UK Pensions

[Dottie1943]

OldTimer

If its tax deductible and helps them, all of them!

[Papaumau]

Dottie....

While you are right that if the rich give to charity it is tax-deductable but it is also true that some of the money that IS given to charity by the rich cannot be laid against tax. In other words they still have to - if they do it at all - give some of their riches to charity in order to get some of it laid against their tax bill.

Real philanthropists put something like a third to a half of their riches, ( Bill Gates is my example here ), into charitable investment trusts so that the interest that is earned by these funds can keep paying for the charity that is close to their individual hearts.

Sadly there are not nearly enough such philanthropists in the richest parts of our societies as most of them - instead of showing their wealth so that it can be properly measured and be laid against tax -  instead HIDE IT in offshore accounts so that nobody in their society - and especially the tax-man - know how much they are actually worth.

Yes, I am singing the same song again, but this is the greatest crime that is committed against any society in the modern world.   

[Angelo]

Today the trade unions took the government to high court to make them use the RPI rather than the CPI as a measure to keep pensions in line with cost of living. The judges (bless them?) agreed that the government were using this to decrease the deficit. But decided not to rule in favour of the TUs. Hardly surprising considering that they are establishment appointees.
The decision affects pensions of all kinds, present and  future. So ask what the trade unions do for you, here it is ! They have leave to appeal, and are going to. If that fails they have the European courts, a much less biased organisation.

[Papaumau]

This is an interesting one Angelo as if you remember, the pensions in Britain - especially the old-age pensions - used to be increased each year using the average income as a guide. Now, and after they have reduced this to using the RPI index to set the rate they are pulling another fast one by now using the CPI index with which to set such pension-rates.

The result over the years is that pensions have become worth less and less against the cost of living and this - if for no other reason - has driven the people who receive such pensions into abject poverty.

Is it any surprise that the unions are angry about this as if "they" - the government - are allowed to keep doing this we are just going to get poorer and poorer and are eventually all going to find ourselves in desperation and dying of hunger and cold .

It's just not right and there are no two ways about it ! 

[Angelo]

Yes indeed Papa,I think they said the loss to the adverage pensioner over the period was close on 40 K. Not an insignificant sum !
I urge you to watch Nick Robinsons recent programe, what an insight in to who keeps their money and who has to pay.

[Papaumau]

Curious you should suggest that Angelo, as I have already watched the first episode of this programme entitled...."Your money and how they spend it" on the TV.

Here is the addy for the first one:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15843746

And here is the addy for the introduction to the second one:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15970303

I was very pleased about how he - Nick Robinson - highlighted just how much the politicos are afraid of us and our "grey power".

Incidentally...if any of you missed this first programme, both of them can be watched on the attached BBC i-player

[Angelo]

Yes great programs, they need to be seen, even the thickest of us like me can understand them! I like in particular the graphic he has used in prog 2. To explain who pays what. And of course you can bet that the figures he uses are as accurate as you are going to get from anywhere.

[Papaumau]

Yes mate, I think you are right !

I also think that another programme that started last night is one that we oldsters should watch closely as it is narrated by the very clever Robert Peston of the BBC.

It is called:The party's over: How the West went bust !

IT is in two parts - I think - and if any of you missed the first episode you can watch it HERE on the BBC i-player.

[xetog]

I recorded it and have just played it back.  Robert Peston -ugh!  he has the most soporific voice on TV, I was asleep within 10 minutes.  He said nothing new, most of us have known this for years.  I remember saying to friends in the 'states that their economy was being taken over by the Chinese some a decade ago.  I personally got myself out of all debt, although I hate to think what is going to happen to my savings.  I did rewind the disc and saw it through again, but could not fathom why all these clever talking heads, no doubt earning vast sums, couldn't forsee the outcome when a financial do-brain like me could see the blindingly bloody obvious.

The number of huge Chinese warehouses selling everything from lightbulbs to evening dresses in Spain has to be seen to be believed.  When we bought our pad there 7 years ago there was one small Chinese outlet in the next village, now there are at least 8 within 3 miles and  four of them are huge places the size of supermarkets over here.  And the quality isn't bad either.  Gone are the days of trash and in has come reasonable quality.

We are DOOOMED!!

M.

[Angelo]

There were plenty of people saying this was going to happen, but no one was listening, too busy making hay while the sun shone! Amoungst them Mr Cable and the europeans incidently. Thats why they wern't worried about us not coming into the Euro. My European tribe were always complaining the GB was far too expensive.

[Papaumau]

Yes guys, while to some, what happened around 2008 was no surprise I don't think that many of us were able to see the big picture.

Even if you don't like Peston's "soporific", ( good word BTW ), voice, Xetog, I think that via that programme he has brought all of the threads together so that ordinary people like us could be made to understand JUST what has been going on in our names. ( The second part looks to be even more entertaining ).

The fact that we have all been living on money that we did not make in the West and that we stopped saving our money and that our goods became too expensive to export, while the countries like India and China were making goods - for export to us - at prices that we simply could not compete with..... and that they had held on to the savings ethic, making the borrowing of money from them very easy and cheap too meant that that circle could just not be squared and in the long term that crash just HAD TO happen.

What surprises me about this inevitable consequence was that the money-makers and the speculators did not know that this was going to be the eventual outcome, either that or they DID know and they didn't give a damn as they were making too much money at the time.

Resisting harping on about Thatcher again....but.... Peston made it clear that Thatcher and Regan started this rot by removing the controls on what was done with top-level money so that - as they thought - the markets, ( especially the money-markets ), then could do what they want without regulation.

Now we are all suffering as a direct result of this laxity in control and with hindsight we are expecting these profligate and greedy and reckless chancers to still apply some self-regulation in order to ensure that the situation does not arise again.

( Sorry folks if you thought that that was "too long" but I could not say it in any other way ).

[Angelo]

As always spot on Papa, at least Peston doesn't go in for Hyperbole ?
Oh I think they knew exactly what they were doing the speculators and bankers, to them its just a game. At our expence.

What was it the lady said, let the free market take control, now see what we've got !

[Papaumau]

Yes Angelo, I think that anyone who thought that making that much money by that few people over such a short time via self-regulation was a safe thing to do, must have been totally mad.