State pensions, paid for by a specific tax (NI) and paid out on the basis of what one has paid in is not a benefit.
Winter fuel payments is not an 'example' of a means tested pension. It is a means tested benefit.
State pension is not a benefit.
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[Politics] Tory meltdown finally arrived [was: incoming]...
- Thread starter TomandJerry
- Start date
Winter fuel payments is not an 'example' of a means tested pension. It is a means tested benefit.
State pension is not a benefit.
Private pensioners. There are no people reliant on state pension who are well off.
Surely the people who have both a state and a private pension, are still 'state pensioners' - quite possible to be drawing a state pension AND be well off - I hope so, anyway, as that's where I hope to be in 10-12 years' time.
Good points.
On private pensions, when I started as a lecturer (in fact before that, when I was a post doc) I was automatically signed into USS. I think I was automatically registered with the AUT union too. Around that time the Tories encouraged folk to opt out of workplace pensions and arrange their own. Loads of nurses on a similar scheme to mine did this and lost out badly. And of course the union closed shop process was ended by Thatcher. So people opted out of representation and their workplace pensions. Brilliant plan.
The USS scheme was fabulous till 10 years ago when the final salary calculation was replaced by average salary calculation. This has cost younger colleagues an estimated 40% of the value of their pension. I was OK because I was 55 at the time of the change. I also maxed out my AVCs (the smartest thing I ever did).
Meanwhile we are seeing young lecturers, even senior lecturers leave academia for other work. Unheard of in the past because even though the salary ain't all that great to begin with, academic freedom coupled with a big pension at the end of the rainbow made the job very attractive. Now, starting salary remains low, the pension is degraded, and academic freedom has been replaced by insane amounts of form filling. I have to review all the courses I run shortly, using a proforma that makes me address questions no bugger in their right mind would ever ask, plus submit to appraisal which remains pointless but which now involves pages of form filling. Right in the middle of exam paper marking.
As for teaching and assessment.....we have industrial scale exam cheating this year, with students uploading essays and then accessing them on the exam room computers, and even having people remotely access their exam computers and upload answers. If they delete their browser history quickly enough after the exam they can't be caught. Except when they plagiarize their own previous course work and get caught by Turnitin. As has happened. then it is hours of form filling, a hearing and so on.
And of course we have dumbed down assessments to cater for the massive increase in numbers, with MCQs and SAQs replacing essays for the most part.
We seem to have a knack of destroying all the good things in his country, replacing them with tat, tomfoolery and oodles of bureaucracy. Largely in the name of 'saving money'.
My point is that matey seemed to be suggesting people can be well of because of state pensions. Alone. That's nonsense. If they have worked long enough to pay off a mortgage, and live simply, like an 80 year old pal of mine, they can be OK. But his house is cold in winter because he can't afford to heat it. And he has two small private pensions as well.
But I'm sure there is a right wing tory who can prove you can live like a king on under £15K PA. No doubt he'll be along in a minute to mansplain
Edit: see reliant.
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 35,414
it would be nonsense, i said nothing like that. i was only agreeing the point about majority of wealth is in the held by those over 55. so maybe it could be appropriate for means testing of benefits currently auto-paid to this group. but not, to be absolutely clear, the state penion. that's something no one is suggesting, other than a few inventing a problem to complain about.
Your comment was made in the context of means testing state pensions, where you note that there are lots of well off pensioners as well as poor ones, making it perfectly reasonable for one to assume you are in favour of means testing state pensions:
Perhaps if you made a tiny bit more effort to write clearly there would be less scope for misinterpretation?
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 35,414
clearly say pensioners not pensions. that difference is the whole point i stuck my oar in.Your comment was made in the context of means testing state pensions, where you note that there are lots of well off pensioners as well as poor ones, making it perfectly reasonable for one to assume you are in favour of means testing state pensions:
View attachment 182314
Perhaps if you made a tiny bit more effort to write clearly there would be less scope for misinterpretation?
the poster i quoted goes far further (cut out for that reason), for some reason not picked up.
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drew
Drew
I was in that group as I'm quite partial to an argument but you can't argue with idiots so I left. As you say, it was originally set up to argue against the removal of a mini roundabout in the centre of town which, to be fair, worked pretty well, and was replaced by wider shared pavements (which aren't used to any extent by cyclists) and traffic lights. It then morphed into a platform for independent candidates at the local elections in 2023 and is now filled with individuals who seem clueless about the various levels of councils and their responsibilities. Unfortunately, many of them now pervade an wider Burgess Hill group with their idiotic stance on local issues.
drew
Drew
The vast majority of people are not just living off the state pension though. The majority have work pensions to supplement it. Not necessarily making them wealthy but not on the breadline.
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
I wouldn’t say the majority have. Women of my age are unlikely to have a full work pension, as very few jobs were open to married women in the 70s. Part time work didn’t really get going until the 80s, and part timers were excluded from works pension schemes. There was also the option of a married woman’s stamp because women were covered by their husband’s contributions (unless they divorce).
i know of one women whose State Pension was £11 a week, and no works pension.
Fortunately, this will change over the next 20 years but this is the situation now. Women live longer and are 51% of the populatio.
drew
Drew
Feb 24, office of national statistics, only 320k pension households living off just the state pension and other benefits.
EDIT: although that seems to be at odds with research by Sunlife which suggest 20% of men and 33% of women over 50 relying on state pension!!
drew
Drew
Strictly speaking, once you have reached the minimum contribution period then you don't get more pension even though you will continue to pay NI on earnings!
At the end of the day they should get rid of NI and just add it to income tax.
TS-DR
I agree.
Not sure what I think about state pension. I start getting mine in 5 days, FFS!
I probably qualify for other goodies too (benefits, this time) such as free travel on omnibuses, but I'm too busy on NSC and marking exam papers to check.
I read somewhere that the NHS sends round a Naked Lady once a month to check my trouser reflexes, but I fear this may be apocryphal.
drew
Drew
Due to the strain on staffing levels, that naked lady may not be of the generation you're hoping for!!
TomandJerry
Well-known member
- Oct 1, 2013
- 11,825
- Thread starter
- #23,618
Nearly 40% of the dirty money in the world is going through the City of London and other crown dependencies, the UK’s deputy foreign secretary has said.
Andrew Mitchell added the crown dependencies and overseas territories will face fresh demands from the Foreign Office to comply with UK laws setting up public registers of beneficial share ownership.
Andrew Mitchell added the crown dependencies and overseas territories will face fresh demands from the Foreign Office to comply with UK laws setting up public registers of beneficial share ownership.
For those unaware, Monday’s vote was on an amendment which bans MPs who have been arrested over sexual assault claims being banned from entering the Parliamentary estate. The amendment passed by one vote. Tory MPs are now furious, for reasons I wouldn’t dare speculate on.
Randy McNob
Now go home and get your f#cking Shinebox
- Jun 13, 2020
- 4,540