Britain's basic State pension. Do we revere our elderly people in this country ?

Ivanhoe I agree that there is a case for a rather more generous state pension, but see no logic in excepting an entire generation from ordinary living expenses. Many pensioners are actually quite comfortably off and, having always paid their way, continue to do so. Those facing hardship should of course be helped and there must be a simpler way of establishing their need – and then accommodating it – than all those great long complicated forms full of questions that seem to have no relevance.

Ana, by your very question you are saying that the elderly are a burden on the State.

Ivanhoe

Why should our children who are working hard and paying taxes, trying to keep their heads up from drowning, pay for pensioners to recieve more money than them??

Where will you get the money from?
Will it be universal or means tested ?.
Will that allow pension credits and allowance to be stopped, or kept alongside?
Will that mean enough money for pensioners to live independantly with no more help, such as free prescriptions, fuel allowance, bus passes etc.

After all you are advocating pensioners will receive a higher, non taxable weekly payment than, say a young mum working in Asda.

Dear God, some of them really are a burden on the state and on society!

absent, Well i've given you my answer. When you come up with an answer, do tell me know, im dying to hear it.

It always amazes me that we can fight wars in the far east to kill people, we can uphold third world countries who have billionaire tyrants.

Yet when it comes to looking after our old with respect and dignity, suddenly we cant afford it ???????????????????????

You're still not telling us how you think this proposed pension increase should be paid for, Ivanhoe.

Back to OP the last thing I want is to be revered.

I'm nowhere near old enough and I hope I don't deserve it

Ivanhoe.

You are not answering my questions, I answer yours. I thought we were debating quite nicely.

Ana, ""You're still not telling us how you think this proposed pension increase should be paid for, Ivanhoe"".

No, because I refuse to demean this generation anymore than they already are.

Ana, ill tell you what, let's make further savings and take away all their benefits and reduce the State pension to £5 a week. There, that will make a huge saving. Wont it !

POGs. Tell me something, with the demise of the State pension, how are all these drowning workers going to survive in their old age, private pensions ?

Well, there's nothing like answering a question with another question, is there? Wonder where Ivanhoe got that trick from?

How is refusing to answer my perfectly reasonable question 'demeaning this generation'? The money would have to come from somewhere.

Sorry, I got that wrong. It should have been: How would answering my perfectly reasonable question be 'demeaning this generation'? The money would have to come from somewhere.

Ivanhoe

I will take it you can't answer my question then. If you are scribing an answer as we speak, I will apologise.

The demise of the state pension? Didn't the State Pension increase by 5% last year. Hasn't the government announced the biggest increase to State Pensions, ever, also giving women and self employed the right to receive the full State Pension. Women were penalised for bringing up children, don't you, can't you be pleased this will eventually be happening?. I see no demise there.

I have written a reasonable and polite but pointed response to the OP, but have decided to walk away. Wimp!

I keep saying adverts for Work Place Pensions, so I presume that in the future every worker will have contributed to one of those, and the employers will also have to contribute.

Ivanhoe, I think you should rethink your name how about "one trick pony". I've never encountered anyone with the tenacity to bang on about the same thing day in day out. Do you ever lighten up? why don't you look at some of the lighter threads on GN. Putting all that frivolity aside, I remember reading a few years back, before the shit hit the fan, that Greece's elderly were among the best provided for the in the world and Greece was the best place in the western world to grow old. I thought at the time, that's really great, that's how we should all be treating our old people, that's how we would treat our old folk in an ideal world. Sadly as we now know the funding of the Greek welfare state was unsustainable for many reasons. I think many of us gasped when we found out the sheer profligacy of some of their more non thought out policies, for example the passing of these pensions on to dependents. Turning to our own pensioners, I hate the thought of any elderly person living in poverty and having to choose between food or heating. Why can't we rejig things a little in order to take from Peter to give some more to Paul. I'd start with some of the fat salaries that bureaucrats, receive, Baroness Ashton is she worth a larger salary than Barak Obama. Do you think that our MEPs should receive the enormous salaries they receive, far greater than our MPs, and who has to pay for their fine dining and their quaffing of £120 bottles of wine, why I believe that would be the public purse. I believe your old mates the Kinnocks and their kids and who knows even their grandkids have done very nicely out of the old gravey train called the EU. All that ok with you is it? Then there is the pretty useless managers that have presided over the criminal shambolic Health Trusts where so many have died and heads never roll, not only do they receive 6 figure salaries they also get massive pay outs when they move onl. Could we perhaps start there, how many state sector jobs are essential, I'm not talking teachers/doctors/police/nurses, but the multitude of pen pushers who don't produce anything.We now of course know that the private sector pensions lag behind the public sector in many industries. Incidentally, man of the people Nick Clegg thought the pension was £30 a week when he was asked a few years back. Tells you everything really!

Ivanhoe An expression involving sucking eggs, grandmothers and teaching is beginning to come into my mind. I think I shall leave this thread now.

I'll follow you.

You're welcome Greatnan Do you fancy a glass of or a cup of ?

I think he only comes here to engage in his favourite sport

Tilting at windmills

I feel Don Quixote would have been a better name!

Reading your three posts, something springs to mind that was told to me by someone years ago against the Thatcher era.

This person said to me the following.

"The day Thatcher was elected to run this country, that was the day Britain lost its soul".

Unquote.

Your three postings reflect that indifference.

Absent. Graftnan and Banana's. Where is your humanity for those pensioners who have to make choices between heating their homes, and buying food ?

To all on this thread.

The annual cost of delivering the basic State pension to each pensioner in this country is just £5.40. Means-testing pensioners via
Pension Credit costs £53.70

Shall we go now?

Still no answers to any of our questions. Just more of the same old. You seemed to just want everyone to agree with you Ivanhoe. Good luck with that.

Ana, this crisis for our elderly people has been going on for over 30 years, how could I expect you or anybody to not agree.????????