Back by no popular demand whatsoeveršš. Just to reiterate before I start, that most of my quotes are from the BBC or Guardian. Where they are from another source I will say, and also make it clear if I post my opinion.
Monday.
The first day of reality, for one of the oldest to one of the youngest new MPs
New politicians begin to settle down including one of the oldest, newest Labour MPs. ENT surgeon from East Anglia- Peter Prinsley ā an eminent ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon.
With minimal help from Labour high command, Prinsley credits a gaggle of āindefatigable local ladiesā for delivering his historic victory. He bought an old Post Office van, decorated it with photographs of himself in surgical scrubs, and spent the six-week campaign knocking on doors with the guaranteed conversation starter: āIām Peter from the hospital.ā
At 66, Prinsley is one of the older first-timers in a parliament where 335 out of 650 MPs are new. āYou know, when you go to the Houses of Parliament, the most amazing thing is how young everybody looks,ā ā¦.. āYou walk in there and you think: who has put the children in charge of the country?ā
One of the youngest, and probably one of the āchildrenā Prinsley was talking about is 24-year-old Josh Dean, a student who was still living at home with his mother when he became the first Labour MP for Hertford and Stortford. He was in his final year of a politics and international relations degree at the University of Westminster when the election was called and he cannot graduate until he finishes his dissertation ā a comparative study of the technologies of control used in the āwar on terrorā and the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
I didnāt go the traditional route into parliament, or through school or through work. And I think that diversity of experience is really valuable, actually.ā
FriedGreenTomatoes2
Simple solution to this mess: compromise.
Take the WFA and just add it to the November pension payment as a taxable part of pension. Poorest won't be paying tax, others lose up to 45% depending on marginal tax rate. Hardly any implementation expense.
Thatās what happens I receive my state pension and WFA, itās added to my other income and they tax me on it. The other 55% or whatever that Iām left with I donāt need.
David49 I take it that you have no need for carers at the moment? I hope for your sake, it stays that way.
ronib
David49 I take it that you have no need for carers at the moment? I hope for your sake, it stays that way.
Thatās always been, the system is you pay tax on all your income wherever it comes from, in addition we get the NHS for free. If you donāt have enough income you donāt pay tax, those of us that do pay tax subsidize your care.
Nothing has changed, I and others won't get WFA, we will wait for the budget, that will probably be the least of our worries.
David49 yes and no. Letās think about those of us who do pay tax, subsidise care. Not my care as I donāt need it yet but - have you realised that being assessed for care and given a part payment towards it can leave a very small amount to pay for essential living?
Even wealthy people will find savings eroded as fees can be Ā£38 per hour, double on Bank holidays- and after 10 years or so an asset rich pensioner can be quite poor. Given too that thereās no way of knowing how many years of life are left to you, it can become difficult to plan for the oldest age.
I hope pension credit assessment will allow for this.
Nobody gets the NHS for free.
ronib
Nobody gets the NHS for free.
No itās paid for by those of working age, we have long since used up what we paid in.
ronib
David49 yes and no. Letās think about those of us who do pay tax, subsidise care. Not my care as I donāt need it yet but - have you realised that being assessed for care and given a part payment towards it can leave a very small amount to pay for essential living?
Even wealthy people will find savings eroded as fees can be Ā£38 per hour, double on Bank holidays- and after 10 years or so an asset rich pensioner can be quite poor. Given too that thereās no way of knowing how many years of life are left to you, it can become difficult to plan for the oldest age.
I hope pension credit assessment will allow for this.
Nothing has changed ronib,so Iām not sure what point youāre making here?
Casdon the point I struggled to make was explained more coherently in one of the papers by the Kingās Fund which you posted recently on social care.
Itās clearly a problem which is not going to disappear and has been kicked into the long grass for far too long. Social care needs to be improved if only to enable the NHS perform better.
David49 older pensioners have been known to work and pay taxes at the higher rates.
ronib
Casdon the point I struggled to make was explained more coherently in one of the papers by the Kingās Fund which you posted recently on social care.
Itās clearly a problem which is not going to disappear and has been kicked into the long grass for far too long. Social care needs to be improved if only to enable the NHS perform better.
Itās definitely not going to disappear, and there is no easy answer, so there isnāt going to be a rainbow on the horizon now the government has changed. I think the fact that nothing has changed has meant for decades that weāve known the score, if we do need care we are going to be paying for it in future too. Whether that is through increased taxes for everybody, personal plans or whatever remains to be seen - but it wonāt be free, it canāt be.
ronib
David49 older pensioners have been known to work and pay taxes at the higher rates.
I do and will until they nail me down, itās what I get out of bed for.
It seems to me that part of price of the āTriple Lockā was loosing the WFA.
David49 no I donāt think so - although the triple lock is worth more than the WFA - re comment at 8:43. No deals were struck to my knowledge.
Whitewavemark2
Wednesday
At her first Treasury questions, Reeves confirmed pensioners receiving housing benefit would automatically get any pension credit they are due. She has already extended the household support fund for the poorest households.
She repeatedly told MPs that increases to the basic state pension meant that people would be substantially better off than a year ago, adding that the government was committed to further increases in the coming years.
āThe basic state pension is worth Ā£900 more than it was a year ago and will go up again in April next year because of the triple lock, which we have committed to for the duration of this parliament,ā she said.
Sorry, Iām a bit late to this thread - I found it when I was catching up with over a weekās worth of GN that had been emailed to me.
The above isnāt strictly true - if you get HB you do not automatically get PC, but if you are in receipt of PC, you ARE automatically entitled to HB.
