Jeremy Hunt in plea to early retirees: ‘Britain needs you’

bostonerimus

DoublePolaroid said:

zagfles said:

Anonymous101 said:

Stubod said:

I think I would be more inclined to "help out", if I truly believed that our "leaders" shared the same commitment rather than doing their very best to avoid paying their own fair share...???

I’m sure they see it as “fair” after all they’re not PAYE worker drones. They’re far to important to play by those rules.

As opposed to, say, premiership footballers who earn in one week what an MP does in a year?

Maybe a country that values the job of kicking a football round a pitch 50 times as much as the job of running the country deserves the politicians it gets.

Don’t really get this. If you include expenses, jobbing MP’s get paid a similar salary to NHS consultants. Nobody complains about the competence of our brain surgeons, cardiologists and the like and medicine in general has no problem attracting thousands upon thousands of rather bright minds happy to work productively and (generally) for the benefit of the public for a salary that is apparently so low that it encumbers us with thick, incompetent politicians. It’s pretty clear that pay isn’t the issue. 

As for PL footballers, rather unlike MP’s, they are in the top minuscule fraction of a percent for talent at a game that vast numbers play and every penny they earn is paid for by people happy to fork out to watch the post popular sport in the world. Apart from Jesse Lingard. He gets paid far too much. 

Maybe add Dele Alli to the over paid list, although he does show how tenuous PL fame and money can be.

Personally I'm not surprised the UK has an employment crisis and I think it's the fruit of decades of poor industrial and employment policy and a complacency that the UK is naturally a world leading economy. I left the UK in 1987 because the jobs I was being offered after leaving university with a PhD in physics were boring and poorly paid. Many of my contemporaries had similar experiences and also left for foreign jobs. I'm grateful to the UK for my education, but it didn't seem to be valued so I went somewhere that was excited to have me. Most people in the UK don't have that freedom...

mumf

Albermarle said:

mumf said:

Politicians are idiots. Usually Public School Idiots. Never had to do real work. Idiots .

They say the public gets the politicians they deserve.

In practice what that means is that the public has unrealistic expectations of what can be done ( for example wanting better public services and lower taxes at the same time ) So that forces the politicians to make promises they can not keep, because if they told the truth nobody would vote for them.

Albermarle said:

mumf said:

Politicians are idiots. Usually Public School Idiots. Never had to do real work. Idiots .

They say the public gets the politicians they deserve.

In practice what that means is that the public has unrealistic expectations of what can be done ( for example wanting better public services and lower taxes at the same time ) So that forces the politicians to make promises they can not keep, because if they told the truth nobody would vote for them.

Didn’t vote for them

mumf

Problem is with this “ get 50+ year olds back to work” is that there is no thought that some ( many? ) have done hard,manual work. Government ‘seems’ to think we are all office workers and computer tip- tappers! Politicians have no idea about 4.30 am starts ,10 and 12 hour shifts of non- stop ,back - busting work. My neighbour,my age, has cancer too. A bricklayer all his life. We had a chat yesterday about Jeremy Cu** and he said the same as me. Our neighbour the other side,same age, and a window fitter/ chippie ,has serious hip problems and arthritis too. He’s knackered,but not able to finish yet. He wants to. Government doesn’t get it. 

Kim1965

mumf said:

Problem is with this “ get 50+ year olds back to work” is that there is no thought that some ( many? ) have done hard,manual work. Government ‘seems’ to think we are all office workers and computer tip- tappers! Politicians have no idea about 4.30 am starts ,10 and 12 hour shifts of non- stop ,back - busting work. My neighbour,my age, has cancer too. A bricklayer all his life. We had a chat yesterday about Jeremy Cu** and he said the same as me. Our neighbour the other side,same age, and a window fitter/ chippie ,has serious hip problems and arthritis too. He’s knackered,but not able to finish yet. He wants to. Government doesn’t get it. 

Some valid points. Its not physically possible to work to 67 in some jobs. What jobs do the government expect  worn out people to do? 

Altior

mumf said:

Problem is with this “ get 50+ year olds back to work” is that there is no thought that some ( many? ) have done hard,manual work. Government ‘seems’ to think we are all office workers and computer tip- tappers! Politicians have no idea about 4.30 am starts ,10 and 12 hour shifts of non- stop ,back - busting work. My neighbour,my age, has cancer too. A bricklayer all his life. We had a chat yesterday about Jeremy Cu** and he said the same as me. Our neighbour the other side,same age, and a window fitter/ chippie ,has serious hip problems and arthritis too. He’s knackered,but not able to finish yet. He wants to. Government doesn’t get it. 

A number of elements here. Hunt's 'speech' is deliberate deflection. The issue isn't hundreds of thousands of older people suddenly deciding they didn't need to work. Politicians love it if they can deflect the blame on to others. Lockdown (government policy) got people used to receiving an income without having to work for a long period of time. Public sector people effectively got a pay rise as their costs reduced and they were still on full pay (those in parts of the public sector which completely shut down). It was predicable (and inevitable) that a proportion of people didn't really fancy returning to working if they could find a way around it, legitimate or not, after being paid for doing nothing. 

I can't see too many people having issues with someone in their 50s retiring if they can afford it themselves. The issue does come if they can't afford it, and expect other taxpayers have to supplement their lifestyle.

Genuinely, if I was a window fitter, or did any other type of work that heavily relied on my physical capabilities, I would surely be aware that I can't be doing that into my late 60s. So there are two options open to me, become financially independent before my 60s, or move into an industry that doesn't rely on physical capabilities.  

bigfer

Once I'm back from Lanzarote, I'll get back to you Jeremy.

pensionpawn

NedS said:

Pensions_matter_2 said:

From reading various posts, I think the workforce environment - performance reviews, expectation of working many more hours than contracted to do, mis-management, workers being undervalued etc, is a significant factor in the decision by many to retire early when able to do so. Employers need to seriously address these issues and practices (probably a fall out from the credit crunch and employers tightening their belts) if they want to have any realistic chance of attracting older experienced people back into the workforce. 

and therein lies the issue. People are only prepared to put up with this treatment whilst they have to, and the moment people have obtained the financial freedom to walk away, they are gone. Workplace culture needs to change to either retain people over 50 or entice them back. They need to fundamentally feel valued and be treated with some dignity at work, not be treated like a sack of s###

There are aspects of my job that I still like so soon after arriving at 55 I made my management subtly, though fully aware that I now only turn up because it suits me and requested a reduction in hours from 56, which I knew would mean that the majority of the soul destroying aspects of my role would be passed on. Management were left in no doubt that if they didn't agree I would walk away. I have to keep reminding them as they forget however my job satisfaction improved no end. It's a card worth playing if you're not ready to go from 100% - 0% all at once.

p00hsticks

michaels said:

However if the govt wants to force people to work longer they should change NI so that rather than not paying it on unearned income instead you don't pay it once over state pension age.

@michaels

??? I don't believe those over State Pension Age currently pay NI on any income, whether earned or unearned.

I know that at one point they were down to pay the proposed social care surcharge element, but I thought that had all been scrapped ?

https://www.gov.uk/tax-national-insurance-after-state-pension-age

zagfles

Universidad said:

molerat said:

Cutting of working age benefits is what is needed, back to the old system of the job centre telling you where you are going to work if you won't find work yourself !

Convenient that this wouldn't affect you...

That's right, you should never propose any policy that doesn't personally affect you. For instance only the rich should ever be allowed to propose "higher taxes on the rich".

SouthCoastBoy

Maybe one way for the govt to get over 50s back to work is change the qualifying years to receive the state pension and also not allow people to buy qualifying years.