It's now being suggested that pensioners should 'work for their pension'

[bananaistheanswer]

here by working in the community, or face losing part of their pension. So, now pensioners are being tarred with the same brush as 'benefit claimants'.

[noddyholder]

jesus work where? My ds is 18 and him and his mates can't find even a bloody saturday job

[threesocksonathreeleggedwitch]

no suprise here
nos doubt my very old disabled mil will be this governments next target.
they have already hit the disabled the hardest.
blinded everyone by the tuition fee's so no one cares

[joanofarchitrave]

Right on Grimbletart. I think if people of my age most people now had to go through e.g. the 1947 winter, we wouldn't hear ourselves think for the shrieks of agony though of course being a lot fatter we'd probably feel the cold less.

I don't know if it's the government, the media, the chattering classes, the patriarchy, the capitalists, the bankers, the terrorists, the unions, the feminists, Generation X, Generation Y, the benefit claimants, the English, the foreigners, the immigrants, the pre-war generation, the baby boomers or the squeezed middle that is trying to divide us all from each other and make sure we identify a group for whom it is All Their Fault, but whoever it is, they are completely wrong and don't know they're born. [gavel]

[claig]

It's none of those - it teh elite who play divide and rule. They have think tanks that discuss the 'intergenerational divide'. Thta is their latest stratagem to divide ordinary people. They are slowly trying to change ideas so that pensioners are viewed as having it easy compared to the young.

There was a time when people wouldn't have believed that they would pay extra taxes or charges for the 'carbon footprint', but with teh constant media drip-drip of the elite, that is no longer fiction. It will be the same with their 'intergenerational divide' propaganda. It is early days now, but one day theu will get their way, just as they did with anthropomorphic climate change.

[joanofarchitrave]

The elite eh? At last, the group that's not me or you but is definitely in charge of it all! It's all their fault!

[claig]

Yep, you've got it

[claig]

'Intergenerational justice', 'generationally just laws'

You haven't heard these buzzwords yet, just like you had once never heard of anthropomorphic climate catastrophe, but you will do over the coming years. They are going to sell it you, and the media will give them the platform they need.

www.intergenerationaljustice.org/

[claig]

'He acknowledged it would be difficult for politicians to sell to the public, but added: "So was tuition fees."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20044862

Anything can be sold given enough time and enough media access.

[tethersend]

[GrimmaTheNome]

It's certainly a good idea to encourage older people to carry on using their skills, but rather than the stick of threatened pension cut, there should be the carrot of some reward. There are places that do this; the problem comes when they carry on when they're obviously past it. Like the House of Lords and certain members of it who seem to have lost the plot...

[0liverb0liverbuttface]

Grimble reading the DT makes the red mist come down for me too!!

It's a beyond stupid idea...but that hasn't stopped them so far.

[0liverb0liverbuttface]

Wouldn't that make it a salary, not a pension...?

[NanaNina]

Ah well I too think nothing is beyond this pile of shite that call themselves a coalition. I am 68 and get the state pension. Maybe we could have the choice of either doing voluntary work for our pension or they could bring in euthanasia for anyone who refused. Kill plenty of birds with that stone - think of what could be saved, not just on state pensions, but the NHS too - care home fees -it's certainly very creative thinking.

Could this be the final solution ?????

[Darkesteyes]

Im 39 Nana and growing up i thought Thatcher was bad but this lot in now are outdoing her on every level.

[Latara]

How old is Lord Bichard?
He could give the 'hard work for pension' idea a trial run himself.

I 'volunteer' him for my gardening & housework. hehehe

[0liverb0liverbuttface]

The thing that worries me is that if pensioners start doing voluntary work surely they will take work from those that want a job to get off benefit...therefore the welfare bill will rise even whilst the pension bill drops...isn't that pointless?

In fact I'm starting to think that this is just another one of the coalitions stupid ideas - hard to believe I know...Lol!

[exoticfruits]

Pensioners are already doing voluntary work-we couldn't manage without them.They are also generally doing childcare.

[0liverb0liverbuttface]

Yes but not very single pensioner because its mandatory and they lose pension if they don't!

[expatinscotland]

It'll never happen.

[exoticfruits]

I don't see much point is making them-a reluctant volunteer isn't going to be much help.

[exoticfruits]

Quite true-it will never happen.

[claig]

'It'll never happen'

Blimey, some said tuition fees would never be £9000 per year. It will happen, but it won't happen quickly. It will be a drip-drip media campaign process until people start clamouring for it, in the same way that they clamour to be charged for plastic shopping bags to "save the planet".

[claig]

And it is not the Coalition doing this. This is a flyer which will be common policy across all parties. He is a cross-bench peer who, I think, once worked with David Blunkett.

[claig]

''He acknowledged it would be difficult for politicians to sell to the public, but added: "So was tuition fees."

[skaen]

Lord Bichard used to be at Brent Council so has a rather platinum plated public sector salary himself.

I think the fact that the suggestion mad it public is a way of finding out what level of public objection there would be, and whether the hate rhetoric could be made to work again.

I think it is a crazy idea. It win't help the job situation for anyone- including people who rely on child care from grandparents