasons for increasing the UK retirement age as many of us are living longer and don't really have an argument with that. Now it seems that there are those who want to deny us even those few years."
The inescapable problem is those 'few years'. Once upon a time, that's what they were. And the system was designed to cater for them. People worked to 65, and died at 70. Give or take. Now people, if they are lucky enough to have jobs, frequently live for 20, 30, 40 years after retirement. The system is breaking down under that strain.
And not just in terms of pensions. Look at the NHS. Launched in 1948 with a budget of £437 million, now budgeted at well over £100 billion. One hundred thousand million pounds. Over 40% of which goes on the elderly. And the numbers just get bigger and bigger.
I'm not saying I'm unsympathetic to the idea that we should get a few years off before we pop our clogs. Nor that some pretty dodgy ideas will get floated in on this tide (eg near-mandatory 'voluntary' labour undermining waged, emasculating unions, and so on). But as it says in the caption under the photo in the article Compo links to, "Lord Bichard says fresh thinking is needed to help meet the cost of an ageing population." I for one find that difficult to argue with.
"Most civilised countries expect their workers to work for x amount of years then have a few years of leisure before popping their clogs. I understand the reasons for increasing the UK retirement age as many of us are living longer and don't really have an argument with that. Now it seems that there are those who want to deny us even those few years."
The inescapable problem is those 'few years'. Once upon a time, that's what they were. And the system was designed to cater for them. People worked to 65, and died at 70. Give or take. Now people, if they are lucky enough to have jobs, frequently live for 20, 30, 40 years after retirement. The system is breaking down under that strain.
And not just in terms of pensions. Look at the NHS. Launched in 1948 with a budget of £437 million, now budgeted at well over £100 billion. One hundred thousand million pounds. Over 40% of which goes on the elderly. And the numbers just get bigger and bigger.
I'm not saying I'm unsympathetic to the idea that we should get a few years off before we pop our clogs. Nor that some pretty dodgy ideas will get floated in on this tide (eg near-mandatory 'voluntary' labour undermining waged, emasculating unions, and so on). But as it says in the caption under the photo in the article Compo links to, "Lord Bichard says fresh thinking is needed to help meet the cost of an ageing population." I for one find that difficult to argue with.
Primal Scream
Get your rocks off
- Location
- On the road to hell
Maybe Bichard could suggest raising the top rate of tax on those earning, say, £150k per annum and the tory government really going after those evading tax or how about closing all the tax evasion loop holes together with an overiding "spirit of the law".
Then we could limit pension tax relief to say standard tax rate only plus an increased tax on bankers bonuses. We could follow this with a tobin tax on financial,transactions.
We could also charge VAT on aircraft fuel.
How about a limit to the profit a company can make on a govenment or local authority contract (This one I know something about)
Stop public schools claiming to be charities and charge VAT on school fees and tax them the same as any other business.
Just a few ideas
Then we could limit pension tax relief to say standard tax rate only plus an increased tax on bankers bonuses. We could follow this with a tobin tax on financial,transactions.
We could also charge VAT on aircraft fuel.
How about a limit to the profit a company can make on a govenment or local authority contract (This one I know something about)
Stop public schools claiming to be charities and charge VAT on school fees and tax them the same as any other business.
Just a few ideas
asterix
Comrade Member
- Location
- Limoges or York
Yes but they are surrounded by enemies on their borders. We are just surrounded by enemies globally. Although, thinking about it, we could fall out with the rest of Europe soon.
swee'pea99
Squire
Spot on! Another that comes to mind is actually seriously taking on the large corporations, generally American, that like exploiting our consumer base but prefer not to pay any taxes here - Amazon and Starbucks being two that spring to mind. If you want to do business here, you pay tax here, period. And make it stick.
When you say 'spend', I think you'll find that by far the greater part comes gratis from the US as aid.
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
So were we 100 years ago. But we took the obvious step of working to turn those enemies into friends. I commend this strategy to Mr Netanyahu.
That is certainly true. There again, there is something Orwellian about successive Israeli governments who maintain political power by keeping the citizenry in a state of perpetual fear and paranoia.
Not that they are alone in that. The US has gone large on the War on Terror with even less excuse.
swee'pea99
Squire
Not to mention the arguably even more sinister War On Drugs, as featured in a documentary featured on Late Review last night...
"What's really fueling this law and order hysteria and the draconian prison sentences for relatively minor, innocuous and even non-existent "crimes" is the extraordinarily profitable Prison for Profit system. What's interesting and extremely frightening is most Americans are oblivious to it. Combine this with a large number of the public being largely uneducated and on a continual sadistic hunt for scapegoats, those who profiteer on the modern day slave trade have a willing public as unwitting accomplices."