General Chat

Has anyone seen the latest from our New PM .pressure being put on the government .to abolish Free TV licence for over 75*s We only got ours this year oh 75..For goodness sake BBC is All repeats any way. On the Agenda for 28th November .in parliament .I just wonder what other cut backs for retired people :-|

They are planning to finish with free TV, bus passes and winter heating after the next election for those not receiving pension supplement.

Whether they do or don't depends on how tight the result is expected to be. If the brexit talks collapse ( probable ) and T May ( or another ) have to go to the country with a busted economy then yr free TV will be safe even if you cannot afford to buy much in the shops

:-)

They intend to foist the bedroom tax on pensioners.
Not so much as 'An Englishman's Home is his Castle', more a case of,
An Englishman's Castle is his Home', and those of you who (unlike us elite) haven't 'bothered' buying your home, can go to the wall :-|

(Except, of course, Iain Duncan Sh*teface, who introduced the Tax, and lives rent free in a £2m country house with at least 4 spare bedrooms, owned by his father in law - so he'd know all about the high cost of paying rent.)

A person works all their life .& looks forward to retirement .but is it worth having a few bob put by no .if you are just over a certain amount you don't get help at all .Buy a house & then family have to sell it to pay for care ? That's what happened with My late Dad .Think we will sell up & put the money in our Sons Bank & enjoy the rest B~~~~ Government not having it :-P

*Going to watch Midsummer Murders * Enjoy my TV while I can ;-) :-)

Bedroom tax will be applied to new pensioner tenancies from 2018 - they won't come into affect until after the general election. Anybody with a shorthold tenancy ( usually 5 years ) is bound to be hit by this eventually. Those with "assured" tenancies taken out before 2011 will miss the fun unless they move. Thus pensioners living in 3 bed houses "blocking" space for the youngish will be very ill advised to move.

Taken with the ever rising pension age and Phil Hammond not having even a single sentence about care for the old in his fin. statement the tendency of the old to vote Tory is astonishing unless they are well heeled.

The last 6 years "austerity" was based on some dreadful economic ideas beleived in by G Osborne and Phil Hammond. All it achieved was to screw the economy and invite a kick in the face for the govt which duly arrived in the shape of brexit. Now we are to get austerity+ as brexit, far from producing the windfall on the big red bus, is going to be financially challenging. BTW the billions to eb screwed otu for the EU for leaving divorce settlement are NOT in the fin. statement.

"What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?

I learned our government must be strong;
It's always right and never wrong!
Our leaders are the finest men
And we elect them again and again,
And that's what I learned in school today,
That's what I learned in school "

Tom Paxton

Have just read that Damian Green spoke of the enormous revolution of getting pensioner poverty down to 14% from the 1980s figure of 40%.

Do they really want the figure to rise again? If so, shame on them.

Who will define the wealthier pensioners?

We have a huge dispute in our area between teaching assistants and council. Council can no longer afford to pay teaching assistants during all of the school holidays. It's the latest in council cutbacks - closed care homes, dearer care, fewer carers, reduced other services.

We all seem to have to pull in our belts so what say you to a reduced number of councillors, reduced number of MPs and a more watchful eye on expenses claims.

Well, I have said this before. If they stop free bus passes completely it will affect local economy. Many fewer pensioners will go into town and spend what little they have. Pensioners will become depressed because they are unable to go out and that will increase the pressure on NHS. They do need to look at the bigger picture. All very well to give it to the lowest paid, it will be those of us in the middle who suffer as usual.

It would be the bus pass that many people would miss around here.

See a doctor....... a bus trip into town.
Need chemist......a bus trip into town.
Post a parcel or letter needing weighing....town again.
Hospital........ bus journey to another town.
Any shops ....another trip into town.

Local shops have closed, post offices closed and the surviving one relocated into a shop in town.

Bus is a lifeline here, even if they have cut our service even more in 2016.

So it could be said that stopping bus passes is tantamount to age prejudice.

