Yvette Cooper, live webchat, Tuesday 10 July, 1-2pm

What is the answer to the stretched middle? Is it more state intervention? or are there other ways of supporting women at this time in our lives?

My mother is in a care home that is costing approximately £1200 a week and has been for a year. If she is there for another 6 months she will have exhausted her entire life savings and may well have to move - the council money won't remotely cover this - which will probably kill her, as well as leaving her destitute.

Do you agree there's something wrong with being in a position where you hope your mother will die because there are so few good options for her if she lives?

Hi Yvette,

Isn't the flipped side of the stretched generation that men still aren't doing enough? How do we do something to change that?

Depressed that we have been scrimping and saving all our lives so we would be ok when we retired - and now it seems that there was no point whatsoever. What incentive is there for anyone to do this in future?

Hello Yvette,
By the time they retire, many grandparents will have already put in years of caring for elderly parents as well as providing essential support with grandchildren. If everyone is now going to have to work longer before they can retire, it won't be uncommon for the person who is sandwiched in the middle (usually a woman) to buckle under the strain especially as their partner could become ill or disabled and also be in need of care and support. Do you not think that riasing the retirement age, especially for women, will inevitably put an extra burden on the NHS?

Instead of messing about with winter fuel allowance and other so-called perks, would you agree that it would be easier to tax these (rather than means-test them) so that poorer senior citizens would still receive them but the better off would pay for them in proportion to their income.

Should George Osbourne apologise to Ed Balls, or should your Ed just grow a thicker skin?

There is no talk of stopping the "perks" that pensioners receive. First of all these are not perks they are entitlements that have been earned over years of working.

What do you think the criteria would be to stop payment of these entitlements. I think there has been a study which showed that means testing would cost more than would be saved.

Currently if a pensioner has savings over a certain amount they are unable to claim any help with council tax and the like. I have savings over that limit, but my savings are invested to give me an income, which together with my state pension is still less than £12,000 p.a.

I have an ongoing illness which means I will be taking medication for the rest of my life - if I have to pay for the prescriptions at the current rate it would cost me approximately £30 per month.

There was an article in the newspaper yesterday saying that isolation is a problem for pensioners and should be treated as an illness. Take away the bus pass and more pensioners would be unable to go anywhere because of the cost of bus fares and more would become isolated.

The Winter Fuel Allowance was introduced because older people were having to choose between heating their homes or eating - do we want to go back to the time when we get reports of people dying of hypothermia in their own homes!

It's time for someone to stand up and speak for the older generation. We are a large group who, invariable vote, cross us at your peril!!!

Hi Yvette,

Do you think that women can really 'have it all' with a career and kids or should we all just stop trying?

Do you think equality could ever be a reality or just an unattainable standard we should strive towards but never reach?

Well said POGS

A report in the papers today says that the average family of four needs an income of £37600 to have the most basic of living standards and many risk slipping into poverty. Historically those in my family have worked hard in average paid employment. My daughter,s great grandparents were able to rent a two bedroom house with garden, her grandparents a three bedroom house with garden, her parents to buy a four bedroom house with garden. She and her husband are bring up their two children in a two bedroom flat with no garden, which we downsized to help them put a deposit on. She works full time, her mother, grandmother and great grandmother either did not work or were able to be at home in their children's infancy. Most grandmothers want better for their. Hidden and grandchildren. We seemed to take a wrong turn somewhere in the 1990s, how does Yvette see the future for our families?

Are you aware the public are sick and tired of the politics of hypocrisy, spin and blame. It seems those who protest the most are the worst at it!. The public see through spin and it is a distinct turn off and they will not forgive or forget those who think they are masters/mistresses of it.

I watch Parliament live and I am appalled Speaker Bercow allows such a shambles to take place. The politics of Westminster has degenerated into a bunch of oiks using hand gestures and interupting every word that's said. The voter is completely turned off by this childish behaviour. It simply would not be tollerated in business or even an infants school.

The world can watch Parliament in session and it is an embarrassment not only to the voter but to the country. Shame on you all. It is about time Parliament displayed statesmanship and gave serious thought to the debate in hand, at least try and make the voter think you have a modicum of intelligence to act on our behalf. It's no excuse to say "well that's how Parliament is", we want and deserve better especially with the country in such a mess since 2008.

Do you think it is acceptable the public see and perceive politicians to be so childish and ill-mannered leading us to think you all simply should 'get it' and 'calm down' and do you think some parliamentarians will ever grow up.

Home

There is much cynicism surrounding politicians of all parties after the expenses scandal, links with big business, a feeling that policies favour a chosen few and that politicians have generally lost touch with, for want of a better phrase, the common man. How do you think Labour should try to get back to being a party of and for the people and clean up the image of politicians?
Second question if allowed: Are you and Ed able to leave politics outside once you shut your front door?

Why aren't you leader of the Labour party? Why didn't you stand, was it about family loyalty to your husband something your leader obviously lacks. Lord knows the Labour party needs a credible and worthy leader rather than a wet blanket. Go on Yvette your country needs you!

I recently had to look at care homes for my mum. I am afraid that the gap between the council-run homes and the private ones was immense. While I am sure the quality of staff in local authority run care homes can be very high, the fact is that without money, you can't provide activities, and people were left sitting staring into space for much of the day. At other private homes there were activities all the time.

What is Labour's position on this inequality? Why should old people who are poor be left to vegetate in their old age? Is there any way of closing this gap?

How do you manage to give your children enough time? I chose to stay at home and raise my own children - I don't think they or I suffered; the only suffering I am doing now is living on half of my late husband's Private Pension which, considering what he did, is a pittance - how I wish he had worked in the Public sector!! Perhaps you could also tell me the whereabouts of my MP Mr Gordon Brown - he seems to have disappeared since he lost office?
We are told we Baby Boomers have it all - I don't think so, although I don't think I would like to be starting all over again right now. I have absolutely no faith in any Politician of any persuasion - how sad is that?

If the Tories are bedevilled by the "posh boys" tag, do you think it's fair to say that Labour is still tainted by being seen as all about boys in sharp suits?

There's not much sense that the nerdy boys who run Labour really understand families, especially their older members. What can you do to show us you are not merely a metropolitan gang of mostly men from good universities who are good at spin?

I would like to repeat what mamie and gadabout are saying. There is so much hostility to our generation and no politicians seem to be speaking up for us.
It is nonsense to say we are a selfish generation. Most grandparents love their children and grandchildren dearly and a lot of us are very active in our local communities, 'giving something back' in the jargon.
It is not our fault that the economy has become so dependent on a small sector, finance, and there aren't enough jobs for young people. It isn't our fault either that there aren't enough of the right kind of houses for young couples and families. None of this is the fault of a particular generation, it's the fault of policy and leaving everything to the markets and not protecting and nurturing our communities.
Is Labour prepared to say that while young people without jobs are scarred, so are 50-plus people who can't get jobs because of ageism? And that people who have brought up their families in houses that are still at the centre of family life should not be told to move out of them? Why do you think it has become so fashionable to hate us?

If we have all got to go on working longer, what is going to give? Either there is going to be no extra childcare/out of hours support, or parents are going to have to sacrifice their careers, or grandparents are going to have to stop working at a cost to their pensions. What is the answer?