Is Ann Widdecombe right about females age of reirement?

With regard to subsidising wages: in some areas only low paying jobs are available (even to those well qualified). This situation is unlikely to change under the present system because income and housing benefits enable employers to pay less than a real living wage.

Many companies locate themselves offshore and so leave taxpayers to make up the difference. Some people say we should stop the benefits but I would like to see a good wage paid to all employees - maybe at least £15 and hour.

I have mixed views on this. I think there should be equality, everyone should save for retirement. I think state pensions were only meant to last a max of 5 years but due to life expectancy increasing people are often claiming for a lot longer, maybe 20 years. It is not sustainable. Men and women should have same retirement age and also should be carers equally to women. Men doing tough physical jobs are usually paid more than someone in an easy job, to allow for the fact they won’t work as long. Society today is all about buying stuff, everyone expects new this and new that. They say they deserve it because they work hard. I work hard too, as I am sure most people do, but I spend little and save for retirement. I also have insurance. I would love to only do 6 hours without a break!! My days are usually 12-14 hours without any break at all!! I have worked more than 1 job since I left school at 16, before that I worked as well. I have an old car, I rarely eat out and find cheaper things to enjoy. I have a daughter I look after and an elderly parent also. Why would I complain about pensions? It is harder for young people today, I don’t expect them to pay me with their taxes, for 20 or 30 years of retirement.

grannypauline
£15ph seems reasonable. £600 for a 40 hour week. If someone doing those hours can't manage on £24k+ net then....
I personally can't see employers voting for that as a starting point.
I read today that a large call centre is cutting staff hours from a 5 day to a 4 day week with the same pay.
He said that it's to look after the mental health of his workers. A considerate boss.

Re-reading your comment, although there are very valid points, you write that you spend little and don't eat out etc.
If we all followed that path of saving for retirement and spending the least possible, shops and businesses would close and that would be worse for the economy.
There must be another way.

If we all followed that path of saving for retirement and spending the least possible, shops and businesses would close and that would be worse for the economy.

Ahaa. The penny is dropping.

grannypauline
Philip Hammond has announced s rise in the minimum wage to £9.61ph = £320 net for a 38hr week, the highest in the world.
No more poverty.
There will still be people who spend that and more and have nothing up show for it.
It's called budgeting.
There will still be

Minimum wage went up to £8.21 for over 25s in April this year. I don't know where you got £9.61 from, GG54. It certainly isn't applicable now.

www.mirror.co.uk/money/new-minimum-wage-april-2019-13499754

www.thesun.co.uk/news/2085051/national-living-wage-uk-2019-budget-2018-increase-minimum-wage-16-18-25-year-olds/

Note that the National Minimum Wage (now mendaciously called the National Living wage) is not the same as the Real Living Wage which is calculated by a charity and is more than the official one. This is £9.00 per hour outside London and, as the news story says, some employers are committed to paying it. But this is voluntary, not statutory. Still not £9.21 per hr

www.thesun.co.uk/money/7656977/real-living-wage-pay-rise/

GG started a separate thread on this - still not true no matter how often it’s repeated

Excellent news, but I still think it should be more like £15 an hour!

When the minimum wage was introduced small businesses complained that it would ruin them. Some of us socialists are very aware of this problem and if in power we pledge to support these owners with subsidies etc. It is the big corporations which make huge profits, avoid paying tax, and pay meagre wages - behaving as the system encourages. Hence the necessity of another way of production and distribution!

Where is the thread? I haven't seen it.

I did not say that it was applicable now. Can you read?

It’s purely hypothetical