Restoration of Age related allowances - government petition - all please read

Mikeyorks

fluffybunny wrote: »

During the last year, their utilities have increased by about £30 pm whereas their pension has only increased by £6 pm!

Perhaps you may be better diverting your efforts to taming their utility bills! Water meter / switch gas and/or elec supplier. Mine have certainly not gone up by £30pm.

And their State Pension certainly increased by far more than £6pm in April 2011.

Andy_L

fluffybunny wrote: »

I do see why should someone have more purely because of their age .... but... pensions are usually increased "in line with inflation" but, utility bills and insurance costs arent factored in to inflation.

Yes they are. Now they might be under-represented for a pensioner as their personal "basket-of-goods" is different to the average basket used by ONS but utilities & insurance are used to calculater inflation

zygurat789

Andy_L wrote: »

Yes they are. Now they might be under-represented for a pensioner as their personal "basket-of-goods" is different to the average basket used by ONS but utilities & insurance are used to calculater inflation

Now you're beggining to understand. The "basics of life" which represent a very high proportion of a pensioners "basket of goods" have increased by a considerable amount whereas the other items included in the calculation of CPI have hardly increased at all. The result is that pensioners inflation has increased by a lot more than the CPI but their income has only increased in line with the CPI. This has the effect of making pensioners poorer.
The age allowance did not correct this but to have it taken away by a posh boy millionaire is, to say the least, galling.
What we need is an index for pensioners.

LisaW123

But virtually everyone is losing income. The freeze in tax allowances is only going to impact on better off pensioners anyway.

zygurat789

McKneff wrote: »

I'mm with you ticktack and I'm a pensioner too.

The goverment give me and my OH nearly £1k a month, I'm not going to bit the hand that feeds me.:D

Thats the right hand, you're supposed to bite the left hand, which takes it away again. Let's face it the government won't know.

Andy_L

zygurat789 wrote: »

Now you're beggining to understand. The "basics of life" which represent a very high proportion of a pensioners "basket of goods" have increased by a considerable amount whereas the other items included in the calculation of CPI have hardly increased at all.

a very high proportion of some pensioners basket.

Like the rest of society pensioners run the range from very poor to very rich

Jennifer_Jane

LisaW123 wrote: »

But virtually everyone is losing income. The freeze in tax allowances is only going to impact on better off pensioners anyway.

'Better off' being those getting over £10,500 per annum, but under £24,500 (??) when you are penalised £1 for every £2 over that figure. I get £12,000 per annum (Company pension and part of Basic State Pension), so it will affect me.

I have signed the petition because it affects me, and already am not very well off, so don't want to be even worse off. I do understand that it's a 'decrease' in real terms, not nominal.

le_loup

LisaW123 wrote: »

But virtually everyone is losing income. The freeze in tax allowances is only going to impact on better off pensioners anyway.

Not true. The pensioners that it will affect are those getting between £10k and £27k.
Ten thousand pound may fit your description of better off. It don't fit mine.

zygurat789

Andy_L wrote: »

a very high proportion of some pensioners basket.

Like the rest of society pensioners run the range from very poor to very rich

I notice you cite no source for your opinionated terminological inexactitudes.

Yes most is definitely covered by the word "some". And yes pensioners do range from very poor to very rich but most are in the lower end of the range in between.

I'm glad you agree with me

John_Pierpoint

Pensioners with a life-time of saving a nest egg have been robbed by the depreciation of sterling.in 2008.

Robbed by the artificially low interest rates, usually below the rate of inflation, especially after tax. Carry on spending and die in poverty.

Are being robbed by quantitative easing (better known as printing money to bail out the banks) which can only result in further inflation in the long term.

Are being reduced in available income by the cuts in dividend payments.

Are being robbed by ridiculous bonuses being paid for failure, to directors/executives of banks, even those part nationalised by the government and those who did "sweetheart" deals with friends in the Gulf, ignoring their existing shareholders.

zygurat789 wrote: »

I think GO worked out that the over 65s probably have the lowest rate of computer literacy and ownership and, therefore, would not be aware of his going back on what he categorically stated in the previous budget.
As posh bullies always do, hit the weakest they can't fight back.

Only 64,000+, it's not going to make it. That just leaves the ballot box, wait till Thursday.

The government has earned almost no money of its own, the profitable bits were sold off years ago.

It can only tax and spend or print and spend and the deficit is still increasing.

The government accumulates votes by promising to spend someone else's money - I would call that buying votes and the amount of the countries income spent on this activity has nearly doubled since the 1960's when you add back local authorities and the EU, not to mention charging for everything that used to be "free" (eg parking in empty streets at 20:00 hours in the dark.)

Even in communist China the currency is called "The peoples money"

McKneff wrote: »

I'mm with you ticktack and I'm a pensioner too.

The goverment give me and my OH nearly £1k a month, I'm not going to bit the hand that feeds me.:D

Is there any "moral" difference between someone who has saved a few small pensions/annuities during their lifetime and someone else who gets their old age payment made up to the same amount?

Andy_L wrote: »

a very high proportion of some pensioners basket.

Like the rest of society pensioners run the range from very poor to very rich

And as lots of people have already observed "comfortable" pensioners get their additional personal allowance stripped off them - thus creating a band where relatively modest pensioners pay 30% tax as the government claws back the tax relief.

Mind you I advocated and warned these policies would be necessary back in 2007.

Next step? Think of a way of forcing out daft old pensioners, rattling about in family homes they own, in addition to raising council tax ?

"Consequential liabilities", as identified belatedly by the Daily Mail, should do the trick - they have been sneaking in over the last few years
"Need to replace the old boiler that has lasted 40 years?"
The replacement boiler will cost well into four figures and will come with a consequential liability to renovate the property and incorporate modern building standards for carbon footprint reduction. Can't afford it? No problem there is a loan available, which will be charged against the house a bit like a mortgage and will stay there until you or the new owner pays it off.

That really is a win win win. Jobs for the unemployed, Larger homes forced onto the market ripe for renovation thus easing the price and accommodation crisis for the family generation and a redistribution of wealth away from the home owner's heirs - after all what did the two generations do to deserve the wealth anyway?

"Buy a big house and live in it, while the politicians devalued the currency."?