Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

pensioners crying in Greece, uk residents should help them out

242 replies

marrqkashg · 04/07/2015 09:13

Really breaks my heart to see pensioners in Greece crying over their pension being HALVED! There seems to be a lack of outrage about this in the uk. I really do think our foreign aid should go to these pensioners as they are much closer than other countries we donate to.

OP posts:
RachelRagged · 04/07/2015 09:15

Awful isn't it OP ?

I saw a picture on a news site online of a man sitting on the floor totally devestated , ,he was carried away by two Policemen (I presume).

Yes foreign aid for what it should be for . .. Helping a fellow Nation out at this difficult time. . not to places like India who have money for space programmes as it is ffs

fairyfuckwings · 04/07/2015 09:15

Yes I'm sure all the people in the UK who've had their own benefits slashed or stopped completely would really LOVE that idea!

echt · 04/07/2015 09:15

Some detail needed here, I think.

To avoid you looking like goady twat. As it were.

chairmeoh · 04/07/2015 09:16

I sympathise with their plight.
But I don't agree that they should get help because they are geographically closer than other countries that the uk government sends aid to.

RachelRagged · 04/07/2015 09:16

I agree with Fairy too though ,, that is a good point but is the foreign aid not seperate ?

pollyisnotputtingthekettleon · 04/07/2015 09:17

Read in the paper yesterday about a march/ protest 10 years ago to write off african debts but nothing for Greece. Says something about countries being self sufficient and not relying on imports. I have no solution, but if they cant get whats needed them the tourist trade will dry up, more money lost.

mimishimmi · 04/07/2015 09:17

You do realise that this will be happening all over the world, not just Greece, as the population ages and there aren't enough young people coming through to support them right?

LaurieFairyCake · 04/07/2015 09:18

Greece pension system is much more complicated than that

There is a minimum pension like here which everyone gets

Then on top of that there is a pension based on what job you used to do in the public sector - if you did a 'dangerous' job like collecting bins then you got paid up to 28% more pension.

This is the element that has been cut. The basic pension hasnt been.

Penfold007 · 04/07/2015 09:18

The situation the people of Greece find themselves in is awful. The country has already benefited from billions of pounds/euros in aid. Until they are prepared to change nothing will get better.

Hipotle · 04/07/2015 09:20

Just wondering why Greece is a 'fellow nation' and India is not Rachel? Do you mean a fellow European nation?

chairmeoh · 04/07/2015 09:21

That's interesting Laurie. I'm ashamed at my lack of informed knowledge around the background to the situation Greece is in.
I read/hear the headlines but should find out more for myself.

AuntieStella · 04/07/2015 09:23

OK: but how? And how much?

The current spending on aid is about £1b isn't it?

Are you proposing expanding this, so UK can make a payment outside the (possible) Euro bailout?

Or cutting existing aid programmes? I suspect the latter, as you talk about being much "closer" than other countries we donate to.

So which programmes would you then end for to find a new commitment to the Greeks? And for how long would that commitment run?

yellowcurtains · 04/07/2015 09:24

That may be the case Laurie, but many Greek pensioners are supporting children and grandchildren that cannot get work. It's such a disaster. Sending them money isn't a solution I realise, But don't know what the answer is.
Greece is such an ancient civilization, I find the situation unbearably sad.

IsabellaofFrance · 04/07/2015 09:26

Maybe you should donate some of your cash here OP

WorktoLive · 04/07/2015 09:27

The effect on ordinary people in Greece is terrible, but they can't expect everyone else to keep throwing money at them, while they don't pay income tax properly and keep on having luxuries that other countries can't afford like full pensions at aged 50.

Greece is like that friend or family member who is constantly crying poverty and asking others to help them out to pay their electricity bill, but keeps on having their nails done and going on holiday Hmm.

BlueThursday · 04/07/2015 09:30

I can see Japan having similar problems in the future

A massive ageing population and fewer children being born to prop up the welfare pot

JaneFonda · 04/07/2015 09:36

WorktoLive God where is your compassion? 40% of Greeks are in poverty, and their previous government is to blame. I cannot believe that you are so lacking in empathy and basic common decency.

What are they doing that is the equivalent of 'having their nails done and going on holiday'? So many of them are barely keeping their heads above water - the suicide rate has gone up massively, people are starving, and you're annoyed that some people avoid tax? People avoid tax here in the UK too you know.

karbonfootprint · 04/07/2015 09:38

We don't need any government action.

We need the DEM or something similar to set up a fund so that people who choose to can pay into it to feed Greek pensioners.

they are hungry.

The remarks about he money they are entitled to is irrelevant if they can't actually get their hands on it.

"Charity begins at home"... etc, ie, in the EU; ther are no UK pensioners with nothing to eat.

I get what is being said about the whole world, and other problems in it, but our hearts are naturally going to be more stirred by people we know better, and identify more with. Here in the UK, many of us will have been to Greece, at some point in our lives, and most of us will know many Greeks.

(that isn't to say we don't care about people further away too, but they will have people nearer them who know them better or identify with them more.)

karbonfootprint · 04/07/2015 09:39

sorry that should say DEC

Dothetwist · 04/07/2015 09:39

worktolive

I reckon they should mention that to them at their next meeting...

"well if you keep getting your nails done you cannot afford to eat" maybe in simple term the greece government may stop being so pig headed.

Topseyt · 04/07/2015 09:44

I do sympathise with ordinary Greek people, old or young.

However, I don't see what we could really do.that would help.

Greece has an ageing population, as do we. We have all, as European nations, been part of the bailouts, which have not worked because Greece simply cannot afford the repayments it now faces.

Would the Greek government not also have to consent to the aid being allowed in? Would they actually do that?

Believe me, I would love to help. I just can't see an immediate and practical solution.

xenu1 · 04/07/2015 09:45

WorktoLive I liked your simile!
The Greeks don't pay taxes like we do, and after Syriza was elected they aid even less. I don't want to pay for the Greek pension system in perpetuity and neither, it seems, do the Germans (who are the Euro's paymasters).

The Germans have left the Greeks have their credit card and are liable for the bills run up; the Greeks want the bills paid off and then a new card...

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 04/07/2015 09:51

I sympathise but I have to ultimately agree with what Fairy said upthread.

Awful situation they're in but lots of folk here are struggling as well.

SouthWestmom · 04/07/2015 09:55

Echt that is such a weird reply

PtolemysNeedle · 04/07/2015 09:56

I'm not sure it's our place to be outraged, the Greek people live in a democracy just as we do. Not everything that happens in the world is something that we should be interfering with, as much as our government and the USA's seem to believe otherwise.