'Retired people could work for pensions'

petallus - having investigated I see the figure of 42K was for 20% of retired couples which would square with my original figure. It is the truth that the 20% lowest pensioner income is for single female pensioners (not much of a surprise really)

Yes, just not him. I've no idea who did. He said there was a spectrum of views submitted, that he read out to the meeting, and this was one of them.

But somebody did say them?

If you read back to earlier threads, he didn't actually say it. It has been mis-reported. He was in a meeting in which he read out this statement, amongst others suggested by various contributors to the debate about the problem of pensions, before the discussion took place. They weren't his words, and were wrongly attributed to him because he had quoted them. He took the trouble to phone TV stations to clarify, and gave a statement which was read out live on the This Morning programme by Philip Schofield a few days ago.

He should engage brain before opening his mouth!
I have been trying to get work for almost a year since being made redundant, and would love a job, I am nearly 65 and have come across ageism since applying. People seem to think you lose your marbles as soon as you reach a certain age! I also do volunteer work by the way.

As Del Boy would say 'What a plonker!', I've contributed actively all my life through paid work - which I still do - and voluntary work, which covers all sorts of things such as child care and charity help AND I get done for tax for my paid efforts so put that in your pipe and smoke it Lord Whateveryournameis!

mollie65 I think it was the top twenty percent have an income over £42,000.

I'm very tired after a hard week at work so my posts may well sound grumpy. But I'm sick and tired of pensioner bashing ... much of it is beginning to sound like a propaganda campaign and of course those members if the public who are unable to see beyond the end of their noses will believe everything implicitly.
My daughter pays a fortune in child cars. My DiL was unable to return to work because of the inhibitive costs. I will be cutting my hours and going part-time to help her out, look after the grandchildren, and this will allow her to resume her career and feed back into the economy. I will be worse off financially, physically and socially.
My point here is that so many pensioners already contribute in this way. Everywhere you look, especially during school holidays, you see grandparents out with their grandchildren. It is not easy work, it is unpaid, it is voluntary.
I would like to see a report into how much pensioners CONTRIBUTE to the economy of this country and this report given the publicity it deserves in the media.

Lord Bichard wrote to The Daily Telegraph to explain that what he really said was that the government should encourage those pensioners who wish to volunteer and offer their many skills, especially in schools. In other words, yes – repeat – no.

it is all part of the divide and conquer strategy.
anyone on benefits is automatically a scrounger
any OAP in receipt of the state pension is automatically a leech on the 'young generation' as we are all well heeled final salaried pension parasites with buy to let portfolios.
I forget the exact figures but I think only about 20% of over 60s have an income in excess of 25K - if I find the figures I will add them

Forget the stupidity of what he has said, what about the legality? Our pensions are earned on a CONTRIBUTORY system, which means we are fully entitled because we and our employers paid our National Insurance contributions. His idea is as bad as saying you should not get an insurance payout if your house burns down, even if your policy is up to date.

The man is a right wing arsehole. No, sorry, that description is too good for him: an arsehole is a necessity, whereas men like him are a cancerous blight on society.

Of course, if you bash pensioners often enough and pour forth crocodile tears for young people, maybe everyone will forget about bankers gambling irresponsibly and public-private partnerships weighted in favour of large companies (still going on).

I may have given the wrong impression in my last post. When I say I stay in to vote I mean that I do vote but by post.

Don't talk to me about THAT MAN! I've met him on at least 3occasions!
I can get irrational!

Bearing in mind your penchant for this sort of thing, do you fancy a virtual march, march, march (in the purple and green, of course) jeni? I can definitely feel a-stand-up-and-be-counted protest coming on.

GRRR,

Exactly micelf same as they are doing slagging off people on benefits all the time. Trying to condition the public into believing they are all a bunch of scroungers who deliberately have lots of kids just so they can get housing benefit to live in luxurious London mansions.

He's the one who reorganised the then benefits agency medical service and sold it to ATOS! You can imagine what I think about him!

True, but it's all part of the drip drip divisive rhetoric against older people. Divide and rule. An old tactic, but used all the time.

It's dead in the water anyway because the political parties know very well who it is comes out (or, in my case, stays in) to vote.

No possibility of this piece of nonsense becoming a reality - there would be a need for a whole raft of workers to assess who was/wasn't fit to do this "voluntary" work and then an appeals procedure - cost would be more than the idea is worth. A reflection of the whole cumbersome system relating to who should receive disabilty benefits.

Thanks when

So that's all right then.

Apparently, a think tank type of meeting was held to explore the real problem of pension and income provision for retired people, and the comments attributed to him were made by others but he had read them out for discussion.

It was read out live by Philip Schofield on This Morning earlier today. He phoned in himself.