Work till you drop.

[Fittster]

What should we do with the bloated state? Cut it back to size or make taxpayers work longer to pay for it?

Well CMD the leader of the small government, low tax tories thinks we should all work that bit longer, it's only another year at work, you'll hardly notice.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8291835.stm

[Spiritual_Beggar]

Makes sense if you ask me.


People are living a lot longer, so it seems only fair to work a bit longer to make up that extra.

Plus, it will apparently save £13billion, so given our debt situation I think it would be an ideal place to claw back some funds.

[OnTheOverrun]

Are you posting directly from Millbank?

People live a lot longer now than when the retirement age was introduced so you need to work a bit longer to pay for your retirement.

Not rocket science.

[jesusbuiltmycar]

Fittster said:

What should we do with the bloated state? Cut it back to size or make taxpayers work longer to pay for it?

Well CMD the leader of the small government, low tax tories thinks we should all work that bit longer, it's only another year at work, you'll hardly notice.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8291835.stm

Labour are proposing the same thing, CMD has just bought it forward a few years...

If you have a private pension (or a public sector pension) you can retire earlier...

Note: Brown changed the age at which a private pension can be taken from 50 to 55...

[Chris Type R]

Seems reasonable to me - it will probably have to be even higher TBH. Will it put additional strain at the other end of the job market i.e. youngsters trying to find work ?

There was a program on Dispatches last night about pensions which made for some very depressing watching. The gist was that we're all bksed, except for the likes of ex PMs, ex BOE Governors, ex CEOs of banks, etc.

[Fittster]

OnTheOverrun said:

Are you posting directly from Millbank?

People live a lot longer now than when the retirement age was introduced so you need to work a bit longer to pay for your retirement.

Not rocket science.

As a society we are getting richer, so if you cut the size of state (hardly a labour or unfortunately a conservative) people could continue to retire at 65.

People are living longer, however it's questionable if they are actually healthier. Just how long can a manual worker go on for? I believe state workers with manual jobs (e.g. firemen, police, armed forces retire earlier than 66).

[fido]

Fittster, it's an actuarial problem, we can no longer afford the State Pension in it's current form .. so either reduce the payout, length of the payout. Why should current workers pay for this (through taxation)? UK plc has run out of money, some tough decisions need to be made, so instead of whinging CMD-this .. CMD-that .. how about asking how the one-eyed moron in charge has made things even worse?

Edited by fido on Tuesday 6th October 11:50

[Fittster]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Or does everyone want to be selfish and think of themselves only ?

So the idea of any reduction in the size and cost of the state is now counts as "selfish and think of themselves only".

The mindset that big government is the way to run society is the root cause of the problems we face today.

[Oakey]

My grandfather is an electrician and didn't retire until his late 70s

[jesusbuiltmycar]

Fittster said:

As a society we are getting richer,

Are we?

I thought GB has jsut spent 12 years making scoiety considerably poorer...

[Einion Yrth]

Fittster said:

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Or does everyone want to be selfish and think of themselves only ?

So the idea of any reduction in the size and cost of the state is now counts as "selfish and think of themselves only".

The mindset that big government is the way to run society is the root cause of the problems we face today.

The state pension is part of the cost of the state, this therefore represents some reduction in the size and cost of the state.

[MentalSarcasm]

Oakey said:

My grandfather is an electrician and didn't retire until his late 70s

So was mine, and he retired twice XD (I think he got a bit bored when he first tried it so decided to go back part-time for a while).

[john_p]

Hmm which chancellor and current prime minister abolished tax credits on pension funds causing them to devalue by 20%? Perhaps if he hadn't done that we might have been in a better position to avoid public sector pension collapse

[eldar]

john_p said:

Hmm which chancellor and current prime minister abolished tax credits on pension funds causing them to devalue by 20%? Perhaps if he hadn't done that we might have been in a better position to avoid public sector pension collapse

Yeah but. Had to do that so Blairco could buy an extra 1,000,000 civil servants we so badly need...

[ofcorsa]

Its a great idea, But in practice unfair, Alot of manual jobs its unfeasable to work into your 60s and alot of the are low paid so its difficult to earn more to be able to retire earlier on a private pensio/investment

[Zod]

Labour would do this anyway if re-elected. We have a terrible demographic problem with pensions -ever fewer people working to pay the pensions of ever more retired people.

[Timsta]

Fittster said:

As a society we are getting richer...

Actually, I think you'll find that as a society we are £6000 worse off every second.

[Shoot Blair]

Timsta said:

Fittster said:

As a society we are getting richer...

Actually, I think you'll find that as a society we are £6000 worse off every second.

Does that include the £1620 we spend every second on EU fees?

[Dr.Doofenshmirtz]

Not sure why this is making the news?
I thought plans were well under way to increase the retirement age to 67?

[FNG]

Fittster said:

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Or does everyone want to be selfish and think of themselves only ?

So the idea of any reduction in the size and cost of the state is now counts as "selfish and think of themselves only".

The mindset that big government is the way to run society is the root cause of the problems we face today.

Who says the Conservatives are advocates of big government?

Have they said they'll keep the public sector as bloated as it currently is, or have they indicated that cuts are necessary? I think it's the latter.

So they're cutting back on public sector spend and they're advocating working longer to reduce the burdon imposed by the state pension.

Can't quite grasp what your beef is.