Osborne's Budget - looks like pensioners will lose out the most

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Somebody on Mumsnet said yes they worked hard but not all their lives, my dad retired when he was 55 on a good pension!! There was also the view that often only one partner worked in our generation and it was enough to buy a house, live on etc.

There was also some research quoted on Friday in Guardian which suggested that our generation have done relatively well out of the system compared with 20 year olds who will have to work until they are 70, struggling to pay off the country's debt.

Don't shoot me, I'm only the messenger.

How dare anyone challenge the proven fact that our generation worked hard for their pensions!

Carol the large majority of the posts I read were challenging the notion that old people had worked hard all their lives and that they were badly off financially now.

I thought it would be interesting to see what our children's generation thought; doesn't mean I agree with them.

Hope they don't wear it out before giving it back.

Brilliant! We'll go and get it back of 'em in October!!

We have lost an hour this morning!

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/

Petallus I have also read that Mumsnet thread, and there are many reasonable comments, as well as the one you chose, for example.....

'.....Scapegoating. It's all the fault of the old/young/binge drinkers/men/single mothers/people who support fathers for justice/Tories/Labour/foreigners etc.

Once we get rid of them, we'll be fine....Anyone getting a feeling of deja vu yet? Intelligent solutions anyone? Or would you rather just target a group and decide it's All Their Fault?'

The "baby boom" was in babies, not economics. Thousands of demobbed servicemen came home to a loving wife and started a family, then found there was no work and no accommodation.

I'd say "babyboomers" is definitely the wrong name.

Well, they are massively generalising Petallus and don't understand what the baby-boomers did in terms of hours worked, low wages campaigned about, the fight for equality, and the degree of oppression that has been gradually diminished because of this generation's efforts. We have said on other threads that young women don't tend to regard feminism as important because so much is taken for granted now. Likewise, they don't know what the effects of being oppressed through strikes feels like. If they remembered power cuts, no heating, communities gathering together to ensure young families had enough food, and the fight to get equal pay for women, they might not say those things. Also, not all young women on Mumsnet share that view. Similarly, we don't all agree on here.

If this generation hadn't fought for the rights that are now at risk of being taken away, they wouldn't have grown up in a society where pensioners feel a responsibility to fight for families as well as themselves. We know that what gets taken away now will affect that generation, on top of what they are being hit with now - they won't thank us for failing to address it, will they?

We are the ones who have the time and the experience to do something about it. We are the ones who have a massive vote, and it is grandparents who want the best for their grandchildren so will not stand by and see their entitlements eroded.

I and many others don't just 'whine on' about pensioners entitlements - I also campaign with organisations that want to improve health, education, welfare rights and resources for communities. This generation can take a long view, and envisage what can happen if we let things lie.

Whey! I've just been over on Mumsnet reading a thread ...AIBU to think old people have not worked hard all their lives'. Oh dear, none of them seem to think very highly of us. I'm going to risk quoting two posts:

'I am not mad about the boomer generation, the most entitled bunch of whiners who keep the Daily Mail in business'

' many of the elderly I know are rolling it in'

They do seem to have great respect for the hard work the previous generation who left school at 12 (their grandparents) put in though!

I thought that was what I was saying, too petallus? It seems we agree? I don't want to have money instead of young families on benefit, either. I want these groups to be treated fairly and have the 50p or 45p tax payers contribute their just dues.

I'm not prepared to vie with young families and people on benefit. I posted about the article in Guardian Money above. Seems our age group have more disposable income than people in their twenties for the first time ever.
I'd like to have more money instead of the 50p in the pound tax payers but not instead of young families and people on benefit.

Of course, young families, pensioners and people on benefit would not have to vie with each other for sparse resources if the chancellor was not so busy giving away perks to the rich, and fantasising that wealthy tax-dodgers will repent and start paying lower tax - they won't pay any at all, but by the time this is evidenced, the con-dem government will have been ousted.

Nope! At my age, I don't mind being describe as a "baby" in any context!

I thought Danny Alexander did an excellent job in explaining that the tax allowance changes would affect under half of us, whilst, of course, we all get the pension increase.

I suppose my bottom line is if I have to suffer a bit more financially so that our children and grandchildren don't, I'm happy with that. Because if they weren't changing our tax allowances they'd be cutting more things from our children and grandchildren to make up for it. So, I won't be signing any petition.

Now off to get my tin helmet!!!

Is anyone else getting fed up with all the references to "baby-boomers" in the papers; the broadsheets are just as guilty as the tabloids. Could we be called the "post-war generation" instead do you think?

PS Danny Alexander is Osborne's whipping boy!

The raising of the tax threshold (ultimately to £10K) was in the Lib Dem Manifesto. The freezing of the age-related allowance most certainly was not; neither were the changes in conditions for claiming tax credits which have left families far worse off.

Just been watching Danny Alexander explain to Andrew Marr the reasoning behind budget changes, i.e. pensioners' tax. After blustering his way through the discussion, he neatly side-stepped any tory blame by claiming the tax allowance changes as lib-dem responsibility.

I've been away all week so I'm late in adding my two penn'orth, but Carol has adequately covered everything that I would have said.
Last year, in desperation to discover who I could vote for in future whilst maintaining some integrity, I began to research the Green Party. At the next election they will get my vote.
By the way, I saw Geraldine giving a GN response on the news and thought she did an excellent job.

There's an article in today's Guardian Money Section by Patrick Collinson arguing that compared with other age groups the over 65s are 'receiving a sensational deal'. Research shows that disposable income of people in their 60s is now higher than people in their 20s for the first time ever. Mmmm!

Good point, and welcome, Charlie62. I feel my hackles rising every time I hear about 'hard working families' - from all political parties. For one thing, ours were the hard working families in the past and we worked for our pensions, as well as for our children's future; for another thing, today's hard worker tomorrow may be at the Job Centre. The phrase is an insult to the retired (many of whom hold the 'big society' together by volunteering) and the redundant.

Charlie62 you are so right. I will be 65 in June 2013, so will also be around that amount lighter.

The Government’s spin doctors went into overdrive on Thursday trying to justify the "Granny Tax".

It is clear that the misinformation has succeeded. I will be 65 in 2014 and will be around £300 a year worse off than I would have been before these changes took place.

Younger people should realise that they are not Peter Pan - these changes will adversely effect everyone eventually. Pensioners concessions should be protected today for every ones sake.

George Osborne stated yesterday that "Workers" are his priority. The Government forgets the pensioners of today and the pensioners of tomorrow at its peril. Do not order new curtains for number 11 George - you won’t be staying.

Support Pensioners concessions today, for the young of today are the Pensioners of tomorrow.

Charlie62

I think people like my husband and me who have been retired a few years are not that hard done by - it's those who are about to retire that are the worst hit, with dreadful annuity rates their pension pots are not going to produce very much. We rely on our Serps which at least increases (unlike our annuity which has been the same for 10 years). Having said that we are now having to dip into our savings more than we thought we would - spending the kids' inheritance! Still - I have yet to inherit anything, my parents still being alive and kicking at 93 and 90!