A Southampton peer has sparked anger by suggesting retired people do community work in return for their pensions.I think you've got that the wrong way wrong, chum. The pensions are a 'reward' for their work. Just like your stonking great civil service pension is a 'reward' for your w...
Oh. I see.
Lord Bichard, who was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School in Southampton, said "imaginative" ideas were needed to avoid older people becoming "a burden on the state".It takes some imagination to grasp quite how Bichard himself isn't a burden on the state. I don't think I've quite managed it yet...
During a meeting of a committee investigating the impact of the ageing society, he said: "Are there ways in which we could use incentives to encourage older people, if not to be in full time work, to be making a contribution?
"It is quite possible, for example, to envisage a world where civil society is making a greater contribution to the care of the very old, and older people who are not very old could be making a useful contribution to civil society in that respect, if they were given some incentive or some recognition for doing so."We could make them peers of the realm, I suppose?
He added: "Are we using all of the incentives at our disposal to encourage older people not just to be a negative burden on the state but actually be a positive part of society?"Soylent Green, anyone..?
9mm lead injection, starting at the top with peers of the realm.
ReplyDeletePerhaps younger pensioners should have the option to do voluntary work at nursing homes in order to accrue credits should they ever end up in one (over and above any other entitlements). Or if not, for one of their loved ones. Besides, they'd probably treat the current incumbents with more respect than the average 20 year old shipped in from the former Soviet empire.
ReplyDeleteBunny
ReplyDeleteLet's get this one right, the people who have paid into the Ponzi scheme that is National Insurance have to work for the pensions they have already paid for? I'm Diesel on this one, people who have contributed all their working lives aren't the issue with the welfare budget, it people who have never contributed and take from the taxpayer from the craddle to the grave that are the problem.
In 2015 the projected cost of the state pension, and associated benefits, is £87.9 billion (GDP 5%).
ReplyDeleteThe state pension is the single largest state benefit.
National Insurance is an employment tax, and the employers NI contribution also.
Further: I'd love tp point-out that private pensions ONLY pay the annuitants because of the state subsidy they enjoy via various tax reliefs (some £37 billion a year), without those reliefs they ponzi scheme (love that phrase) that it is at the moment would collapse (mind you, the various charges that the investment operators impose have led to this debacle).
Not mentioned is the disparate ages that pensioners expire at.
A building site labourer, welder or paint sprayer is unlikely to live more than a few years after retirement (now at age 66) (to rise to 73 for a person aged 33 today).
Choosing your job/career is essential to a long and happy retirement.....a public service career is essential, preferably an office one. Avoid teaching or police as both have poor after-retirement longevity !
Pedants corner ....
ReplyDelete"encourage older people not just to be a negative burden on the state but actually be a positive part of society"
Isn't being a burden negative in its own right ... so being a negative burden must be a positive thing ... ?
So would he be willing to give up his huge pension and live on the standard state pension?
ReplyDeleteTo avoid being a burden on the state?
yeah right.
this country is getting more and more like "Animal Farm" every year.
Bichard Green, anyone?
ReplyDeleteXX this country is getting more and more like "Animal Farm" every year.Xx
ReplyDeleteMore like fucking Monty Pythons.
Said Lord Bichard, who is able to claim 250 quid a day on expenses, just for signing his name in the register at the House of Lords.
ReplyDeleteAll at taxpayer expense. This tit need the facts of life explaining to him.
OMG! Old folk have done their bit and paid their dues.
ReplyDeleteThat's why they get a measly few quid and a bus pass with which to enjoy the last few years of not having to slog it out.
Bichard - according to his Wikipedia entry has been a parasitic drone, sorry, civil "servant" all his misbegotten life. He's never done a genuinely honest day's work but has lived a prosperous life off the back of the taxpayer. On retirement (I use that word advisedly since what has he actually retired from? He's been effectively "retired" since he started his career in the public (self)service) he had an array of advisory positions lined up for him by fellow-parasites.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to know what's wrong with this country all you have to observe is that people like Bichard are the ones who are rewarded with peerages, gold-plated pensions and highly rewarded non-jobs to while away their old age. Meanwhile those who toil in the private sector and who create the wealth this scum dissipate (while seeing as much as possible attaches to their fingers on the way through) are attacked for drawing their old age pensions which they, unlike Bichard, have paid for.
Lord Bichard was either brave or stupid to enter this debate but I am not opposed to his idea in principle.
ReplyDeleteIt is the lesser of two evils if the other comfortable alternative for the Establishment, is to acquire our capital through stealth.
XX It is the lesser of two evils if the other comfortable alternative for the Establishment, is to acquire our capital through stealth. XX
ReplyDeleteSuch as "Green taxes", "T.V Licence fees", etc?
I think they are doing that already.
AS WELL!
@ FT
ReplyDeleteThat our incomes are badly ravaged by stealth taxes, is very true. Further wringing must observe the law of diminishing returns and a point is reached when our capital (as opposed to income) attracts major tax attention.
What the noble lord's been doing is known as 'bashing the bichard'.
ReplyDeleteHow long before the government starts back-pedalling on smoking and fatty foods?
ReplyDelete"Perhaps younger pensioners should have the option to do voluntary work at nursing homes in order to accrue credits should they ever end up in one..."
ReplyDeleteI've no problems with voluntary work. I suspect this chap isn't so keen on anything voluntary!
"...people who have contributed all their working lives aren't the issue with the welfare budget, it people who have never contributed and take from the taxpayer from the craddle to the grave that are the problem."
Just so!
"XX this country is getting more and more like "Animal Farm" every year.Xx
More like fucking Monty Pythons."
Heh! Very true.
"If you want to know what's wrong with this country all you have to observe is that people like Bichard are the ones who are rewarded with peerages, gold-plated pensions and highly rewarded non-jobs.."
And there's more and more of them every year.
How old are you Julia? Will you be needing help from other people's children, in the not too distant future?
ReplyDeleteWe need a compassionate society.
What happens if you are physically incapable of doing voluntary work? Should you be euthanased?
If you think that you should be thrown to the wolves, in the event that you can't look after yourself at some time in the future, then your hard line position makes sense.