To think there should be some reward for hard work?

I think they brought in some sort of ratio in Japan (?) re how much the top person in the companies earn compared to the person on the lowest rung of the ladder.

I know our gap has grown out of all proportion here so perhaps, rather than making it mandatory, one of the newspapers could at least expose what the differences are. It would be an eye opener and might lead to some system to encourage a better spread of the company wealth.

I was staggered to read yesterday that the median salary of the top 10% of the population was £35,000. I think I saw that on the BBC news website. Some of that top 10% must be raking in an absolute fortune if that's the median amount. Apparently its down from £37,000 pre crash. Lots of teachers, council staff and NHS people make around that after a while in post and it seems incredible if that puts them in the top 10%. What do you think?
PS I do know that many people would dream of making that much!

www.theguardian.com/money/2014/mar/25/uk-incomes-how-salary-compare
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that, jane10. Depending on whether it is salaries of single people or people with children which are being looked at.
According to the Guardian, the Prime Minister's salary of £147K means that he falls below the median for the top 10% of a couple with two children.

That is real interesting janeainsworth. It does, to some extent, explain the squeezed middle problem.

One of the problems with how the higher income pensioners are seen is that they have much more disposable income. Having said that the last mean retirement income I heard for pensioners was around the £12,000 mark. That would say that the majority are far from either "rich" or "wealthy".

How can that be correct £12,000 average for pensioners, as far as I know they get approx. £100 per week and maybe a top up with pension credit, I think many would think they were rich if they had £12,000 a year.
My mum gets basic state pension and a tiny private pension and she says she's never been so well off in her life, she always adds that pensioners who say they are poor are liars. She doesn't smoke, never has holidays or buys many clothes just has basic good food and watches tv does a bit of voluntary work.
Those who are grumbling are probably discontented, wishing for holidays and new stuff for their homes etc.
Im not a pensioner yet and would love to be on £12,000 a year, I work in two part time jobs and am not entitled to tax credits, I just have to make ends meet as best as I can.
The problem in our society today is that we all flaunt our posessions and talk about money. If we kept money private no-one would know what we had or its source. If and when I retire I will keep on going out of the house with my computer bag a couple of days a week so the neighbours will think Im working part time. when I was a child you kept your circumstances to yourself, if you were poor you held your head up and told no one.
It really riles people, me included when benefit recipients show off their expensive new furniture and fashion clothes and people who work cannot afford them. So perhaps we all should be more guarded in what we say about our finances.

That includes private pensions etheltbags1

And occupational ones too.

I still think if we all kept quiet about our finances there would be less jelousy and bitching. Im just as bad I do moan about how hard up I am at times but I am now thinking along the lines of not saying anything or listening to anyones moans or boasts.

Agree with you ethelbags1 - we were always told it was bad manners to talk about what you earn and what you could afford.

Having said that I can sympathise completely with the OP whose concern is for her daughter and her family in the current economic climate.

As a single pensioner there may be a way to get less than the Pension Credit level of £7714.20 pa, £148.35 weekly but only, I think, if you have savings of greatly over £10,000.

If your mother's pension is less than this amount, even including her private pension she can apply for Pension Credit. Even if she has over the £10,000 it may not stop her getting Pension Credit. Any amount over that would be converted to show an assumed annual income and, if with that assumed income it came to under the £148.35 per week the difference would be made up. Even if it is a very small amount it is worth applying for as. If she was awarded Pension Credit, she would get Council Tax Benefit, if she lives on her own, and it is worth applying for it even if she doesn't. She would also get free dental treatment, help towards the cost of glasses and travel to hospital. People who get Pension Credit also receive a Cold Weather Payment of £25 when the temperature is 0°C or below for 7 days in a row and, if she rents her home, she may get her rent paid in full by Housing Benefit. If she owns her home, she may be eligible for help with mortgage interest, ground rent and service charges. Finally, if she is a carer who has been told she is eligible for Carers Allowance (which isn't actually paid to pensioners) she may get an extra amount known as Carer Premium. This is worth up to £34.20 a week.

If her total income is only a little over the Pension Credit level she may get Pension Savings Credit which acknowledges the pension she has. This is more complicated so I won't try and explain it but it is worth asking. If she does get this then although it is not a gateway directly to the other benefits listed above she would still be able to apply for them and may get a proportion of them.

So, although the basic pension is £113.10 per week, a single person (it works for couples too but I read it that your mother is on her own) is unlikely to only have that as an income.

Many people on the average of £12,000 will also have some sort of Second State pension like SERPS and/or a pension that makes up the extra £4300 approx. above the basic pension.

I'm sorry but I don't agree about keeping quiet. Knowledge is power. How many people are not get benefits because they don't know they are eligible.

Jane10, this link is about individuals who are on benefits and how they cope. It's not about ideology.

blog.whobenefits.org.uk/post/97043141683/press-release-benefits-claimants-face-physical-and

Thanks for the link, jen.
Saddening.

I think durhamjen that I haven`t explained my thinking well enough. Benefits claimants, just people really, are not an amorphous mass. Among people on benefits are hard workers doing their best for their families and also out and out scroungers who do flaunt all that they gain and generally get up everyone else`s noses and people of all points in between. The hard workers get flak from people due to the less scrupulous benefits claimants- who are meat and drink to the tabloids who tend to write about only them. The hard workers suffer the name calling etc for this reason. Our population is made up of so many sorts of people from the ones who wouldn`t dream of disclosing their financial state to those who seem to define themselves solely by their possessions. I suppose I was trying to make a point about the psychological/sociological aspect of the situation rather than focus solely on the financial if you get my drift.

Yes, janea, that's what I thought. It's so easy to lump people together and forget they are all individuals with families who suffer.