YOU'RE OUT OF ORDER YOUR GRACE

Bishop of London Richard Chartres condemned the way today’s ‘fortunate generation’ of retirees are soaking up tax- payers’ money.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2340670/Anger-bishop-tells-baby-boomer-Senior-church-cleric-dubbed-divisive-unfair-wrong-comments.html#ixzz2W5OxjtdY
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OAP-UK COMMENT:-


AS a Baby Boomer himself, the Bishop of London must surely recall the austerity - the hardships - of the 1950s? Or was he shielded from such things by accident of birth and never used a bomb site as a playground? Or sat in a primary school class of more than forty kids? Come into the real world Your Grace. You're bang out of order! We Baby Boomers helped to re-build this nation post war. And even The Bible says you reap what you sow! That's what we Baby Boomers are doing today ... we're harvesting our rightful entitlements, for all our hard work over 50 years and more. It's the politicians and ill-iinformed academics who've turned Britain into the mess it's in today ... not we Baby Boomers!

A TWO TIER STATE PENSION?

Iain Duncan Smith ~ just one of the 'strip wealthier pensioners' brigade

 

AT THE END of my post titled "Europe's Poor Relations" I suggested that the recent threats by high ranking political figures to strip “wealthier” UK pensioners of their bus passes, winter fuel allowances, TV licences and free eye tests, was an attempt to divide and rule. By creating a ‘them and us’ culture within the pensioner community, the politicians appear to be hoping that we’ll be left squabbling among ourselves. That, in turn, would prevent us uniting under a common objective and realising our full potential as an election-winning voting bloc.

Sadly, this politically driven, divide-and-rule ploy doesn’t end with the bus pass/winter fuel allowance/TV licence/eye test issue. On the contrary, the recently announced flat-rate state pension proposed for April 2017 “at the earliest” can also be seen to have divide-and-rule at its core. In fact, the proposals, as they stand, threaten the creation of an even more divisive ‘them and us’ … ‘haves and have nots’ … culture within the post-2017 UK pensioner community.

Here are the ‘flat-rate pension’ proposals in simple English: only new pensioners will be eligible, so existing pensioners and anyone who qualifies for a state pension before 2017 will continue to be paid under the present system. This can be topped up with pension credit and other means tested benefits where circumstances demand. In other words, tthose of us who are already drawing a state pension by the end of 2016 will continue to do so under the proposed changes, but those retiring from 2017 onwards will be paid the equivalent of £144 per week in today’s money.

In the Long Run

Rowena Crawford at The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) goes further. She said that the Government’s proposals for a flat rate £144 a week state pension from 2017, “imply a cut in pension entitlements for most people in the long run. The main effect will be to reduce pensions for the vast majority of people, while increasing the rights for some particular groups: most notably the self-employed.”

Ms Crawford then went-on to say that the proposals were, “a welcome simplification. There will be a fairly complex pattern of winners and losers from the reform in the short-term, but the main effect, in the long run, will be to reduce pensions for the vast majority of people.”

So, according to a very highly placed and respected spokeswoman, the 2017 flat-rate pension proposals will eventually amount to a cut in pension for the vast majority. She actually uses the phrase “in the long run” twice which, in plain English, translates to “as today’s pensioners die off (that’s you and me folks) so the flat-rate pension becomes the norm”. Here I must refer back to another point I made in my "Europe's Poor Relations" article, namely: when expressed as a percentage of a nation’s average weekly wage, UK pensioners are already paid one of the LOWEST state pensions in the EU. That, in turn, raises one simple question. Are the powers that be suggesting we should be at the very bottom of the state pension pile beyond 2017?

Political Inertia

Some might call it crying over spilt milk, but the fact remains that the immediate post World War II governments should have seen, and acted upon, what any self-respecting anthropologist could have predicted for Britain from the 2010s onwards. But they didn’t.  Consequently all of the surviving members of the Post War Bulge … the original Baby Boomer generation … are arriving at retirement age at the same time, and they’re being blamed for the mess successive post war governments have caused through lack of vision and forethought. Indeed, it’s ironic to think that married couples were actively encouraged by the government of the time to have babies as soon as World War II ended, in an effort to restore the UK population to its pre-war levels. Hence the Post War Bulge … the Baby Boomers.

