Autumn Statement

DaddyBear

FTBFun wrote: »

I find that one a little bizarre. Same increase in the state pension also.

So instead of increasing the gap between basic working wages and benefits, they are reducing it? !!!!!!. If this crap carries on nobody will go o work.

ruggedtoast

So with a pay freeze for the last two years, and virtually no rise for the next two years, and inflation running at about 5% per year; public sector workers are looking at a real pay cut of about 20% under these $&&*$nts.

Edit: A lot of people who were undecided about striking tomorrow have just had their minds made up. Its almost like they want to create a confrontation.

BUT WHY WOULD THE TORIES EVER WANT TO START A FIGHT WITH THE UNIONS??

Itismehonest

OptionARMAGEDDON wrote: »

There should be a 5% cut to all benefits, including the state old age benefit. Those oldies are bleeding us dry.

No, those oldies have been helping people with mortgages (several of whom seem to have taken on amounts they had no hope of repaying) by paying with their life savings when interest rates mean their funds are going down.
In fact, whoever was to blame for the state we find ourselves in as a country (& I don't intend to start another pointless political argument) it wasn't those who have worked all their lives, paid taxes, lived within their limits & tried to save where they could.
As has been said above, finding a job in your 70s is harder than in your 30s.
I am not a pensioner BTW before you ask.

ChiefGrasscutter

oldvicar wrote: »

Any one working in the public sector who is about over age 50 and has the opportunity to retire early really ought to think about doing so quickly.

Take your pension now chaps, and in 4 or 5 years it will be worth maybe 20% more, due to inflation increases.

Leave it a while and a final salary pension won't have gone up much if the salary hasn't increased.

My late father saw that happening in reality during the 1970's when inflation was going wild at 25%.
The index linked increases being given to the just retired compared to those still working (who did not get any real increase in their wages) mean't that after a few years those just retired were on an annual income from their pension alone not dissimilar from the annual salary of those still working.
Nuts!

OptionARMAGEDDON

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Maybe I will. I've been thinking about getting a new job.

Maybe I'll take yours.

I doubt it! It takes 6 years to train!

ChiefGrasscutter

ruggedtoast wrote: »

So with a pay freeze for the last two years, and virtually no rise for the next two years, and inflation running at about 5% per year; public sector workers are looking at a real pay cut of about 20% under these $&&*$nts.

Edit: A lot of people who were undecided about striking tomorrow have just had their minds made up. Its almost like they want to create a confrontation.

BUT WHY WOULD THE TORIES EVER WANT TO START A FIGHT WITH THE UNIONS??

Well, I'm sorry to have to tell you that I personally very much doubt that I will even notice the strike tomorrow......apart from the fact they I won't have to pay them I suppose.
Actually no on second thoughts, if all the schools are out that means I can get on to the roads at 9am with the expectation of getting across the city - normally it's impossible except in school holidays, so every cloud has a silver lining.....

jamespmg44

wotsthat wrote: »

No worries if you're on benefits though - there's a 5.2% increase.

Nice 'work' if you can get it.

Disgusting really - ordinary workers both public and private sector have pay freezes for several years yet they're giving increases to those who don't work and sit watching Jeremy Kyle all day.

worldtraveller

purch wrote: »

State retirement age rise to 67 brought forward to 2026. :eek:

I was born in 1960 :mad:

Don't worry, by the time we get to 2026 the state retirement age will probably have risen to 70!

ruggedtoast

OptionARMAGEDDON wrote: »

I doubt it! It takes 6 years to train!

Oh really? From the state of your posts its a shame they didn't add another 6 months on and give you basic spelling and grammar.

Mr_Mumble

A spend today, pay tomorrow - but tomorrow never comes - manifesto from Gordon-Brown-lite. Full of irrelevant gimmicks and disasters in waiting. Consider one example: lending at 95% the book value of housing when the banks underwriting existing loans are trading at 45% of book value! This will go down in government ledgers as a loan but its really a grant, a very expensive and immoral grant that will trap more people in negative equity. Usually these schemes would be forgivable - the usual expensive trickery to make politicians look good amongst the dumber members of the electorate - but we've just had the biggest bust in 80 years because of a government inflated housing bubble. To repeat and double-down on the mistakes is both outrageous and hilarious.

Giving the relatively rich older generation a 'pay' hike now and telling the relatively poorer younger generation they'll pay for the largesse by having to retire later is repugnant. So much for listening to David "two brains" Willetts.

Chucking £50 per household at the Lib Dem constituencies in the south west is so blatant it's embarrassing. If you choose to live in the south west then you've already made an informed decision about the trade offs between slightly more expensive infrastructure and a better standard of living. £50 a year is nothing compared to the costs of moving and the price of housing so it will not change anyone's decision-making. I can't think of a more obvious voter/party pay-off in recent political history.

Looking at the raw numbers Osborne has extended and pretended for one more year. However, the Heathian 'one-nation' Tories and their Lib Dem allies have only been in power for 18 months! As the ASI notes the policies are small but very neo-Keynesian. The Hayekian principals that provided the economic basis for Churchhill and Thatcher, principals empirically proven to be correct time and again in the real world have been abandoned for the quasi-religious twaddle of the establishment who must justify taking more and more money from the hoi polloi to do as they see fit.