Younger people should be rewarded for lockdown via affordable housing

[Ordree]

As others have noted, young people (not just those in frontline roles) are making enormous sacrifices to protect others, mostly but not exclusively from much older age groups. They will be bequeathed a damaged planet, a ruined economy and they will have done further damage to their mental health by staying indoors for months on end. They are the ones paying older people's pensions when they won't have anything like the same financial security to look forward to themselves. Yes I know older people paid their elders pensions during their working lives, bit never has there been such an imbalance. As the economy is likely to be ruined short to medium term anyway, would it not be reasonable to start the biggest givernment-funded housebuilding programme ever, allow younger people who have just bought to write off negative equity losses against tax, and essentially redress some of the appalling imbalance between generations and classes?

your DS simply didn’t work hard enough! Does he want to buy a home Oliversmummy? Can he afford that

Ds sweated buckets over his English GCSE and his resit. He really wanted to go on level 3 and qualify.
He has really bad dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD.

I had to take him out of school when he was 8 years old as it was doing him no good as he couldn’t read or write.
We spent hours each day getting very basic books from the library and using flash cards and other methods to try and help him to read. It took him till he was 12 years old before it finally clicked.

Schools had written him off but teaching him Maths and other subjects was a revelation.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t do Maths etc it was just that he couldn’t read the question.

I don’t see how he could have worked any harder on the course when he was getting perfect 100% and near perfect scores in his tests and assessments.
He just doesn’t have a gcse in English.
It doesn’t mean he is thick or can’t talk to people or use a computer or not know how to hang a door or fit skirting boards or plumb in a toilet or stop a leak
It means he just can’t decipher a poem or write a story or answer questions about a piece of prose.

Fwiw no one on his course was able to progress to Level 3. Those that passed didn’t have the right GCSEs so had to leave and those that didn’t pass the course but did or didn’t have the right GCSEs can try again and again.

So what you are going to get is people who struggled to pass the practical qualification working on your house yet the ones who had a knack for it got cast aside.

Ds is only 17 and he has had to adjust to the fact that he can’t do what he knows he would have been good at because of an irrelevant GCSE.

He has chosen another career and has started his own business like his sister.

He had just started to get some work before the shit down.

He has chosen another career

And yes if he does similar to his sister he will be buying his first place in a couple of years.

plainsailing01

Dd is definitely no gifted genius. 🤣🤣🤣

But she is incredibly confident and can talk to anyone.

plainsailing

1 I completely agree, they can ask & if they get a special reward because of the lockdown then I will accept it. But imo they are not deserving or needing it.

2 I also agree and I think all governments have and are trying to build more supply.

3 I partially agree. That is 'secondary' control. I was referring to the direct control of deciding who has lived a good life vs a prolonged awful one (a quote from Bubbles iirc)

Oliversmummy: that was a “tongue in cheek “ comment from me about working hard. I do believe people work hard but have differing results. Working hard isn’t the only attribute that gets people a good job and success. Other posters seem to think if is. Apart from some notable entrepreneurs, lots of highly paid people now have degrees. So therefore intelligence measured by exams and university attended fi matter. No research says otherwise. That doesn’t mean that others shouldn’t be valued for their contribution. However it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that at the moment that the degree holders (doctors and nurses) are talked about and apparently valued more than others who are caring for people.

It is interesting that their is lots of reports from some 'universities' to cap the numbers going to the top unis this year. They are worried no one will go to their not very good uni and they might end up bankrupt.

slow hand clap anyone?

@ChrissieKeller61
I will concede the general rate settled at 14%. To assist your lack of knowledge on historical BoE rates I advise you look here:

www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/Bank-Rate.asp

Clearly stating that on November 15th 1979 the Interest rate was set by the incoming new government at 17%.

Hope that helps with your level of comprehension. I can't help with your logic on the maths side, only to advise that I sincerely hope you don't teach maths.

@plainsailing01

The strange thing about 'slightly more qualified' financial advisers than me , which I grant you there are lots; is that a lot of them don't earn as much as me or have as greater asset pot.

Absolutely agree though about house prices, how do you think I achieved that greater asset pot?

Then add in the 1 job I had at 12 , then progress to the 2 part time jobs I had at 15 , then working full time for the 6 years that took me to the point where 'University' leavers start earning.

So even at £10k per year I'm 60k up and they're £50k down.

Those are my financial qualifications... oh, together with 15 years in Financial Services with the Prudential.

Feel free to get your financial advice from anywhere you wish. Just choose someone that understands what %ages are as you will be shocked at how many don't.

@BurgerOnTheOrientExpress Well then, I guess I’m lucky that my FA isn’t a glorified relationship manager down at our friendly local retail bank and, given what you’ve told me, the probability he earns more than you do is high (I’ve known him for years - we read at Cambridge together).