Clearly the damage was done by political inertia more than sixty years ago and, regrettably, that’s all water under the bridge. However, our life styles have changed dramatically since the Post War austerity of the 1950s, so there’s still time to remedy the situation and, in doing so, provide all UK pensioners with a decent single-tier state pension that places us near the top of the EU pensions league, instead of at or close to the bottom.

Solution?

So, how might that be achieved?  Simples! Suspend or scrap altogether our bloated, and largely discredited, Overseas Aid hand-outs and use the savings to put our own house in order FIRST … i.e. pensions, NHS, education, infrastructure, law and order, etc … before trying to assist other nation states with their problems.  After all, every penny frittered away in Overseas Aid has its origins in the UK taxpayers’ pockets!

BALLS AT IT AGAIN !

NOT satisfied with threatening to withdraw the Winter Fuel Allowance from "wealthier" pensioners, earlier this week, Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls (pictured) has now implied that a Labour government would also withdraw free TV licences from the top five per cent of "wealthier" UK pensioners.

My pensions income amounts to less than £10,000 pa, so I'm not likely to be targeted on the WFA or TV licence threats. However, once again, I find myself asking: will this TV licence plan prove to be the tip of the iceberg? Would it be the first step towards the complete withdrawal of free TV licences for ALL of Britain's oldest pensioners? Most important of all, how does he propose to impliment such a move ... through a blanket means testing of EVERY pensioner in the land?

Clearly, Balls is hoping, here, to deepen the culture of "haves" and "have nots" among Britain's pensioners. And that's called divide and rule. But, whatever our feelings on the issue, before we start saying it's fair to deprive the richest UK pensioners of these benefits, we MUST demand an assurance that this kind of move ... by any government ... would not mark the first stage of the wholesale axing of such benefits or entitlements.

BALLS THREAT TO FUEL ALLOWANCE

Brrrrrrr or should that be Grrrrrr?



ED Balls threatens a Labour policy to withdraw the Winter Fuel Allowance from all pensioners with an income of more than £42,000 pa (Mirror on-line June 3).

Point 1) ... that's ripe coming from one of the major players in the Blair-Brown govt's 'spend, spend, spend and to hell with the consequences' regime, that helped to get us into the economic mess we're in today!
Point 2) ... how does he propose to enforce such a move? A blanket means test for all pensioners?

Point 3) ... but will it end there at £42,000 pa? Or would this be just a first step to the scrapping of the Winter Fuel Allowance altogether? Those of us who have a lot less than £42K coming-in need a clear undertaking from Balls & Co that our WFA is safe!



 

EUROPE'S POOR RELATIONS?

EUROPE’S POOR RELATIONS?

CURRENTLY there are approximately ten million UK pensioners, but our basic state pension doesn’t bear much scrutiny when compared to the rest of Europe, or the rest of the Western world for that matter. In fact, when expressed as a percentage of a nation’s average earnings, we in the UK are paid one of the LOWEST state pensions in Europe.

Conversely, of the thirty-five nations across Europe, the United Kingdom sits at a perfectly respectable tenth in terms of its Gross Domestic Product (source: Infopedia.com). Also, according to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund’s 2011 rankings, the UK is the twenty-second richest nation in the world (source: Wikipedia.org). However, where state pensions are concerned, we UK pensioners are close to the bottom of the pile.

So why are we so badly-off when compared to most of our European neighbours, and why are some of us being threatened with the loss of our bus passes, winter fuel allowances, TV licences and free eyesight testing?

Soft Target

In short, it all dates back to 1980 when Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government decided that the UK basic state pension should be calculated against the prices index only, instead of a ‘whichever is the higher’ comparison between the prices index and the national average earnings, as had been the case up to then. Soon after this change was introduced, the prices index began falling behind the national average earnings index and it has continued to slide ever since. Today, our basic state pension is equivalent to approximately thirty per cent of the UK’s national average earnings, whereas the average EU state pension is around sixty per cent of earnings. (Source: OECD)

While PM David Cameron’s coalition government has undertaken a mammoth task in seeking-out ways to reduce costs across the board, we pensioners could argue that we’re being singled-out unfairly.  Indeed, in view of the above mentioned comparisons with our EU neighbours and the threats to our benefits alluded to earlier, one might even be forgiven for claiming that the powers-that-be are viewing UK pensioners as a soft target.

