The reform party has agreed to continue the triple lock

Pensioners are getting what they contributed back and a lot more besides its being topped up by current workers and general taxation as well. Certainly it's not high enough for the many without savings and there are too many anomalies particularly for women and disabled.

The new state pension is closer to the real cost of living, that should be available to all. Like other countries there should be a wealth limit to claiming a state pension to make it fairer for those that have no savings, but there is going to be howls of protest, from the wealthier on GN that they paid in and want the money.

I agree with a lot of that, grannygranby.

I think that far from being more generous these days pensions for a lot of people have dropped. My mother worked for less than ten years in total (before I was born and after we all grew up) but paid SERPS and inherited my father's pension and his SERPS, so she gets roughly double my SP, and I paid in for 50 years. That is unfair.

My friend hasn't worked since university, but when her children reached the age when she could no longer get credit for them, she paid the small voluntary contributions on the advice of her accountant, so gets a full SP despite never having paid income tax. That is unfair.

Someone else could have worked from leaving school to retirement but earned too little to have a full record, or have been kept 'off the books' by her employer. That is unfair.

Someone paying the Married Woman's Stamp might not qualify for the same pension as her colleague who paid the full amount, but will get her income made up by PC and be better off. That isn't fair either.

There are so many differing sets of circumstances, but IMO the bottom line should be that if you paid in (for want of a better word - yes, I know that every generation pays for the one above) you should always be better off than if you didn't. That is where we are going wrong as a country, I think. From youth to old age it feels that those who don't work are given, and the money is taken from those who do, and it's wrong.

Having said that, today's pensioners have made their retirement plans on the assumption that they would get what they were told they would get. It wouldn't be fair to change that when it's too late to do anything about it. It's a mess.

Forget Reform that’s a distraction, I’m irritated by this knee jerk triple lock issue. It sounds really generous but all it is is keeping up with rise in average wages, rise in prices or 2.5% whichever is highest. For example Public sector pensioners will be getting a projected rise of 3.5% and they are already in gold plated pensions. Our State pension is the lowest in the western world. I think it matches Albania. To keep this mean pension in line with cost of living rises is just really basic brought in by Wilson I believe . People who already have work pensions and claim state pension pay tax on it.
The main reason why it is so low is that it is available to people who have not contributed a penny …if they are poor. In fact they get more pension credit, as they don’t pay council tax etc. I paid in for forty years. I refused to pay the reduced married woman’s premium as I fought for equality. Now as an older pensioner I get a lot less than newer pensioners even those that haven’t contributed.
This is why it is a hot subject because is unfair’ here you just have to be old to get it. That should be a separate benefit. State pensions which have been contributory are not welfare. I happened to work for small firms and coops that didn’t pay pensions. Things were different then.
A load of claptrap is spoken on triple lock as it sounds generous, language is so powerful. it’s caught the medias attention for knee jerk response as soon as any problem arises in the benefit sector. It won’t be dropped because those in the know realise it’s cheap and old pensioners with no other pensions who contributed all their lives are not receiving a decent promised pension. If like me you have savings, to guard against poverty in the future if care is needed then no help is given. This is also why it can’t be means tested as that puts the hard working self respecting pensioners into a category of poverty - because that is what the state pension reduces them to.
Triple lock should be renamed basic safeguard against inflation. Also you don’t automatically get the state pension, you have to claim it. Those that don’t need it perhaps shouldn’t claim it - it’s the rich pensioners who give the non receivers of other pensions a bad name and makes them feel very vulnerable indeed.

It's enough to convince me not to vote Reform.

It's not "proof" Meandrogrog but many would see it as reasonable extrapolation or inference.

Maremia

The NHS may be free to access, under a Reform administration, but, if it is severely underfunded, there won't be enough left to go round, and so just like the folk in the US of A, we will be paying for our own treatments and prescriptions.
My proof?
Farage wants to emulate his hero Trump.
Trump has decimated Medicare.

That does not constitute proof!

whingers!

"It’s not just the UK."

It's not Jaxjacky. The UK has always had its share of wingers though. It's often all the minorities at the extremes can do.

The NHS may be free to access, under a Reform administration, but, if it is severely underfunded, there won't be enough left to go round, and so just like the folk in the US of A, we will be paying for our own treatments and prescriptions.
My proof?
Farage wants to emulate his hero Trump.
Trump has decimated Medicare.

Healthcare in Europe - 2025 - report stated there was a shortage of Doctors, Nurses and Midwives of 1.2 million across the EU. A combination of an ageing workforce, 18% of doctors over 65, working conditions, workload and MH struggles.
Most countries are increasingly relying on medical staff trained outside of the EU, some rural and poorer areas are ‘medical deserts’
It’s not just the UK.

Menopauselbitch

Allira

Any you know what they say about Liberals. Scratch a Liberal and you get a Fascist

Well, that's one I've never heard of!!
Sounds like a Reform soundbite rather than true.

It comes from the Black Panthers.

Are they a baseball team?

ronib

I did read it but reading doesn’t constitute blind acceptance. DAR

You hold yourself in too high esteem ronib my posts are for anyone who is interested not just you, and each person will make of it what they choose, just as you do. The problem is that some don't ever question there own views or think critically.

Farage has said many times that he thinks there will be another general election before 2029 even predicting one for next year. If he is so confident that Reform would win then he needs to be saying specifically what his plans are for the NHS. Health is at the top of most people’s list of what is most important to them.

Instead he’s wandering around the country flanked by his minders having hs picture taken rather than getting down to the hard work of policy planning.

