Pensioner poverty

Thank you for this @Whitewavemark2. It's absolutely disgusting and infuriating. I really feel for single pensioners of either sex - how they manage I don't know, especially with all the increases in food prices, energy, etc. Even with pension credit it must be a hard existence. There's also a huge difference between pensioners that have always been able to pay into workplace pensions. Many women of the Waspi type age and older never had that option as due to no childcare they were often in part time roles.

Abolishing the triple lock at a time of rising inflation is typical of the Tories, a cynical money saving exercise at the expense of the elderly. I absolutely don't buy into this inter-generational thing either -(having said that we have helped our adult children lots) it's just the Tory way of pitting one section of society against another for their own ends.

No surprise really was it? Par for the course. I refuse to get my knickers in a knot.

Just think, a member of the House of Lords gets more for logging in per day than pensioners get in a week.

I appreciate that 8% interest is a lot but we are not exactly receiving £30,000 a year and it is cynical and unfair to change it this year for their own ends. They may think we will have forgotten by the next election- I do not think so.

The Tories promised that it would remain in place until 2024.

Yet to hear some, not all of the younger generation, all us pensioners are rolling in money, having five holidays a year and living in huge houses- I wish!

wwm wasn’t that promise made before the pandemic? And wasn’t austerity a direct result of the financial crash which wasn’t caused by any political party?

Germanshepherdsmum

wwm wasn’t that promise made before the pandemic? And wasn’t austerity a direct result of the financial crash which wasn’t caused by any political party?

All political not economic decisions

Really? You have evidence you can produce to support that statement I assume?

I know what you mean Pepper59. If it wasn’t for my NHS pension, I really don’t know how I, and others like me would manage. On the basic state pension as DWP don’t have any records of my early years work in the NHS. Had to accompany spouse overseas, so guess they lost track of me!! People forget not everyone is on the new rate.

Think I remember the austerity drive was EU led
www.bbc.co.uk/news/10162176

Germanshepherdsmum

Really? You have evidence you can produce to support that statement I assume?

If you have to ask that question, then you haven’t been keeping up.

Perhaps you would humour me then and give me the evidence as I’ve obviously missed it.

Heard of Keynesian economics and money supply? I won’t bore going into it, but that will give you an idea as to where the rethink is taking place in macroeconomics.

Google it it will be quicker than me laboriously typing it out.

Whitewavemark2

The Tories promised that it would remain in place until 2024.

They also promised to maintain the percentage spend on Overseas Aid. Anyone seeing a pattern here?

Pepper59

Yet to hear some, not all of the younger generation, all us pensioners are rolling in money, having five holidays a year and living in huge houses- I wish!

Please don't blame the younger generation, don't fall for the politics of division. Statistics show that the majority of Tory voters were over 70 so it is incorrect to blame youngsters.

Lincslass

Think I remember the austerity drive was EU led
www.bbc.co.uk/news/10162176

sigh

Sorry wwm I know more than you might think but the statement you made doesn’t wash.

I wish the government would do more to help poorer pensioners. I have a pension from work but many couldn't afford to pay into one.
I don't think pension credit is enough and if the triple lock goes then some people will suffer and old age isn't kind.

Germanshepherdsmum

Sorry wwm I know more than you might think but the statement you made doesn’t wash.

As you wish.

It seems to be in the Governments interest to pit generations against each other. Otherwise why raise N.I. instead of Income Tax.
If they had kept the triple lock and raised income tax, we would all have been able to contribute.
The triple lock would have been raising the State pension for future generations, and richer pensioners would have paid more in tax.

GillT57

Lincslass

Think I remember the austerity drive was EU led
www.bbc.co.uk/news/10162176

sigh

another sigh here,

Lincslass

Think I remember the austerity drive was EU led
www.bbc.co.uk/news/10162176

The austerity drive within the eurozone was driven by the dominance of Germanic economic ideology, which demanded 'balanced' budgets and cuts in state spending.

As the UK was not in the eurozone it was at liberty to run its economy in whatever way it pleased. The German model appealed to the tories because it enabled them to justify huge cuts in state spending, to 'shrink the state', which has always been a tory objective from Thatcher onwards.

However, there are multiple economic theories about managing national economies; there is nothing particularly 'correct' about the 'austerity' model. It did, in fact, delay the UK's recovery from the depression caused by the Global financial Crisis. The economy was showing good signs of recovery prior to 201o when the Conservative/LibDem coalition came to power. This has been acknowledged by the IMF (just in case you think I'm making it up).

The most effective way to recover from a depression is for governments to spend in order to keep money circulating in the day to day economy and so stimulate business growth. This was demonstrated in the US in the 1930s when Roosevelt's 'New Deal' programme of government investment helped the US to recover faster from the 'Great Depression' than did other western countries. In the UK postwar recovery was similarly helped by ambitious government spending, as well as the US loan, particularly on the newly established NHS, infrastructure and house building programmes. Not such a good recovery as we also squandered money on trying to retain the Empire ..

We are in for another bout of ideology driven austerity, swingeing cuts to day to day public spending (which the government hopes will be masked by 'levelling up' money) all in the name of 'paying back' the money 'borrowed' to tide us over the covid crisis. Money that was, in fact, 'created' by the Bank of England and which we owe to no-one.

They can't afford to spend on the country AND pay for all the bungs to their mates.

I'm worried about working post 60. I get no pension until 67.

It's completely unacceptable, in a rich country, to have elderly people living in poverty. Those who vote for it should hang their heads in shame!

I can't think of a worse stage in life to be worrying about keeping warm, comfortable and well fed - can you?