to hope the government has the guts to tax WEALTHY pensioners more

[ReallyTired]

The Fabian society has suggested that wealthy pensioners pay more tax.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22220345

Some how I can't see a conservative wanting to tax wealthy pensioners more when they all vote Tory.

I find it unfair that pensioners with an income more the average family's income get free bus buses, winter fuel allowance, TV licence as well as paying less tax and national insurance. It is about time that the the wealthy pensioners took their share of the pain of the cuts.

I am in favour of well off pensioners having free bus passes, winter fuel allowance as these things encourage independence and improve health. I would like to see the money for these things clawed back by WEALTHY pensioners paying more income tax.

Erm many could get a job,plenty of us will be working in our 70s.

Hey Things, I am not saying pensions should be cut, only that they should pay the same tax as everyone else.

Also they did have the opportunity of a free education, whereas young people these days face a big penalty for daring to go to university.

Even the full JSA doesn't meet the minimum required to live on. People are really struggling. No bus passes or TV licences either.

I am pleased we look after our pensioners, but we really need more intergenerational fairness.

few people went to uni 40+ years ago.

pensioners have paid NI at the same rate as the rest of us....earlier in their lives.

the 21% comment does not stand up to analysis at all.

So how long before the govt decides that the country can only afford for people to live to 70 and stops treating the elderly on the NHS or giving them any income? So most of them die off, free up their big houses for families, stop needing their pensions and save the NHS billions in geriatric care!

I'm only half joking, I could see it happening ...

Faster they haven't paid enough for their care. We'll have to pay more in our retirement (assuming we still have an NHS) soooooo.....

Sparrowp - they do pay the same tax as the rest of us........

(sigh)

Agree with you about the free uni, tho' I suspect that the vast majority of the over 65's today did not benefit from this.....I bet that most of the people who did are now in their early fifties onwards....The very same aged people who pulled up the drawbridge on their own kids.....

Social inequality worse now than a generation ago - many bright, wc 1950s school kids got a huge leg-up in life by getting into a grammar school. No such option now.

We were not well off at your age though.We worked hard, struggled to bring up our families,pay our bills and acquire a decent standard of living.We paid our taxes and our national Insurance.We paid into pension funds which have now been massively eroded and scriped and saved what we could.Many of us have provided free childcare,interest free loans and a bolt hole in time of trouble for our adult childre. We already pay tax on our pensions and you want us to pay out even more?I have never been on a cruise and have a one week holiday a year.
My dh and I were teacher/lecturer and including state pensions we now have about £25,000 a year between us.
Do you want blood??

Squarepebbles Mon 22-Apr-13 20:52:43
Faster they haven't paid enough for their care

what do you mean? my gma's house paid for her care

I'm still gobsmacked at the number of MNers who are convinced their chosen number of DCs should be subsidised (at anyone's but their own expense) because, "We need the children to pay for people's pensions in the future".

As if it's all some sort of bizarre pyramid/Ponzi scheme.

Unbelievably (to some of you) some people very much do earn and save enough to be net contributors throughout their entire lives.

Conversely, a lot of people create families who will never be net contributors at any time in their lives.

So no, pensioners shouldn't be hammered with taxes in order to fund your choice of family size.

It's reality Grey.

We're all being squeezed and it hurts.

Sorry but I don't see why one section of society should be protected more than everybody else.

Oh and your pension is massively bigger than what most of our generation will enjoy.

Salbertina

"many bright, wc 1950s school kids got a huge leg-up in life by getting into a grammar school. No such option now."

Perhaps you should lobby the Fabian society and assorted other lefties for the universal implementation of grammars schools.......

Faster it didn't pay for her NHS bills.

Utterly ridiculous idea to tax them more- in what basis - you're old????
My grandmother would be considered wealthy but my grandad worked until he was 81 yes 81. He grafted really hard his whole life and knew what real poverty was his life certainly wasn't easier.

He would literally turn in his grave if he thought she was being unfairly taxed - surely 40% inheritance tax is enough for the state to take.

Means test some of the benefits maybe, my grandma doesn't need the wfa but I'm sure another pensioner somewhere could do with double the amount.

Yes Things on the whole I agree (starting out married life in digs and only dreaming of having a fridge) but it's the 'maybe'. Some will, some won't, it's the tendency to ascribe the virtue to the whole group. Some may have had the old-fashioned 'job for life'and had a relatively easy time. In fact it is the phrase hard working families' that really gets me. How on earth do they know? And where does that put the single childless adult? Who's blowing their trumpet?

Things, maybe I should (especially as half of them would have benefited directly themselves!)

Just to explain:
Our pensions are made up of 5 separate ones.We have 2 state pensions and we each have a teachers pension [earned after 30/40 years teaching] and in addition dh has a small extra pension paid by the LEA when he took voluntary early retirement.
maybe we do get more than many of you will but many of you could satart paying into a pension fund now.If you are in your 30's you can build up a decent pot by the time you are 60.We were taxed on our earnings out of which we paid into pension funds and are now taxed again on the pensions.
We both went to Grammar School, I was the first of my family to have eduacation past 15.
My point is-we worked damned hard for what we have-we aren't being given handouts

We worked from the age of 15 too by the way, in part time jobs, and school didn't pay a wage. And university didn't pay a wage either. But lets not make this a race to the bottom.

poppyknot thats a good point - young people today are delaying having families by 10 years on average iirc, because they can't afford it/ cant settle down.

What with Grey?

Oh and early retirement do you know how long we'll have to work?

Jesus. In 1972, the year before my mum died, my Gps had 5 adults, a teenager and 3 children living in their 3 bed council house. No central heating, no phone, the windows used to freeze on the inside, a twin tub, a pantry, the tv was rented. Life was fucking hard for them. I remember taking the milk tokens to the coop. They lived through the war, suffered all the rationing afterwards, worked all their lives, and saved hard for their retirement. No way should they have to pay extra because other people think they deserve more now (that they did not earn)

We are all paying extra because of the incompentence of the banks. Surely as a country we should all be shouldering the cost.

We are all shouldering the cost through interest rates and VAT.

TheGreyLady that's so much more of a pension than many of us will ever see. I'm a teacher, and I'm already paying in more than you would have done and will get less out at the end, and at 68 (currently, it's sure to rise) rather than 60.

And that's on the teachers' pension, which is better than most. I also had to pay for my degree. Is THAT fair?

I mean, do you not agree that, objectively, I will have to work longer (therefore arguably harder) than you, for less money. Do you think that;s fair?

Yes it is fair IMO , Grey and many others worked bloody hard to get what / where they are now. Her husband took early retirement as it was offered ..why ? To make way for a younger generation .
They lived by the rules that were imposed by the government , they worked hard, paid taxes and they should not be taxed anymore . It is not as if the income they have can increase as nobdy will employ them now.
Have a look at what growing up after the war involved - I don't think that was fair either.
IMO hit the lazy buggers that want everything handed to them on a plate as they are 'entitled'....Not the people who have grafted and paid what was asked of them,