Community Work

Take, for example, the comments by Lord Birchard (a former head of the Benefits Agency) who, during a recent meeting of a committee investigating demographic changes and their impact on public services, put forward the suggestion that, if an incentive was promised, some pensioners might be able to carry-out community work.

His actual words were, “Are there ways in which we could use incentives to encourage older people – if not to be in full time work – to be making a contribution?  It is quite possible, for example, to envisage a world where civil society is making a greater contribution to the care of the very old, and older people who are not very old could be making a useful contribution to civil society in that respect, if they were given some incentive or some recognition for doing so.”

Excuse me? Older people who are not very old could be making a useful contribution? Surely we pensioners have contributed quite enough in National Insurance, plus income and other taxes, not mention sheer hard graft, over the past fifty years and more to entitle us to a meaningful return on our investment, without having to justify it? After all, the basic state pension is not a benefit. It’s an entitlement.

Regrettably, Lord Birchard is not alone in targeting UK pensioners. While Labour have remained uncharacteristically silent throughout, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg waded into the bus pass and winter fuel allowance issue in December, when he stated that the Liberal Democrats would “look again” at universal benefits: arguing that welfare payments “should not be paid to those who do not need them.” Similarly, the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan-Smith has signalled that the winter fuel allowance, TV licences, bus passes and free eye tests may be means tested after the next general election.

Divide and Rule

When considered together, the above statements seem to be saying wealthier pensioners should be stripped of these universal benefits by way of a means test. That must surely mean ALL pensioners will need to be means tested.  But who defines what the word “wealthier” means? And how much is it going to cost the government to conduct the means testing of every pensioner, merely to seek-out the comparatively few who, perhaps, have been fortunate enough to build-up a decent private pension, or put aside savings for their old age?

Whichever way you look at these issues, it becomes increasingly obvious that politicians of most persuasions are starting to wake-up to the fact that ten million or so UK pensioners represent a huge and potentially election winning, voting bloc. However, instead of wooing us, some very highly placed political figures are trying to drive a wedge between us and, in doing so, create a “them and us”… a “haves and have nots” … culture within the UK pensioner community. That’s what is called divide and rule, and we pensioners must make it clear to those who govern us that, far from being divided, we intend to stand united against any move to means test our basic state pension.

 

David Lowe (2013)

 

The above article was published in the Feb-March 2013 edition of the Torbay Times

HELLO & WELCOME

HELLO and welcome to the OAP UK Blog: a place where we UK Pensioners can have our (politically unaffiliated) say on how we're coping with day-to-day life, or what we think about the way we're being treated by the 'powers that be'.

I'm detemined to maintain this Blog's politically non-affiliated position. Indeed, I'll challenge all politicians, media types, public figures, trades union spokespeople and others - regardless of their political persuasion - if they dare to denigrate pensioners. By the same token, I'll praise them if they genuinely support us. But will I advocate joining-in their party politicking? Never! On the contrary, this Blog will remain unaffiliated, because most of us who are UK pensioners live in the real world, and not within some cocooned 'party' machine.

 

And on that point, let me assure you I have nothing to hide. I have no political allegiances or hidden agendas. I'm simply a semi-retired independent author, feature writer, broadcaster, former showbiz columnist, former photo-journalist and former musician. What's more, I think it's about time the 'powers that be' started treating those of us over 60 years of age with rather more care and consideration. After all, we represent a very substantial voting bloc!

So, if you're a bona fide UK pensioner, or you're approaching pensionable age, please feel free to contibrute to this Blog. Your opinions are important and valued ... but please ... no foul language (simulated or otherwise), no personal political allegiances, and no libel or slander.

 

All comments on this Blog will be moderated before they're considered for publication.

 

Thank you. Best Wishes

 

DAVID LOWE