OAPs work longer !

[Papaumau]

I am sure that many of us here are already aware of this but it is interesting to see it down in black and white.

The Business Insider section of my daily tabloid - The Scottish Daily Record - has reported that......"The number of people working on past the state retirement age  is set to more than double in the next decade!"

Businesses are bracing themselves for a surge in people delaying retirement.

An estimated 1.8 million are expected to work beyond the state pension age by 2019, according to insurer, Prudential. About 753,000 people are currently still in work despite being above the state pension age, which is 60 for women and 65 for men. This is being increased to 65 for both sexes by 2020.

Companies estimate that just more than six percent of their workforce will be 65 or older by 2019.

The research also found that more people in the north of the country were expected to work on past the state pension age than in the south.

Well, what do you think of that then ?

[Ivanhoe]

If it was a stage play, it would be a farce.

[Papaumau]

Yes but, doesn't that tell us that these people are mostly working, not by choice, but by necessity ?

I think that it is awful that people who have grafted all their lives have to come out of retirement to work on until they drop just because they cannot survive as pensioners.

Yes, I know that some elderly people feel that if they retire and stop working they are just going to fade away and die and even with this thought accepted I am sure that many of them - and the others - would stop working and enjoy the few years they have left if they could afford to.

As my old Irish grannie once said to me......"There are three things that are needed in order to enjoy retirement"......"Decent health, a decent pension and a bit of imagination".

Like the sides of a triangle if any one of those sides fails the whole triangle fails !

I agreed of course as my Irish grannie was a wise old lady !

[Ivanhoe]

Papaumau, I have lost count of the people, mainly younger, who have said to me ove the ears, and  quote,-

""Pensioners should have saved more, they should not have to rely on the taxpayer to bail them out with higher state pensions, they get more than I do on benefits".  Unquote.

What do you say to that ?

[Papaumau]

I say to that.....

"Who are the taxpayers" ?

I answer that by saying that it has been the people who are now hoping for a decent retirement that HAVE - and still are - paying those taxes all of their working lives.

The ones that are responsible for setting the state pension are either in a couldn't-care-less situation or they are rich enough that they won't need to worry about whether they can afford to live above the poverty line when they reach that age.

It is all fine and good to say that we should all make provision for our retirement years by investing in a private pension but even if we could afford to do this off a minimum-wage - which most of the lower-paid can not - who is to say that  - as has already happened - many of these private pensions paid into over the working years are now worth next to nothing because of the incompetence of the reckless money-managers that were supposed to look after such investments.

[Ivanhoe]

Papaumau, I agree, But what they add is this,-

"They should have made saving up a priority, instead of wasting their money on booze and fags"

And these comments have come from the young, and the richer pensioners.

[Papaumau]

It is a well known phenomenon that people with very little money feel the need to spend it on wasteful things like smoking, drinking, gambling and drugtaking and this phenomenon is actually exacerbated by the fact that they are skint to start with.

People who are stuck in this demographic try very hard not to look as if they are poor by overtly spending money where they should not. This is to show the rest of us that they are NOT poor.

This is a downward spiral that gets many of them into the clutches of loan sharks which in turn makes everything even worse.

[Ivanhoe]

Papaumau, Spot on.

But then the young know it all dont they, and richer pensioners are still living in the days of the empire when it was accepted  to "look down on your peers".

[Papaumau]

Papaumau, Spot on.

But then the young know it all dont they, and richer pensioners are still living in the days of the empire when it was accepted  to "look down on your peers".

While that may be true to some extent about the smartass youngsters, I have found that it is a dangerous thing to do to stereotype any group of people as humans have a habit of doing things differently if they are given the chance.

I will admit - to a degree - to having a go at the rich in our society as they are the ones that find it hard to understand what it is like at the bottom of the barrel and they are in the situation to be able to look after themselves while the poor are not.

Having said that, I am also sure that not all of them will "look down their noses" at the people below.

I would like to think that I am one of those "advantaged" people and yet I try my hardest to fight for the ones that are not stong enough to fight for themselves.

[Ivanhoe]

Papaumau, I applaud you for those sentiments.