We get HB to help pay for our mooring and boat licence, but we are just a little over the limit to be able to claim PC. We shall miss the fuel payment (unless it is reinstated) as it paid for all our winter fuel for the multi fuel stove which is our only form of heating on our boat.
āThe basic state pension is worth Ā£900 more than it was a year ago and will go up again in April next year because of the triple lock, which we have committed to for the duration of this parliament,ā she said.
This is beginning to sound like Harold Wilson repeating the myth about the pound in your pocket.
I suppose she must think that, if she repeats it often enough, millions will believe it and she might even begin to believe it herself.
The fatal motion put forward by Baroness Altmann on WFA failed in the House of Lords yesterday.
I think this is the correct thread to post my thoughts on:-
I am already fed up to the gills of every Labour MP trotting out Ā£22 billion black hole (how can a Country owe money to itself, is another story?)do they think the electorate is too stupid to realise that their policies are contributing to and making it bigger!
Climate Change oversees budget Ā£12 billion, Train Drivers pay rises in the billions, but itās ok to remove Ā£1.4 billion from pensioners?
David49
ronib
Nobody gets the NHS for free.
No itās paid for by those of working age, we have long since used up what we paid in.
As we paid for those who came before. Should we not now be able to use it??
GrannyGravy13
I think this is the correct thread to post my thoughts on:-
I am already fed up to the gills of every Labour MP trotting out Ā£22 billion black hole (how can a Country owe money to itself, is another story?)do they think the electorate is too stupid to realise that their policies are contributing to and making it bigger!
Climate Change oversees budget Ā£12 billion, Train Drivers pay rises in the billions, but itās ok to remove Ā£1.4 billion from pensioners?
They lack in sense, but more than that, they lack in the caring humanity for their elderly.
David49
ronib
Nobody gets the NHS for free.
No itās paid for by those of working age, we have long since used up what we paid in.
Retired people pay taxes too.
The NHS is funded from taxes not just National Insurance.
Even those who may not be eligible to pay income tax are still paying tax - on most things they buy, on the services they use, except for food and a few other items which are exempt.
Todayās news is the NHS report and Starmer will be speaking on itā¦
For once Starmer presented well. I felt that he had a genuine commitment to improving the NHS even if demanding 10 years to achieve it. Some small hope then.
āRetired people pay taxes too.
The NHS is funded from taxes not just National Insurance.ā
Yes of course but itās not enough it it.
Starmer is saying that the NHS and care system will be reformed, it been reformed several times, they all failed, his will fail too. It will fail because demand is infinite, if there is no limit on ever more expensive procedures funding will run out.
No other country has a fully funded health system, even Norway which has a much stronger economy than us, you do contribute directly to access health care. In addition general taxation there is also higher than the UK.
Most countries have an insurance backed system where you pay a % of your treatment cost, we have NI which covers pension and health care but itās not enough, even robbing todays working population itās not enough.
It will fail because demand is infinite, if there is no limit on ever more expensive procedures funding will run out.
The number of people accessing NHS care has risen incredibly over the last few years and will keep rising with increasing demands that didnāt even get a mention years ago.
e.g. The increasing number of people needing help for mental health issues, drug abuse, gender reassignment and reversal, long Covid issues, neurodiverse issues, etc. etc.
Where is the money from that going to come from once he has exhausted the single occupant, and pensioners pathway?
GrannyGravy13
I think this is the correct thread to post my thoughts on:-
I am already fed up to the gills of every Labour MP trotting out Ā£22 billion black hole (how can a Country owe money to itself, is another story?)do they think the electorate is too stupid to realise that their policies are contributing to and making it bigger!
Climate Change oversees budget Ā£12 billion, Train Drivers pay rises in the billions, but itās ok to remove Ā£1.4 billion from pensioners?
I'm fed up with the ;black hole', too, GG13, but to address your other points:
do they think the electorate is too stupid...
The electorate as a whole (and influential economists and commentators) believe completely in Thatcher's 'taxpayers ,money' myth. Whether or not they are 'stupid' is up for debate, but your subsequent logic, based on this belief, is impeccable their policies are contributing to it and making it bigger
However, as you are all aware, I would argue that the belief they have is stupid and entirely untrue. It has been untrue since the early 1970s, when the gold standard was abandoned on which the issue of money had been constrained by the value of the gold and silver reserves a country had to back it. We now have a 'fiat' ('let it be') currency, the issue of which is constrained only by the resources available for purchase with it and inflation controlled through taxation.
In fact, the implementation of pay awards for rail workers and some public sector is the only ray of sunshine in the darkness that Labour is threatening us with.
Let's not worry about where it comes from, let's think about what its effect will be on the domestic economy.
Importantly, much of it is sure to be spent, especially that which has gone to the poorest workers. This will promote economic activity as the recipients buy goods and services. This economic activity will mean that, unless some of the money is saved by the recipients, most of it will return to the Treasury via director indirect taxation.
The cuts we are threatened with make no sense. Surely we can remember what tory 'austerity' did for the country post 2010. Government contracts reduced ,people thrown out of employment and a long haul back to meaningful 'growth, though with areas of the country still 'left behind'.
I find it very hard to see Labour making the same mistakes, based on faulty economic premises, when our public services are in disarray and the private sector reluctant to invest because they can't see much profit coming from consumers who can barely manage to afford basic necessities.
As to overseas aid, this is a vital component of the UK's 'soft power' when it comes to international relations. We cannot isolate ourselves from the rest of the world.
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