OAPs not at fault over pension pot
THE claim that the present generation is paying for the previous generation’s pension is, at best, contentious. On that basis, my baby boomer generation presumably paid the pensions of my parents’ generation.
Bearing in mind the reason we’re called baby boomers and that my parents’ generation had been depleted by the Second World War, there should have been plenty of spare cash in the pension pot, except there wasn’t one.
National Insurance contributions went into the Treasury’s tax chest. None was invested. It was spent on whatever whimsy appealed to the government at the time.
It’s still down to political ideology and chosen priorities.
John Shale, Wigan, Gtr Manchester
# This is nonsense. Government has mismanaged the pension fund. Pensioners are not emptying the pot. Corporations have become too big to fail and too big to tax and are starving the Government of revenues. Can we have our democracy back?
Alan Madsen, via Facebook
# The pot has been empty for decades and it is not down to the ageing population, it is due to mismanagement. They can fill that pot easily by stopping austerity and gathering taxes off the biggest fraudsters in the country. Or why can’t the multinational corps and multimillionaires make up the rest?
Gail Ward via Facebook
# We need to pay more to get the services we want. If other northern European nations can understand that, prove that, get the services they want and save and invest money, and have a happier population, we can do it too.
We need to end the current Tory rule, they need to reform themselves, move away from their current ideology of neoliberalism that Thatcher brought in. Money, the private sector and profits above all, do not solve our problems.
At least in the short to medium term we need a radical Labour government to fix things.
Edith Burton, Cheshire
# This ageing pensioner paid into the pot for 40 years. The portion of this meant for pensions should have been invested. Most pensioners have also paid taxes for 40 years.
We are living longer and that should be celebrated – we shouldn’t be called a drain on society.
I feel sorry for the young people of today who work so hard but I and many others worked hard too.
Please don’t take away our dignity by making us feel like scroungers.
Sheila Holmes, Wallasey, Merseyside
# As a pensioner, I get a state pension and a company pension which I paid into for years. I also paid insurance contributions until I was 60. It really makes me angry to hear people blaming pensioners for the pension situation.
At 71, I don’t rely on benefits. I still pay tax, which helps others to claim benefits. The Government cannot blame us for this situation.
Sylvia Adams, Plymouth
# If pensioners paid into the pot, it is not for the Government to give it away. They have a duty to look after that generation and know how many there would be going into retirement.
Just think how many were killed during the war they would have to pay for too. If they stop paying those who haven’t paid a penny and keep sending money abroad, pensions
would be decent. June Cutayar, via Facebook