Tories make you work till you drop
Isn’t it wonderful? I left school at 15, worked for 51 years as a labourer and in the haulage industry and my modest savings are all but gone due to next-to-no interest from the Bank of England. Now ex-CBI chief John Cridland wants the state pension triple-lock guarantee to end.
My pension will rise in April to £168 a week thanks to that 2.5% increase. With inflation soaring to 2.3% my ‘rise’ is wiped out.
This amounts to a lunch bill for multi-millionaire politicians like George Osborne and Chancellor Philip Hammond and is a pittance compared to the daily £300 allowance for the Lords.
The UK has one of the lowest state pensions in Western Europe. The rich get richer as the poor, predictably, get poorer.
So much for the caring society. James Burns, Altrincham, Cheshire # So, a Government pensions review has recommended bringing forward the rise in the state pension age to 68 by nine years and abandoning the triple-lock because they say people are living longer and there isn’t enough money in the pot. The problem with this is they are relying on average life expectancy. Yes, many people are living longer, but it depends where you live in the UK, the type of work you do and the state of your health. The Government must work out a fairer system, but all the Tories care about is cutting costs. J Hall, Scunthorpe, Lincs # Although we have an increasingly older population, the shortfall in pension funds is to do with the economic policies of governments past and present.
Those doing manual work will find it physically difficult to carry on working and where will the jobs for everyone else come from? Surely, we won’t all be able to work at B&Q?
Perhaps the Government hope poorer pensioners will die early of fatigue and so won’t have to claim anything at all. Diane Silva, Lytham, Lancs # Raising the retirement age is all very well for those who work in offices.
I am a nurse and my back and hips are so painful I fear I’ll have to retire and claim incapacity benefit while I wait to draw my pension. This benefit is probably more than my state pension anyway, but I suppose the Government hasn’t taken that into consideration. Name and address supplied # It is bad news for those concerned that they will have to work longer to get the state pension. However, when 60 and 65 were fixed as pensionable ages in the 1920s, men tended to die at around 70 and the government liability was only for a few years. Governments have avoided increasing the pension age in line with longer lifespans because it is politically unpopular but unfortunately this adjustment will have to be made. Alan Gordon, South East London # If the state pension age is increased and more older people are forced to carry on working, where are the jobs for the young people going to come from? I feel sorry for the younger generation who are being shafted by the Tories. Mike Reid, Swindon, Wilts