I STILL do not understand. National Insurance was for the health and the pensions; many of us thought that was money put aside and invested. That idea was junked a long ago, so it is down to taxes and borrowing now. George Osborne said the biggest saving in his austerity rampage was raising the age at which a pension can be claimed.
Society is fixated upon longevity, and the nightly entertainment is full of murder, the most heinous of crimes. Is it a crime that folks have to live on the street? Look at the effort people put in when domesticated animals suffer. Yet people suffering acute pain often end their lives in a haze of morphine.
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Old folk are accused of cluttering up the housing market, leaving no houses for the young. The oldies release equity and roll in the dough. The ones who never had an opportunity to buy cannot, and bedroom tax dislodges many folk who wished to end their days where they raised their weans.
Pensioners have been under attack on many fronts for a long while. The governments tried to hide the attacks in the “triple lock”, showing how good they are to older voters. The question of “will they/won’t they scrap it?” lingers at every budget. Rises in pension are shouted from the rooftops whilst many of the aged suffer taxes rises and inflation eats up the increases. Yes, there are pensioners who are “rich” but more have to rent a roof, and stretching their pennies is a daily labour. Recreation also took a tumble when the free TV licence became means-tested.
John Major and Cameron/Clegg upped the age when it is possible to claim pensions, they gave little or no notice to many women who were born in the 1950s, some of whom were short changed by £45,000.
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It is hard to see why the current government thinks its financial inheritance can be salved by removing the heating allowance of pensioners who may, on paper, have a wee bit more than someone on pension credit. Why have the government not announced other cuts? Or is this to be the winter of the great octogenarian cull?
Their are thousands of care workers who rely on the elderly for their income. The makers of wheelchairs, Zimmer frames and incontinence pads rely upon a huge body of older people for their businesses.
We have a country bathed in oil and gas and green energy, yet UK pensions are meagre when contrasted to those provided elsewhere. It could be because many in the UK have little experience of lands beyond these shores. Maybe the propaganda machine keeps people thinking this is as good as it gets.
Is it really the fault of OAPs that the housing stock is of poor quality and insufficient quantity, or did the plan to use the profits of the sale of council houses to fabricate more houses go astray?
We live in a society where the successful shape the rules and those who cannot reach the expected goals are given just about enough to allow them to stay alive – with the help of the food bank and charity. Yet just by breathing, each and every living soul provides a market place for someone else.
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I cannot understand how any true Scot wishes oor country to remain in a Union when successive UK Governments plunder and leave the elderly to endure anxious, cold winter days in worry that their pension will not stretch as far as required.
The government makes the money and no government, despite their bluster, can ever repay the debts they all have. Money is a human invention, it is about time we reinvented it so that there is enough. Many of the people I know started work at the age of 14 or 15, their earnings were absorbed into the family they grow up in and even in their seventies there is a scramble for their piece.
Why is the SNP leadership not shouting and screaming that independence is the answer?
Cher Bonfis
via email
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