Pensions should be means tested , the thought of millionaires getting triple lock state rises , free bus travel , free prescriptions is a worry for me and the needy and poor ..
Speak up Sir Keirsure fire socialist cause and vote winner
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legislation now to inspect your bank accounts if you claim a state pension !
would have thought to look at tax evasion from the big businesses in this country rather than spying at over 30 million people in this country !
Ministers last week rushed an amendment through the Commons, allowing it to look into the bank account of everybody claiming State Pension. Their only reason was that it might be useful one day. The only change which could make it useful would be to means test the State Pension pic.twitter.com/aRRLPWkHLf
— Sir Stephen Timms (@stephenctimms) December 3, 2023
Pensions should be means tested , the thought of millionaires getting triple lock state rises , free bus travel , free prescriptions is a worry for me and the needy and poor ..
Speak up Sir Keirsure fire socialist cause and vote winner
For me it all depends on what the threshold might be before there is any means tested reduction. I have saved into a private pension scheme for the last 30 or so years of my working life and am now drawing down a modest amount every month from the pot. I think it would be unfair to penalise me for being thrifty over those years and putting some money aside to provide a pension.
P.S. I am not a millionaire but one of the asset rich, cash poor, pensioners.
Utterly predictable how the OP turns into a debate on means testing pensions within one reply (with the obligatory dig at the Labour Party of course).
Mozzer’s got it right with hiscomment for me.
The sad fact here is that the state pension is designed to be a bare minimum and not a comfortable lifestyle, contributions would need to be much higher to fund that.
Two competing problems here
- Means testing people who have moderate wealth/income in retirement after telling them their whole life (while they are contributing to it) that the system is solvent/future proof, is a rug pull.
- Doing nothing (keeping triple lock in place for short/medium term) is massively unfair on other cohorts and will see a continuation of a death spiral we are currently in as a departments/services that are an investment in the future/growth (education for instance) are defunded to maintain pension spending. And obvious eventually somebody gets left holding the bag anyway because this Ponzi is set up to fail eventually.
Probably no good choice and I can completely see why people get angry but way too many intelligent people have had their heads deliberately buried in the sand about this issue for far too long.
Basically if you are somebody that recognises birth rate decline, wants migration reduced to next to nothing and thinks we need to maintain the triple lock then you need to go looking for the magic money tree.
Up to you , just know its in the political background and best to not ignore , let others see a balance and let every view be seen and heard ..
https://www.eyalliance.org.uk/news/2...ly-years-offer
Yep its in the Labour Party agenda , after the election of course ,they will have to find the millions form somewhere to fund the glorious turnaround of this country , so why not means test the fat pensions some sit on in the public/private sector for the real needy , its a pure socialist thing to do isn't it ????????? ..
What happened to the Corbynistas agenda and fans , they now supporting and voting for Kier Thatcher Blair now?
Quote from an earlier poster who replied to you: "You have been posting on here long enough to understand if you save and make good decisions you are scum, Netflix and booze are hero worshipped, taking brown envelope jobs elevate you to superstar status".
I can only assume ToTaL ITK falls into the latter mode of thinking as he seems to be rather displeased with your comment.
I thought he was being ironic but disagreeing with me wouldn't be a problem. My point was that some people set aside a proportion of their income for the long term benefit and some others don't.
I know someone who smoked 60 cigarettes a day all his adult life (representing a huge financial outlay) and cannot now support himself financially in old age.
My comments in no way relate to those on low incomes and who are unable to save money.
Unfortunately these same folk become a huge drain on NHS resources before they die!
These are figures from official government data:
Obesity costs the NHS 6 billion annually, a figure which is expected to rise to over 9.7 billion each year by 2050 (Ref: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/n...e-nhs-billions)
The UK-wide NHS costs attributable to overweight and obesity are projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, with wider costs to society estimated to reach 49.9 billion per year. (Ref: https://www.gov.uk/government/public...environment--2)
Smoking-related illness puts a considerable strain on NHS resources. In 2015/16 474,000 hospital admissions and 79,000 deaths were caused by smoking. It is estimated that smoking has cost the NHS in England 2.6 billion per year.
(Ref: https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read...harmacy-teams/)
Alcohol costs the NHS an estimated 3.5 billion per year in England and costs an estimated 21 billion per year to society. (Ref: https://committees.parliament.uk/wor...tment-services)
I haven't bought into any meme whatsoever, old fruit. My comments were not directed at the poor and about penalising them but at the principle that someone who had saved for retirement may be penalised if they had chosen to set aside part of their their income for an additional pension rather than spend all of their disposable income on short-term pleasures over the years.
This is most certainly not about penalising the poor whatsoever.
I personally know a few individuals who do spend a disproportionate amount of their income on alcohol, weed and cigarettes (60 a day) while not putting anything aside - and without wishing them to be 'punished' I wouldn't want to be punished myself, as it were.