To think we can't afford the triple lock

Most of the better off pensioners are paying tax anyway.

Every age group skews their sympathy/empathy towards itself.
Do you think the pps robustly arguing that pensions should be means tested/downgraded and pensioners should be forced to sell their homes will keep their views as they approach their 60s?

The irony now though is that they'd likely make more as a self employed tradesperson.

Are "boomers" responsible for successive Governments who have made cuts, not built social housing, introduced crippling university fees, reduced apprentiship schemes and locked up young people during Covid whom we know now had very little chance of dying?

I think that there is less sympathy for pensioners on low incomes because pensioners as a demographic tend to vote for more right-wing parties and oppose benefits for working age people and children.

When the Winter Fuel Allowance was removed from all pensioners apart from those in receipt of Pension Credit, there were interviews with pensioners who were obviously well off, who were outraged at the loss of this benefit. One guy who was interviewed was wearing a gold Rolex. There were posts on here from the adult children of affluent pensioners who said that their parents were incandescent with rage at the loss of this £200 per year that they put towards a holiday or going out for a meal.

Try to look at pensioners as human beings. Fellow ones. I despair sometimes on here at these threads and ones about benefits where people are viewed as "lesser" or "other".

We all should know how that's gone in the past.

There are threads like this raging at pensioners "getting" £12k a year and people "getting" benefits then other threads where apparently £100k a year doesn't go that far.

I have never had a "benefit" in my life. Family Allowance wasn't considered a "benefit". In fact nothing was. It was called "social security" which was the proper term.

But I don't judge fellow human beings for being less fortunate than me.

We seem to have imported greed and a "man mind thyself" mentality from the US.

It's depressing.

A bit yes

You missed out Brexit, which was overwhelmingly the boomer vote - which obviously makes international investment less attractive in UK and many research centres and EU administration offices moving you know another EU country.

But hey let’s not worry about growth. We have house prices yay!

Huge numbers of jobs/careers that weren't previously "graduate" jobs now are. That means huge numbers of youngers do NEED to go to university.

I so agree with this. I'm a boomer, and I had friends who qualified as civil engineers, accountants, solicitors, surveyors etc without going to uni. You could train to be a nurse and get paid while you were doing it. You could train to be a teacher with 5 O-levels and get a grant to live on while training.

It was a big factor in social mobility, as bright kids from working class backgrounds could move into professional jobs with relative ease.

IKWYM, but it worries me when people become hardened to that extent that they are tarring all unemployed people with the same brush and they work with unemployed people. I can just see people who are genuinely trying to find work and get back on their feet being treated like shit because of it. I know people who work for the DWP and this kind of cynicism does seem very widespread.

A lot of people start these jobs with best intentions, but seeing the audience they are dealing with, generational lazyabouts, it's only natural to lose all respect.

Some poor people have very tragic circumstances, but a lot of poor people are poor as a direct result of their laziness, lack of drive and ambition and stupidity.

A lot of people start these jobs with best intentions, but seeing the audience they are dealing with, generational lazyabouts, it's only natural to lose all respect.

Some poor people have very tragic circumstances, but a lot of poor people are poor as a direct result of their laziness, lack of drive and ambition and stupidity.

It’s not the lowest pension in Europe though. That’s nonsense.

Are "boomers" responsible for successive Governments who have made cuts, not built social housing, introduced crippling university fees, reduced apprentiship schemes and locked up young people during Covid whom we know now had very little chance of dying?

You don't sound like you had much respect for the people you were supposed to be trying to help in your 'various roles'.

Rather see the benefits bill cut first.

You don't sound like you had much respect for the people you were supposed to be trying to help in your 'various roles'.

Pointing out facts isn't blaming.

Well said! I would say it’s impossible to live on £13000 a year, especially now in a rural area if you’re dependant on oil for heating which many are.

I don’t hate them of course not but on the whole boomers are the worse generation. They just have no grace about them and are entitled bores as a group obviously there are exceptions some are lovely and some are even worse than the average.

I don’t think the state pension should be means tested or abolished, I do think the triple lock needs curbing, to even the average of the three values rather than the highest.

Everyone is going to have to take a financial hit that should include a small hit from the state pension increase. The number of workers per pensioner is dropping, it’s unsustainable.

Our pension is the lowest in Europe despite being the 6th richest country. Try living on 13k that's less than UC and way under the minimum wage. I'd say we need to increase income from the top earners, for instance taxing dividends over say 200k and ensuring multinationals pay the full amount of tax on their UK earnings rather than penalising thecpoorest. We can't afford to lose the triple lock. Not every pensioner is sitting on a huge private pension with the state pension sitting as a nice little top.up.

Pensioners are by far the biggest users of the NHS at any time.

COVID lockdown benefitted the pensioners most by far. And created a further chunk of debt.

You literally only need to read MN every day to see post after post about perfectly healthy adult children who aren’t working due to ‘anxiety’ or various other spurious bs under the guise of mental health. I have worked with unemployed adults in various roles and it is practically an epidemic amongst the under 30s. Any party that will finally come down hard on benefits scroungers and the work-shy would get my vote.

I'd watch out. I've just said similar and my post has been removed (presumably reported by a sensitive soul)