Note that when with great fanfare he appointed his “shadow cabinet” he did not appoint a shadow health secretary

Try this. No official spokesperson is named for anything:

members.parliament.uk/spokespersons?PartyId=1036

According to party chair David Bull, speaking last October, he wrote the party’s health policy but it’s nowhere to be found on Reform’s website. It would be nice to see something I writing. Anyone see it here?

www.reformparty.uk/policies#policies-section

Someone asked upthread how we fill the nurse and doctor vacancies. Immediately, we continue employing them from other countries -
We expand nursing training. I’d say Diploma level two years then plenty of ongoing training.
We increase the number of doctors being trained

We fund nursing of doctor training. No nurse should graduate £70,000 I’m debt
No doctor should carry z£100.000 training debt

They commit to five years work in the nhs post qualification,

LizzieDrip

Yes Menopauselbitch Nigel Farage uses ‘clever’ semantics when he says healthcare will be ‘free at the point of use’.

Of course, what he actually means is that at the point of accessing treatment you wouldn’t have to pay there and then … you wouldn’t have to stump up the cash or flash your credit card when you have a hip replacement.

What he omits to say is that treatment will only be available to those who have paid / are paying into a private healthcare plan.

So, yes treatment will be ‘free at the point of use’ … for those who have private healthcare insurance. For those who haven’t, either because they can’t afford it or they have pre-existing, chronic conditions that insurers won’t touch … there’s no treatment!

No interviewer ever drills into Farage’s use of semantics in this way! It’s the sort of language that scammers use all the time.

I don’t fall for it.

A quick Google search indicates that the NHS will remain free under Reform, but they are hoping to explore the use of the private sector more, under the NHS system so still free, which is already happening anyway as we can now choose to use private facilities under the NHS. This makes sense to me, as does limiting the use of the NHS to UK citizens. When I needed treatment abroad on holiday the hospital would not even take the drip out of my hand until the insurance company had paid up.


There seems to be a lot of hysteria around this,

Yes Menopauselbitch Nigel Farage uses ‘clever’ semantics when he says healthcare will be ‘free at the point of use’.

Of course, what he actually means is that at the point of accessing treatment you wouldn’t have to pay there and then … you wouldn’t have to stump up the cash or flash your credit card when you have a hip replacement.

What he omits to say is that treatment will only be available to those who have paid / are paying into a private healthcare plan.

So, yes treatment will be ‘free at the point of use’ … for those who have private healthcare insurance. For those who haven’t, either because they can’t afford it or they have pre-existing, chronic conditions that insurers won’t touch … there’s no treatment!

No interviewer ever drills into Farage’s use of semantics in this way! It’s the sort of language that scammers use all the time.

I don’t fall for it.

One thing we can always rely on with GN is misinformation on a daily basis and Labour blamed for everything.

You are quote right, Casdon, about who was in of control of the councils that went to Reform last year.

Derbyshire
Reform UK gain from Conservative

Doncaster
Reform UK gain from Labour

Durham
Reform UK gain from no party majority

Kent
Reform UK gain from Conservative

Lancashire
Reform UK gain from Conservative

Lincolnshire
Reform UK gain from Conservative

North Northamptonshire
Reform UK gain from Conservative

Nottinghamshire
Reform UK gain from Conservative

Staffordshire
Reform UK gain from Conservative

West Northamptonshire
Reform UK gain from Conservative

As for the one council, Doncaster, that was in Labour control, much it’s financial problems were/are to do with the usual two things, the escalating cost of adult social and provision for children with SEND but also their core central government funding had decreased in real terms by 27% since 2010/11. And who came to power in 2010? That would be the Conservatives with their program of austerity.

But let's blame Labour anyway.

Casdon

Get your facts right Menopauselbitch. Of the 10 councils won by Reform, eight were previously Tory led, two were Labour, and one of those two was a minority administration.

An answer to this?

Maremia

But if Reform gets into power, we will have to start paying for our own
statins
blood pressure tablets
insulin
omeprozole
cancer drugs
Get the picture?

Proof? Because all I’ve heard them say is that the NHS will always be free at point of use but only for British citizens which is how I think it should be.

Allira

^Any you know what they say about Liberals. Scratch a Liberal and you get a Fascist^

Well, that's one I've never heard of!!
Sounds like a Reform soundbite rather than true.

It comes from the Black Panthers.

Granless

May be dicing with death here but personally I think Restore’s Rupert Lowe has a point.

x.com/rupertlowe10/status/2043947572671177020?s=46

Why would you think you were diving with death, surely all these ‘posters’ will welcome your opinion even if it differs from theirs ( ha ha) I like Rupert Lowe.

Get your facts right Menopauselbitch. Of the 10 councils won by Reform, eight were previously Tory led, two were Labour, and one of those two was a minority administration.

ronib

Uk tax burden as share of GDP / percentage point change 2024 to 2031 4.5 percent the highest. Canada will be minus 0.5 percent… for example.
The Telegraph…????

But it's 2026. Nobody really knows how much tax will increase by 2031 - or what we'll get for the tax.

What do you mean by paying tax on 20% rather than 12%?

Meandrogrog

I will vote for them anyway. I am not going to justify myself on this forum, sufficient to say I hope they can bring the change needed to this country, stopping illegal immigration and taking the UK out of the EU properly. I do not wish to have a great leftie pile on please.

Good for you. I also will vote for them. I especially like the thought of paying tax on 20% rather than every 12%. As for the councils they inherited, they were already bankrupted by Labour.