Are we morally obliged to work ?

[Justthisonce12]

630,000 economically inactive people in the UK not claiming benefits. Early retiree’s I guess.

Hunt plans to tackle this and encourage work force participation to allow businesses to grow. ie cheap labour I presume ? But also preventing a brain drain.

Will be interesting to see how he plans to address this.

Yeah it is a bit daft to count sixth formers.

I retired earlier this year at 63. I am living off DH’s wages and savings until my state pension kicks in. I have gone from feeling guilty for doing a job that someone younger could have to feeling guilty for not working. The government needs to look at ways of making work attractive to those who don’t need to work if they want to encourage them back to work.

I absolutely will not work until I am 67 and finally qualify for a state pension! Thankfully I've paid into a work pension for over 30 years, just wish I'd started earlier.

Actually he said 600,000 people no longer working. He did not say none of them claim benefits of any type. I suspect quite a few might be carers to family members and claim Carers Allowance. Even though that is not a high benefit, it is still a benefit.

Especially since they’re not on unemployment type benefits! They’re still children.

Oh sorry, quote function failed that was to @SirMingeALot

I've always said sin either was young I dont want to work all my life. I may not achieve full retirement at 55 but so far im on track to pay my mortgage by 50. Theb I just have to make up enough NI yrs to qualify for state pension and ill save during those yrs. After that im done working full time. I'll work part time to keep pay monthly bills and food but no way am I going to work full time only too see most of it taken off me for taxes. No thank you. Had enough of being treated like some cash cow.

So long as they're not taking money from taxpayers, I don't think so,

Although you could say they probably still use the NHS

Charge to see a GP / use NHS?

This pisses me off. Instead of pissing your money up the wall . You've been sensible and saved some money and you get nothing because .

But yet any of you colleagues that are also be being made redundant has spent all their money gets all the help in the world .

@Schlaar, what most other people do in the same situation is to pay a childminder to collect children from school and care for until 5 or 5.30pm. I did this year's to allow me to teach and I dropped children off at childminder in the morning at 7.30am and she took them to school for me. It allowed me to work full time and build my pension. My dd drops her children with childminder at 8am to drop at school then she works until 4.30pm. Childminder collects her kids from school then she collects on way home at 5pm. She only has to pay childminder 2 hours a day and this allows her to work full-time in accounts.

Hunt was talking about those claiming UC and staying home from work, when they worked previously. He is going to get more work coaches.

I am "economically inactive" and claim zero benefits. I am able to support myself and my son. Surely it's of absolutely no consequence to anyone, either in government or in society as a whole, as no one is "paying for me". Frankly it's nobody's fucking business but my own.

No, if I want to stop working that's my choice (I wouldn't be claiming any benefits) no obligation to work

@countrygirl99 · Today 12:02
If they aren't claiming benefits what levers is he planning to use to encourage them to work?

I think the new taxes on dividends and capital gains is how he’s planning that.

It worries me as an unpaid carer that they will be directly targeting us.

@ChuggingtonMum

Just been made redundant, am job hunting. Too much in savings to claim benefits. I'm doing what I can, Jezza.

i think you can still claim new style JSA as it’s contribution based and not means tested. It’s only £78? a week (not sure exact amount, but I know it’s seventy-odd).

I think 65 made sense to people, once it became a moveable feast, I think many decided to stop as soon as they thought they could afford to.

Yes, I agree with this. It's as if there's no real end in sight now so you have to pick your own date. You can't trust the dates they give you because they keep moving.

That means many people can never retire until they are off long term sick.

And 67-68 exceeds the life expectancy for men in many parts of the U.K. as well.

I think there are a lot of early retirees who think or feel as though they’ve earned their keep and thus the right to sit back and claim their pension

What? Any non state pension provision is a finite amount. The earlier you claim it the quicker it depletes, or the less available pcm going forward.

Or some of these hated early retirees might be like me. Worked every day from leaving Uni until I was 63, when I was made redundant because the pandemic had destroyed my job, and much of the sector.

State pension not available for 2.5 years. I had been saving like mad towards retirement because my private defined contribution reflected a working life in a low salary, scant perks field. So… not eligible for benefits. 63 year olds are not at the front of the queue for new jobs. Ageism / ‘over qualified’ etc etc.

So forgive me if I ‘sit back’ living off savings intended to be left intact until my planned retirement. Is that not my ‘right’ ?

FFS.

And do you include children as a lifestyle choice?

Having children?

Depends.

1 or 2 that you work to support, not really a lifestyle choice.

@Spectre8

Eh?
They think?
I retired at 55 midwife, special classes.
I don't think I've earned my " keep" ( bloody cheek)
I bloody well know that I have because I topped up my pension to enable me to do so!
No one gets state pension early so if they have enough to live on through their own hard work why shouldn't they retire?