Counting the pennies? You’ll pay a high price
MONEY Mail editor Daniel Hyde rightly deplores the death of the savings habit.
It has been killed off not just by record low interest rates and low wage growth, but also by government policies such as tax grabs on pension savings.
Young people face many demands, such as the ridiculous cost of housing, which governments have failed to control, the prohibitive cost of public transport and repaying student loans.
Given the high rate of default, dismantling the free tuition and grant schemes that my generation benefited from does not seem to have saved the Treasury much.
When you are young, retirement seems a long time away and saving comes bottom of the list — there is simply no money left at the end of the month.
Moreover, there is little encouragement for older people to save. The thresholds for pension credit are taken as a baseline for other benefits and even for such things as eligibility for reduced price tickets at the Royal Festival Hall, so the frugal are deprived of culture in their old age.
Among my friends, I am the worst off because my thrift in saving for a small self- employed pension has placed me just above the benefit threshold.
I am still obliged to work after the state retirement age, while those dependent on benefits have been happily retired for years. So, how can I recommend that my younger friends save for old age?
There is more that could be done by the Government. National Savings bonds once offered aboveinflation interest rates, but sadly the popular pensioner bonds were not repeated, and the National Savings cash Isa rates are no better than any others.
JUDITH HOWARD, London SW11.
Public inconvenience
THE idiocy of unisex toilets, showers and changing rooms is starting to hit home.
On a visit to a well-known pizza chain, I saw an elderly gentleman emerging from a toilet cubicle when a little girl of about eight walked into the unisex toilets.
She was horrified, turned around and fled into the arms of her waiting mother. ‘There was a man in the toilets, and I was afraid,’ she said. The gentleman was also very upset by this incident.
V. LONGIN, Goole, E. Yorks.
Talk . . . or we walk!
MY SON, who is financial director of a large company, has been negotiating a contract to buy a commercial property in Germany.
He found the other side difficult to deal with. On his latest trip last week, he felt he was making no progress, so he said to his solicitor and translator: ‘Let’s go home.’ They picked up their coats to leave when one of the Germans said: ‘Come back.’
The whole atmosphere changed, they began to talk in a sensible way, and by the end of the meeting they had exchanged contracts. Perhaps our Brexit team could try the same tactics with Brussels. MICHAEL STRINGER, Havant, Hants.
Red tape’s no remedy
DR MAX PEMBERTON tells it exactly how it is — tick- box healthcare is squeezing out trailblazing doctors (Mail).
Everyone working in the NHS knows what it’s like to be weighed down with bureaucracy, drawn up by administrators who know little or nothing about delivering the service on the frontline.
The balance of power is all wrong: there should be consultations between all sides, not the pen-pushers imposing their latest wheeze on doctors and nurses.
LYNN BROOKES, Preston. I HAD to laugh at the underwhelming response by the public to the scheme to roll out virtual doctors to assess ailments. Isn’t it amazing that in this technological age with most people welded to mobile bil gadgets, d t when h it comes to their health, nothing beats sitting down face-to-face with a GP. JANET TAYLOR, Halesowen, W. Mids.
Hand of friendship
I HAVE become a volunteer visitor for Age UK, and it’s been one of the most rewarding, enjoyable, humbling and emotional experiences of my life.
I have made friends with a 92year- old man who lives alone. Apart from a distant nephew and a neighbour who drops off his newspaper, he can go for days without seeing anyone.
I visit him once a week for a game of Scrabble ( he always wins!) and his face lights up when he opens the door because he has someone to talk to for an hour.
He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the area we live in, marvellous photo albums going back to the Thirties and a vast array of sporting trophies, which are all discussed with vigour.
It really makes me appreciate how lucky and blessed I am to be surrounded by my family, and how much we can take it for granted.
JEFF KAY, Hardwicke, Glos.
Quick march!
I TAKE issue with the accusation of sloppy marching by Fleet Air Arm ratings (Letters).
While doing wartime pilot training in the U.S., I was invited to take part in a parade in the city of St Louis. My platoon was by far the smartest, with thumbs reaching to shoulder height as we swung our arms and marched along.
By contrast, the American soldiers simply slouched, chewing gum and waving to the crowds.
Following glowing reports in the local papers, we received numerous invites to family gatherings.
A. BAILEY, Dover, Kent.
Soft-touch sentences
THE judge who said he was sorry he couldn’t jail a hit-and-run driver for longer (Mail) sums up the legal stranglehold on the judiciary.
I was a magistrate for 15 years, and part of the reason I left was the inadequate sentencing powers laid down by naive politicians.
Some defendants know exactly what sentence you can and cannot impose, so it would have been very satisfying on occasion to surprise them. The sentence might well have had a greater effect.
RICHARD HARRAWAY, West Chiltington, W. Sussex.
Crumbs of comfort
SCROOGE is alive and kicking. My partner works in an estate agency, and in the run- up to Christmas, landlords, solicitors and tradesmen bring in gifts.
But the managers collect all the bottles of champagne and wine and divide them up between themselves. The rest are lucky if they get a box of biscuits.
Surely the loyalty and respect of the staff for their managers and employers should be worth more than these presents.
PATRICIA CHURCHILL, Bristol.
Perfect plastic
THE Mail’s campaign to reduce plastic waste in our oceans highlights a problem for which there is already a solution.
In the Nineties, Shell and BP developed processes for the production of a new class of polymer called polyketones.
They were developed as packaging materials and have the advantage of being photo, chemically and biochemically degradable.
These eco- friendly polymers failed to take off because of lack of public awareness, government bureaucracy showing little interest in pollution and an industry loathe to spend money on replacing profitable plants manufacturing traditional materials. Perhaps their time has come. Professor MIKE GREEN,
Newcastle upon Tyne.