Boomers Pension Gravy Train Finally To Be Derailed

ruggedtoast

Running in both the Guardian and Independent today.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/nov/06/triple-lock-pension-should-scrapped-mps-generational-inequalities

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/scrap-the-triple-lock-on-pensions-mps-say-a7399721.html

Millennials worse off than their parents, retiring boomers living the high life and quaffing expensive drinks while they celebrate their vandalism of the EU.

It seems the country's patience is finally running thin - or, there are now enough younger voters for MPs to consider worth worrying about.

Top comment on the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/nov/06/triple-lock-pension-should-scrapped-mps-generational-inequalities#comment-86951018

I belong to the baby boomer generation, and to be honest, it shames me in some ways to say so. The self-centred, short sighted greed of many of my generation is not just an embarrassment. It is a condemnation of a large part of my generation. From the self-serving voting en masse to leave the EU through some demented wish to return to a gutter-tabloid press inspired golden age of their youth, which never actually existed, while the vast majority of their grandchildren, many of whom were too young to vote, will be massively impacted by this, to those who buy up houses wholesale with the express purpose of renting them to boost their already generous pensions, so driving house prices up hugely - not to mention the tying up of the massive amounts of capital they have accumulated between them through their lives - and effectively locking young people out of the housing market, while in parallel, also driving the rents up that these same young people then have to pay, as the house owners seek to recover the capital outlay. It is downright shameful

An end to free movement, and young people's opportunities devastated by Brexit. All apparently irrelevant to cash rich boomers, flush with housing assets, state pensions, winter handouts and other freebies, not a penny of student loan debt to their name


The month that cruel benefits cuts wipe thousands off the incomes of the poorest. Social mobility lower than in recorded history, homelessness and poverty in the young back to 90's levels. But every year is an inflation busting publicly funded handout for triple locked boomers

Castle

According to the Bank of England inflation will be 2.7% next year.

DiggerUK

There were many in my generation who waged a political struggle to get what we worked for, paid for, and put by for.

My pension entitlements, savings and house weren't given to me. It's time this apolitical wingeing bunch of milenials got off their backsides and took up the cudgels of politics.

Then you could get back what working people are entitled to..._

PasturesNew

When you really look at it, it's a smoke/mirrors thing, again.

It's not really pensioners -v- millennials.... it's richer people filling their troughs. Not all pensioners live the lifestyle projected by the article, not all millennials are eating gruel.

Moto2

DiggerUK wrote: »

There were many in my generation who waged a political struggle to get what we worked for, paid for, and put by for.

Oh I don't know about that.
I went to the Isle of Wight festival and early Glastonbury etc. and talked a good political struggle (usually under the influence of something) but I'm not entirely sure it was much of a struggle.

Sambella

As always. Any changes will affect the poorer pensioners the most.

Many millenials actually benefit from well off pensioners by way of monetary assistance and inheritances.

Nick_C

Fortunately, as Castle refers to in post #2, inflation should sideline this problem from 2017.

The Tories made some ridiculous election pledges in 2015, in many cases they thought they would not have to carry them out because they expected to be in coalition again.

While the Triple Lock has to go, there were some equally bad manifesto commitments. The worst were committing to no rises in VAT or Income Tax rates. With inflation at 0% (and an inflation target of 2%) we could easily have increased VAT. And while raising personal allowances is an excellent thing for the poor, it disproportionally benefits the better off. We probably need an intermediate tax rates from 20% to 40%.

A pensioner with a mix of incomes from savings and investments might have £22,000 a year but only pay £1,000 tax. A worker on £22,000 a year would be paying nearly £4K in tax and NICs, and then have to pay rent, pension contributions, fares to work, lunches out etc.

We need to stop giving special treatment to pensioners.

StevieJ

Surely any attack on pensions now will affect what Millennials receive down the line?

missbiggles1

Nick_C wrote: »

Fortunately, as Castle refers to in post #2, inflation should sideline this problem from 2017.

The Tories made some ridiculous election pledges in 2015, in many cases they thought they would not have to carry them out because they expected to be in coalition again.

While the Triple Lock has to go, there were some equally bad manifesto commitments. The worst were committing to no rises in VAT or Income Tax rates. With inflation at 0% (and an inflation target of 2%) we could easily have increased VAT. And while raising personal allowances is an excellent thing for the poor, it disproportionally benefits the better off. We probably need an intermediate tax rates from 20% to 40%.

A pensioner with a mix of incomes from savings and investments might have £22,000 a year but only pay £1,000 tax. A worker on £22,000 a year would be paying nearly £4K in tax and NICs, and then have to pay rent, pension contributions, fares to work, lunches out etc.

We need to stop giving special treatment to pensioners.

You aren't comparing like with like. A pensioner whose income comes from pensions will be paying £2.5k tax on that income and many pensioners will be paying rent themselves, or a mortgage.

Nick_C

StevieJ wrote: »

Surely any attack on pensions now will affect what Millennials receive down the line?

But scrapping the triple lock in favour of simple CPI index linking is not attacking pensions, it is preserving their current value. The triple lock has meant State Pensioners have been getting real increases in their income while other less generous state benefits have been cut.

missbiggles1 wrote: »

You aren't comparing like with like. A pensioner whose income comes from pensions will be paying £2.5k tax on that income and many pensioners will be paying rent themselves, or a mortgage.

True, but a pensioner is more likely to be living mortgage free and have investments than a worker. It seems unfair that two people with the same income should pay such vastly different rates of tax (and NICs).

It's important to encourage people to make their own provision for their old age, but I think we are currently being too generous to pensioners.

Rich2808

Today's pensioners have been benefitting from these payments already - free bus - and in London from 60 all public - transport - and winter fuel payments as well as the triple lock

It's the young and middle aged that will be losing out - they will never get them. And more and more people will be renting in retirement in future so will be far worse off.