When I moved here, there was a bus every 15 minutes, from 6am to 11pm, and two shops, one containing a Post Office.
Now we have no shops, no Post Office, and one bus every hour from 7.45am to 6.15pm, except that there's a bus at 3.45pm (that the schoolchildren catch), and the next one is 5.15pm (that's an hour and a half gap - and tough on those who miss the 3.45pm bus), with the last bus at 6.15 pm only coming FROM town, not to it.
Other 'outlying' areas have shops, actually, they have huge Supermarkets, and buses every 10 minutes from one direction, every 15 from the other - and buses until 11pm.
When this was queried by our Residents Association, the reply was 'You can walk'!!!
Well, not really. True, one way into town only takes 15 minutes, if you're capable of walking down extremely steep steps, but only the fittest can walk up them, provided they don't have heavy shopping. The 'usual' way takes 25 minutes.
There's also quite a few elderly and disable people living here, there is even a housing scheme for the aged (they were warden controlled flats, but the warden no longer exists), and a couple of houses for those receiving 'care in the community'

The area that gets buses every 15 minutes (including a bus to Tesco's) is only 10 minutes walk away from town.

Hands up - Who is prepared to pay more in taxes to prevent these cuts? It is our children I feel most sorry from. They are the ones to pick up the tab and then with with the horrendous cost of Brexit when it does hit home, by they will feel pretty mad.

Incidentally I live rent free in a 4 bed house. In total it has cost me around £5,000 a year over a period of 25 years all paid for our of taxed earnings without a single contribution from the government. Now that I am retired I get the princely sum of £122.25 a week by way of state pension - Oh and a bus pass, a free prescription and £100 at Christmas to go towards my fuel.

JoyLouise says
. Council can no longer afford to pay teaching assistants during all of the school holidays.

That's rather surprising. I worked as one for about 15 years. We did get paid during the holidays but that's because the annual salary was divided by 12 and divid out monthly. Our actual salary was actually for 189 days pa.

All OAP should get a licence free
they have paid all those years for repeats
Half the people don't even watch BBC anyway

around where I live Asda run buses to their supermarket - have no idea if they're free or not

Also there is a minibus run by VEST - think that's Voluntary something or other

We're already, in reality, paying 52% tax.
Tax on pay - minimum = 20%
VAT = 20%
National Insurance = 12%

I know National Insurance isn't classed as a Tax - it's meant to be there for workers to save for their State Pension, and to fund the NHS and Benefits.
As I already have the requisite number of years' worth of NI for my pension, it's allegedly going towards the NHS (which is slowly being privatised by being denied money) and Benefits (which are also being deprived of money), so, it is just another tax.
Also, the Government NOW insists on calling Pensions a Benefit, so what was all that money I was paying every week for?

Maggie, your payments would have gone into the NI Fund, your contribution record being used to determine any benefit entitlement including State Pension for yourself as you say. Employers also contribute to the NI Fund as do the self employed in Cl2 and C4 NIC.

Don't forget that several pensions may have to be paid from one persons NIC. eg one man's NIC payments in his life could pay his own pension, help his divorced wife (or wives!) get a better pension entitlement, provide a housewife's reduced pension and eventually provide a widow's pension. One man's NIC would not fund all these amounts which is why what you pay gives entitlement from the pot that everyone's money goes into.

Those who opted for the reduced (housewives) pension - which no longer exists - will find themselves with a reduced pension.
Also, I am aware that I, and my employer paid into my pension, which is why I question it's (apparently now permanent) addition to the list of 'Benefits'.
Those who paid SERPS (and their widows/widowers) will no longer receive the full amount, and I believe, a widow can now only receive a portion of her late husbands pension - enough to 'top up' to the maximum amount IF she hasn't enough contributions for a full pension herself.
It mustn't be forgotten that many pay NIC all their working life, but die before they receive their pension.
Strikes me, the Government is taking as much money as possible off pensioners.
Pensioners paid into schemes in good faith, only to be shat upon from a great height by this and the previous Tory government.

Annx: the secret of the NI Fund that you refer to is that there aint no fund.

As Maggie says, employer NI contributions are not described as a tax but in fact they are.
In fact they are worse than income tax in that they are not cumulative over the year so that if your earnings are irregular you pay contributions in the weeks of higher earnings but get no refund for the weeks of low or no earnings.
Employers NI is a payroll tax.

The DWP maintains the fiction of "contributory" and "non-contributory" benefits but pays out anyway under a different name such as income support or working tax credits.

The whole system is a shambles but such a political hot potato that no Chancellor is willing to pay more than lip service to reforming it.

As for income support/working tax credits :-P
Take with one hand (tax) pay it back under another name (Tax credits) - then blame the person who receives them - NOT the employer for paying p*ss poor wages, nor the Governments - and there have been a few - who don't realise they would save on admin by increasing the personal allowance to a decent amount, thereby cutting out the need for Credits, or are more intent on cutting/not collecting the taxes of those with more money than they need.

*rant over* :-D :-D :-D :-D