Chancellor Rishi Sunak hints at ruling out 8% pension rise

michaels

steampowered said:

The top ranks of the Conservative party are complete charlatans at the moment. They go into an election making a big promise to pensioners, make a big song and dance about it, put it front and centre of their manifesto.

Now, as soon as it becomes a bit convenient, they change their minds!

The triple lock was always a stupid policy, a situation like this was easily foreseeable, but if you decide to promise it to the nation then you should stick with it !!!! 

Literally cannot trust a word they say. Mind you, if people keep voting for them despite the constant lies, that's a pretty clear signal that the public do not care whether their politicians follow through or not.

I honestly do not understand how anyone can vote for these jokers.

So lets see, the working age population who pay the pensioners incomes through their tax all put their lives on hold for over a year many suffering considerable financial hardships pretty much to save the lives of the pensioners (look up the deaths data 90% plus are over pension age) should now pay an extra £2bn in tax not just this year but every year so those same pensioners can all see a big jump in their standard of living whilst those same tax payers have almost all seen a fall in theirs.

I thought it was the young who were supposed to be the Me Me Me greedy generation....

They cunningly seem to forget they paid their NI to support a previous generation of retirees who on average died much younger so the ratio of workers to retired was much higher when they think they 'paid their share'.

[I am soon to retire so by saying the burden should be shared more fairly I am suggesting that my wife and I both forgo this extra increase for every year for the rest of our lives - hopefully of order at least £10k each]

JJC1956

michaels said:

steampowered said:

The top ranks of the Conservative party are complete charlatans at the moment. They go into an election making a big promise to pensioners, make a big song and dance about it, put it front and centre of their manifesto.

Now, as soon as it becomes a bit convenient, they change their minds!

The triple lock was always a stupid policy, a situation like this was easily foreseeable, but if you decide to promise it to the nation then you should stick with it !!!! 

Literally cannot trust a word they say. Mind you, if people keep voting for them despite the constant lies, that's a pretty clear signal that the public do not care whether their politicians follow through or not.

I honestly do not understand how anyone can vote for these jokers.

So lets see, the working age population who pay the pensioners incomes through their tax all put their lives on hold for over a year many suffering considerable financial hardships pretty much to save the lives of the pensioners (look up the deaths data 90% plus are over pension age) should now pay an extra £2bn in tax not just this year but every year so those same pensioners can all se a big jump in their standard of living whilst those same tax payers have almost all seen a fall in theirs.

I thought it was the young who were supposed to be the Me Me Me greedy generation....

I think you’ll find that pensioners paid Income Tax and NI, throughout their working lives, anyway thanks for saving my life, now get one yourself before you make ridiculous comments on MSE

Silvertabby

steampowered said:

The top ranks of the Conservative party are complete charlatans at the moment. They go into an election making a big promise to pensioners, make a big song and dance about it, put it front and centre of their manifesto.

Now, as soon as it becomes a bit convenient, they change their minds!

The triple lock was always a stupid policy, a situation like this was easily foreseeable, but if you decide to promise it to the nation then you should stick with it !!!! 

Literally cannot trust a word they say. Mind you, if people keep voting for them despite the constant lies, that's a pretty clear signal that the public do not care whether their politicians follow through or not.

I honestly do not understand how anyone can vote for these jokers.

The triple lock promise was a commitment to pay the higher of RPI, annual wages increase, or 2.5%.

No-one could possibly have foreseen a global pandemic and the furlough scheme.

This possible 8% increase includes an element of the restoration from the furloughed 80% salary back up to the original 100% - and can't, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered a true salary increase.

It must be possible to strip out this false increase from the figures - and if this gives 5% then that will still be more than would have been expected pre-pandemic.

p00hsticks

Goldwing1 said:

"Sorry but pensioners had their entire working life to plan for retirement. Decades to contribute into a private pension or build up investments."

That sounds reasonable but we have people relying on food banks. It's a bit difficult to save when you can't feed your kids or maybe just yourself.

But I suspect the majority of those relying on food banks now are working age people who have lost their jobs or seen their wages cut due to the pandemic. Is it fair to now expect them to have to fork out more money in taxes to pay for an 8% state pension increase ?

molerat

Albermarle said:

I think the end result is that the Triple lock will be left in place , so they can say they stick with their election promises .
However the rise in earnings will be recalculated in some way just for this years calculation ,to take account of the special circumstances . 
So the projected 8% will become say 5% , and they can still then say it is way above what the non pensioner population has seen and we are all in it together . Plus save a Billion or two .

This.

It isn't rocket science to work it out.  The Feb 2020 to Feb 2021 rise is something around 4.9%, Apr 2020 to Apr 2021 is around 9.9% due to the 4% drop in 2020.  All they need to do is draw the line to cut out the drop.  The problem is though that, even with stripping out the drop, real time wages are growing as many sectors, especially hospitality, are having to pay higher wages to attract staff - my 20 yo granddaughter is getting £9 when they only have to pay her £6.56.  Maybe stop the Michaels of this world from exploding - probably not though

sevenhills

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Winger Fuel Payment

Christmas Bonus
Bus pass
Eye test
Prescriptions

If you live in Scotland, then you get free prescriptions and eye tests at any age, free bus pass at 60

Thrugelmir

molerat said:

Albermarle said:

I think the end result is that the Triple lock will be left in place , so they can say they stick with their election promises .
However the rise in earnings will be recalculated in some way just for this years calculation ,to take account of the special circumstances . 
So the projected 8% will become say 5% , and they can still then say it is way above what the non pensioner population has seen and we are all in it together . Plus save a Billion or two .

 my 20 yo granddaughter is getting £9 when they only have to pay her £6.56.  

Companies are free to set whatever wage levels they wish. Minimum wage is only there as default. Treating employees fairly has considerable benefits to a business isn't just a cost. 

sevenhills

Silvertabby said:

It must be possible to strip out this false increase from the figures - and if this gives 5% then that will still be more than would have been expected pre-pandemic.

If this is a political decision, give the pensioners the same increase as the NHS, 1%

molerat

Thrugelmir said:

molerat said:

Albermarle said:

I think the end result is that the Triple lock will be left in place , so they can say they stick with their election promises .
However the rise in earnings will be recalculated in some way just for this years calculation ,to take account of the special circumstances . 
So the projected 8% will become say 5% , and they can still then say it is way above what the non pensioner population has seen and we are all in it together . Plus save a Billion or two .

 my 20 yo granddaughter is getting £9 when they only have to pay her £6.56.  

Companies are free to set whatever wage levels they wish. Minimum wage is only there as default. Treating employees fairly has considerable benefits to a business isn't just a cost. 

And that has always been the case but now even those that don't want to "treat employees fairly" and previously had no problems hiring are having to pay higher wages to attract staff.

steampowered

michaels said:

So lets see, the working age population who pay the pensioners incomes through their tax all put their lives on hold for over a year many suffering considerable financial hardships pretty much to save the lives of the pensioners (look up the deaths data 90% plus are over pension age) should now pay an extra £2bn in tax not just this year but every year so those same pensioners can all se a big jump in their standard of living whilst those same tax payers have almost all seen a fall in theirs.

I thought it was the young who were supposed to be the Me Me Me greedy generation....

I agree with you. The triple lock is and always was a stupid policy. All part of presenting the Conservative party as on the side of the older generations (without actually doing anything immediate). 

But, the triple lock was a key headline policy of the government which was elected. The whole point of British democracy is that the government is supposed to implement its manifesto.