AIBU to think the disabled are the next target?

[Locutus2000]

The Guardian

Though Jeremy Hunt said the government was “not in a position” to contemplate a decrease in tax immediately, he said the welfare budget could be hit further down the line to foot the bill.

He told the Times that 100,000 people a year were “moving off work into benefits without any obligation to look for work” – a sign he said showed the system was not working.

The welfare system had to be a “mix of carrot and stick”, with more assistance required to help people find work, given there was “no shortage of jobs”, he added."

Funny how 'carrot and stick' always equates to 'more stick'.

'Twas ever thus lol 🙄

There are an awful lot of people who have not paid anything or very little in. pension credit is even doled out to people who have been abroad for years and barely worked in the UK. In the past few weeks in my job role I have had a case where a man was working in Australia and Germany for years, came back to the UK and immediately was able to claim pension credits as had nothing to live on. Another been in South Africa for years and come to live with her son - was a Uk citizen but no state pension so could claim full pension credit and a man from India who had come to live with his family, has never worked here and able to claim pension credit. they can also claim disability benefits once they have lived here for 2 out of the past 3 years despite never paying in.

The "system" has changed and will have to change more. Sorry if you don't like it, but you can't squeeze blood from stones.

Pensioner "poverty" is 16%

Child poverty is 27%

You know the economy is completely unbalanced when working people have lower incomes and higher poverty levels than pensioners do.

The "view" of UK folks about just how much damage the pensioners are causing has reached absurd level.

One thing people fail to understand:

The more money you end to pensioners every year, the poorer the country actually gets.

People want to know why schools and hospitals are crumbling?

Why local authorities are broke?

Its because more and more tax revenue is being sent to the pensioners (pensions, healthcare, social care etc) to the detriment of the country as a whole.

In a "normal" country this would never happen. But because of our FPTP electoral system, we have become trapped inside a situation were the Tories give more and more bungs to their voting demographic to stay in power (even though they have less than 40% of the national vote)

This farce needs to be called out.

Really? I’m sure my struggling pensioner parents would have been very interested to hear how well off they were

If you don't understand how demographics in the UK work I cannot help you.

Sending more and more tax revenue to an increasing (and unproductive) amount of the UK population, while the population that funds this is shrinking (and sicker)....

Well, lets just say this only ends one way:

Standard of living in the UK sinks

Pensioners have very limited opportunities to increase their income though. Younger people have more opportunities to build skills and improve their financial circumstances.

I understand what you’re saying, but pensioners did have an opportunity to increase their income in retirement before they retired.

And let's not forget all the disabled people who do work too.

It frustrates me on this thread that so many assume disabled people don't work. I am disabled and a higher rate tax payer.

I know I am very lucky to have a supportive employer and husband, and I wish everyone did. But I think it's really frustrating to read assumptions that disabled people aren't in work. Some of us work incredibly hard, and some I am sure would love to be able to.

Are you unable to think "big picture"?

Or is everything an n=1 thing for you

Just curious.

Because this is part of the problem. Astonishingly poor levels of education in the population.

There is no magic money tree. We have £Xm of national income. This then creates £Ym of tsx revenue.

If you don't grow the economy, then it becomes a zero sum game. If pensioners get more, everybody else gets less.

How hard is this for you folks to understand?

I see your manners haven’t improved since your last visit here @TheThinkingGoblin. Do you have some kind of alert that triggers every time someone posts “pensions” on MN?

Again. Wrong.

Pensioners had a whole LIFETIME to save money for retirement. They simply chose (in the majority of cases) not to.

What they are doing now is squeezing younger people more and more to subsidise their retirement.

You are making it impossible for the younger folks to improve their life. Many are simply giving up.

And its not just that.

By making younger people a lot poorer, you are sealing the fate of the pensioners in the long run.

By not growing the economy, you are asking for a larger % of a pie due to demographics.

Good luck with that.

This will end with the Govt taking a cleaver to pensioner benefits because we cannot pay our basic bills as a country.

Thats the grim reality. Wake up.

I rest my case. You’re not having a discussion at all. You’re lecturing and patronising. As usual.

How bizarre. I’m off to sit in the dunces corner. Never realised how stupid I am , but now I’m eternally grateful that you have pointed it out

Good post. The fact is people just won't wake up to the reality until it's too late.

TheThinkingGoblin

Hold on a minute so are you saying that those of us in our 50s not far off retirement in the sandwich years who have worked our arses off for years far longer than those just starting out without any of the benefits Boomers had and with years of austerity whilst supporting youngsters through Uni and elderly parents with zero care deserve less?🤔

Bullshit. We’ve spent all our lives working for our pensions.

I was hoping Labour would realise just how bad the situation is.

But it looks like they will keep pandering to the pensioners to retain power.

That means the UK will likely have to hit rock bottom before things change.

UK folks still think "things cannot get worse"

Thats the delusion.

Some of us did pay into pension schemes, and why not blame successive governments who didn't have the common-sense to invest contributions so that state pensions self funded.

We don't deserve less but likely will end up with less as the money won't be there.

But we’ve spent years paying into it.

And I am still paying tax on my pensions.

Why do these things need to become a race to the bottom rather than those who can supporting those who can’t or need more help to do so. Why is it always those ar the bottom of the ladder that need to be pushed further down?

And don’t forget many women who should be getting state pension already aren’t because they changed the system to mean they have to wait for longer.

Your taxes have been paying for the current pensioners though. Now there won't be enough to pay for ours as less people paying tax.