You don't need a Cambridge degree to be an FA, you just need to pass the relevant FCA exams. I have worked in Financial Services and know many advisers with no academic qualifications higher than GCSE or "O" Level, and was there celebrating at one company when 3 of their (already qualified as such) Paraplanners passed their IFA exams - I think ONE of them had been to Uni. I also know a couple of exceptionally well qualified IFAs (have worked for both) who have specialist qualifications over and above those of a standard IFA. One of these specialises in HNW clients, you need to be worth at least £1m these days for him to take on a new client. So please don't imply that because your FA went to Cambridge that makes him special in any way.

Are these the people who mis-sell financial products?

Probably ... no idea how interest rates work it seems

Some IFAs do, but neither of the guys I know very well would - I wouldn't have worked for either if I wasn't 100% sure they weren't dodgy in any way, and only dealt in regulated investments.. Plus both are aligned to highly respected "Umbrella" companies, so are regulated by their rules and regs as well as the FCA ones. Not every IFA is dodgy, unfortunately there are enough around to tar all with the same brush.

@Allergictoironing That’s not my point. Sorry if I didn’t make it clear. My point was my FA isn’t a traditional high street FA. He’s someone who I went to uni with who current works as a portfolio manager

YABU. I say that as a 24 year old health professional. Lose the entitlement

I’ll enjoy you paying for my pension then ruby. And while you are about it, I’d like you to pay for; my triple locked pension, my subsidised (by you) local government index linked final salary pension, and all the health care I’m going to need, care in my home if possible, free tv license restored, heating payments, my extra personal allowance before I pay tax, my £1m IHT allowance, subsided bus and train travel, cheap entry to museums and cultural places, reduced price car insurance and everything else you will be paying for! Thank you! (Tongue in cheek and yes, I’m entitled too!)

My local government and NHS pensions aren’t subsidised by anyone. I worked for a lower salary than if I’d worked in the private sector to pay for them. Good pensions are the one and only perk of working in the public sector.

@Alsohuman do people still believe that ? Makes me chuckle. I’ve got a friend in the police who thinks he’s be on £15,000 more in the private sector... as what he can’t quite answer whenever the subject comes up

Can I ask where the £1m IHT allowance comes from? Genuine question-the nil rate band is £325 per person.

I’ve just realised you’ve included 2x residence bands...

You can chuckle all you like @ChrissieKeller61, it’s a fact. Someone doing the equivalent of my job for a PR agency would be on a minimum of £30k more than I was. It was the price I paid for not wanting to promote consumer crap. The pension was the compensation.

This is the main residence allowance and the standard allowance x 2 for couples. I am half of a married couple so we benefit from the £1m allowance. This is the extract from MSE that explains the maths and the allowances.,

I have friends in local government jobs who think they would have earned more in the private sector. Some would, and have, and some wouldn’t.

My DH moved and did much better (off the salary scale better) and several others we know were also highly successful. They key was transferable skills. They were all professionally qualified and had personalities that leaned towards business. However, they actually did it. They didn’t just talk about it and wish for it.

The police always get a job after they retire and pick up the police pension and wages from a new job plus a second pension at 65. Not too shabby. Same for firemen.

Your OP states that today’s youngsters are paying for my and my husband’s pensions. No , they’re not as our state pension is being deducted from our very hard earned private pension.

Today’s youngsters are struggling to get properties because banks were told, in the 80s/90s to add a woman’s salary to a mortgage application as it had been deemed sexist. Immediately mortgage application amounts increased and , due to economics, house prices increased ( more money to spend, the higher the price) and so house prices ballooned. Now in a situation whereby very few women can take time off ( which they would generally like, but also men too) and so we now have full time nurseries which many can’t afford, breakfast clubs and after school clubs and other wrap around care.

Many people are still alive, like my mum, who struggled during and after the war, until the late sixties or seventies. Today’s young folk are not dealing with the same situation. They’re dealing with an economic blip.

Why is your state pension deducted from your private pension? Yes, your pension pot will be taxed if it’s over a certain amount and you pay income tax on your private pension income but your state pension is not deducted as such. For most people, tax isn’t paid on the pension pot because it’s not big enough!

We had our first mortgage in the 70s snd my salary as a woman was definitely taken into account. Not sure how old you are, but you are wrong in this bit of financial history.

How old is your mum? Mine was born in 1924 and did live through the war mostly as a teenager. Few people are old enough now to have struggled through the war. They got the nhs after the war though. There won’t be an economic blip from this. We now have 3 million unemployed. Disproportionately younger people. This will be an economic catastrophe. Plenty of people had a perfectly good life in the 1950s onwards as we had full employment.