To think well done on Tue government for looking after OAPs

[Marue]

Fair play to the Tories they are looking after pensioners. There is lots of Tory bashing on here but the people that have worked hard their whole lives for the benefit of the country are rightly being looked after. They have kept to their word and I'm pleased to live in a country that looks after the elderly and makes sure they dont have to freeze or starve themselves.

Just felt like we needed a positive thread after that other one :)

You are right, it was poorly worded; the current NHS and social care system cannot support the ever growing older population.

Lol, yes I'm so sick of that phrase 'well, we worked hard all out lives'. Yes, and the young now will work harder, for longer, for less reward.

Our not out

I'll tell you a story about looking after people.

I'm disabled and have got progressively worse since surgery in May. DS2 was at home after his A levels but my GP was concerned how I'd cope after he left for uni as DH works 50 miles away so she sent and OT out.

The OT said I needed a new rise and recline chair because mine can't be adapted. My bed needs adaptations, ideally I need an electric one and other bits and pieces. Then she said the council don't provide it. I asked why, she said because of the cuts. So I asked if I was an old woman, with no income other than my pension would they provide it. She said "oh yes, we provide the things the elderly need there's a different budget for that!"

So because I'm 44 I don't get it! It's bloody disgusting.

Yeah Course they are OP. Fat lot of use the winter fuel allowance is when the heating isnt working.

www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/willesden_pensioner_forced_to_live_with_no_hot_water_and_heating_for_seven_months_contracts_pneumonia_1_1389701

And thats not the only example i can give.

TheFairyCaravan oh yes, my HA asked who if my adult child had an OT as we need work done. they were shocked when I said no.

YY meglet Our bus service stops tomorrow.

Lunchpack - £2500 is not cheap depending on where you live. It's 1.5 times the going rate in the authority I work in.

Where dh works (public sector) his office is full of older people just coasting along, they are shit at their jobs but they have been there so long they are all in a little middle management club, on the higher pay bands.
Two of them actually 'retired' but have come back 2-3 days a week! The department would run so much better if they were all cleared out and younger people took their pointless jobs.

Has anyone actually been in a private care home lately?

I hope to God I die before I have to spend my last days in one.

Sorry - but, as scarlets said , pensioners are most likely to vote....and so it's a reasonably cynical ploy. Obviously nobody wants to see vulnerable old people without food and heating.....but there's a chunk of the pensioner population who are among the richest in society. They could afford to buy a house and have seen it's value rocket. They often have protected pensions. As someone else said, 60 really isn't that old - I know heaps of pensioners who travel round the world while claiming their free bus pass! Universal benefits are outdated and wasteful - we should focus on the people who need the help ( eg young families who are struggling to make ends meet ).

It's hilarious - obviously none of you will be pensioners that (iyo) vote for what is best for them.

The 'ever growing older population' will never apply to you - haha.

I know what my life was like when bringing up a young family and we didn't have the cars/ hols/ homes that you lot have now.

You will never coast waiting for your retirement date if you have to (your retirement age having jumped by years). You will work, work, work and then jump off a cliff at 59. mind you I doubt anyone will mind as you are such a bunch of moaners

Same old 'divide and rule' and boomer-bashing
Free TV licence - only if you are 75
Winter fuel allowance - £100 per person per year for a couple.
State pension - £115 approx per week any SERPS additional was paid for when working (a bit like a private pension).
Pensioners pay tax on anything above their personal allowance (which is the same for everyone), they pay VAT, council tax, TV licence.
Bus passes - only those favoured in that London or big cities get any value from these - those of us outside get one bus a day so often don't even bother to claim a bus pass (it is not automatic and has to be claimed for)
and FYI - do you really beleive that every over 65 votes Conservative - lots and lots of them vote for other parties and many of them are not so naive as to think - must vote for the Conservatives because our pension (£115 remember) is going up by 2.5 %. 2.5% of very little is not very much
end of rant and setting the record straight.

I do think many of you base your opinions on the 'rich' pensioners (in-laws) you know who have final salary pensions and houses worth millions. so obviously you are biased and do not see the whole picture of an entire generation.

millie

Biased and not seeing the whole picture...bit likescooby then

There is no a different social care fund for older people. The only difference is between under 18s and any adult.

Ok I've read your post again, TheFairyCaravan and the way you've worded it makes it sound unfair. You might not have been told but social care is not free. You have a working husband and social care is means tested. Any person (age aside!!) will have their finances assessed for large pieces of equipment. So, it has nowt to do with an "elderly lady on a pension" because I've just given thousands of pounds worth of care and equipment to a 25 year old disabled individual as she is low income and doesn't have a working partner.

It's all bollocks and, as said upthread, a cynical ploy to keep the grey vote. The Tories don't really give a shit about vulnerable people of any age but it suits them to pit generation against generation, as well as people on benefits vs people not on benefits, working people vs unemployed, childless vs "hard working families". It's just to ensure that us little people don't see through the spin and realise what a bunch of total arseholes they really are.

the people that have worked hard their whole lives for the benefit of the country

Ay? My mother hasn't done a days work for 50 years!

She didn't have to. My father's wage was enough for the nice big house, annual holidays and finally be mortgage free by the time they were late 40s. (My father was a self employed plumber. One man business.)

Pensions make up over 60% of the welfare budget

This pisses me off. People pay to get their pensions all their working lives. Enough money should be there to provide a decent pension.
Many pensioners have never been able to afford to pay into a private pension because they never had enough money to do it.
It is bloody scarey being a pensioner today relying on a state pension.
The Tories are not looking after pensioners . The care system is absolute shite. Pensioners who live in rented property on a basic state pension must be living a miserable life. It will get worse too.

YABU. They will soon start on pensioners. And yes these people have worked hard and paid in but they also received many benefits that this generation and future do not have. Eg free higher education, women often not working for years, mortgage interest relief, cheap house prices etc.

I have no issue with state pensions. They are not a benefit, as a pp said, they are paid into by the individual.

It's the universal benefits for this age group that really get me. Fuel allowance. Free prescriptions. Bus passes. All of which are means tested/don't exsist for other vulnerable groups.

Is this because it isn't worth the cost to means test? But now child benefit is means tested and post 16 students are expected to pay for travel, seems upside down to me and difficult to believe these groups can be effectively means tested and other groups can't.

No issue with these additional benefits existing, but should be means tested. Why give free bus passes to pensioners with cars for eg?

Pensioners now are having their easier lives paid for by those working now. When they were working they paid for their parents. Thats how the system works.

By the time me and DH retire there wont be any money left in the system.

All the benefits for over 65's should be means tested.

Hmmm
My pils are well off.
Born just after the war, benefited from all the perks of a Decent nhs, free uni education, grossly inflated house prices, final salary pension etc.
My mil worked til she was 60 at a large store. Worked 10 hours a week. It was more a social thing for her Tbh but she now gets state pension and company pension.
My fil retired at 58.
Not all.pensioners work their fingers to the bone you know.
They get all the perks - bus passes they don't need as they both drive.
Winter fuel payment - not needed
All benefits should be means tested imo.
Then I wouldn't have to listen to dhs (very rich) aunt joking about how she is going to spend her fuel payment on wine

...and yes, they both vote Tory.