Pension,s

[visa]

 Reaching retirement age a few weeks ago,my wife and i had a week in Dublin to celebrate,we were talking to a taxi driver on the way back to the airport he was saying how well off the Irish are on retirement,,if i remember correctly,the normal figure on reaching retirement was 220euro,s/week,plus very low tax rates and if your in rented accommodation a nominal fee is standard.The Irish seem to have a great respect for retired people,,which is the opposite to this country.Compare Ireland to Britain,,not forgetting that the Britiain is not as great as it was,it seems to me that this country is only good for giving our tax,s away at the drop of a hat from Brussels what ever shower is in control.Looking at pension,s throughout the richest country,s in Europe and we are at the near bottom of the pile as regards pension,s!!!

[Hugh]

Reaching retirement age a few weeks ago,my wife and i had a week in Dublin to celebrate,we were talking to a taxi driver on the way back to the airport he was saying how well off the Irish are on retirement,,if i remember correctly,the normal figure on reaching retirement was 220euro,s/week,plus very low tax rates and if your in rented accommodation a nominal fee is standard.The Irish seem to have a great respect for retired people,,which is the opposite to this country.Compare Ireland to Britain,,not forgetting that the Britiain is not as great as it was,it seems to me that this country is only good for giving our tax,s away at the drop of a hat from Brussels what ever shower is in control.Looking at pension,s throughout the richest country,s in Europe and we are at the near bottom of the pile as regards pension,s!!!

!3 years of Blair & Brown giving away our money , fighting two wars creating thousands of public service jobs to keep unemployment figure low. giving large amounts of money to registered drug users and drinkers. There is nothing left in the pot for us pensioners. But still Blair's OK he's now a multi millionair we are now going to be even worse off trying to sort out the countries mess.

[Ivanhoe]

Another load of gibberish from the right hon Hugh.

Means testing UK pensioners is costing excessivelly more than the restoration of the earnings link would cost, I believe the amount is 15 times more of tax payers money to administer the means test, wheras it would be vastly cheaper to bring in a higher and universiasl basic State pension of at least "£200 a week for all UK pensioners, but this will never happen in general.

We give aid to around 90 countries worldwide.  We have a Nationial Insurance "surplus" around £45 billion, and we fight foreign wars, so nobody is going to tell me that the elderly have to exist on a pittance because we as a nation are broke, because we arent broke, we are a rich country.

South Ireland is part of Europe, Nortrhern Island is under the UK parliament.

European pensioners have received much higher State pensions for decades, wheras the UK state pension having the link with earnings cut by Thatcher in 1980,  has been in decline for decades.

[Ivanhoe]

Reaching retirement age a few weeks ago,my wife and i had a week in Dublin to celebrate,we were talking to a taxi driver on the way back to the airport he was saying how well off the Irish are on retirement,,if i remember correctly,the normal figure on reaching retirement was 220euro,s/week,plus very low tax rates and if your in rented accommodation a nominal fee is standard.The Irish seem to have a great respect for retired people,,which is the opposite to this country.Compare Ireland to Britain,,not forgetting that the Britiain is not as great as it was,it seems to me that this country is only good for giving our tax,s away at the drop of a hat from Brussels what ever shower is in control.Looking at pension,s throughout the richest country,s in Europe and we are at the near bottom of the pile as regards pension,s!!!

There is no shortage of money in Britain, our problem is we have been run by right wing government's since the 80's, and the right wing dont believe in the role of the State, hence the deliberate decline in the State pension.

[Hugh]

And a load more POLITICAL RAMBLING from you Ivanhoe.

[Ivanhoe]

And a load more POLITICAL RAMBLING from you Ivanhoe.

But of course you would say that.  Trouble is its fact.

[avalonmpk]

Ivanhoe earn and spend your own money I don't owe you a living all you do is winge thank goodness you don't live down here! We subsidise the north all we get from you is the idiots who come here on holiday over indulge and put a starin on our facilities Pay for your own.

[Papaumau]

Hi "Visa".....

To get back to your threadstart:

Yes, it is true that the British pensioners have the lowest level of state pension and the pro-rata highest taxes in developed Europe - including the Irish Republic.

As far as "Europe" is concerned...If we just took a leaf from their book we would have a much higher state pension than we have at the moment. Europe or the EU is not to blame for how OUR government pays it's pensioners.

The pensioners of Britain have been getting ripped off by many shades of government since the end of the second world war so it would be churlish to just blame one political group in particular.

For the information of all who care, here is a graph on how we stand in modern Europe:



( Thanks for the image Ivanhoe ).

[Ivanhoe]

Papaumau, My pleasure.

[Hugh]

Ivanhoe earn and spend your own money I don't owe you a living all you do is winge thank goodness you don't live down here! We subsidise the north all we get from you is the idiots who come here on holiday over indulge and put a starin on our facilities Pay for your own.

Alalonmpk PM sent

[Ivanhoe]

//////Pay for your own.//////

Pay for your own, what ?

[visa]

Hi Papaumau,
                     Our position in Europe does is not suprising at all,we are at the bottom of the barrel on most financial fronts,Britain has gone down the pan over the last 20 years or so,in my oppinion we have had the best years.
I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth,i earned and worked my way to retirement,and not sat at the back of a desk lying on someone elses back.The quote from avalonmpk on (September 20th)sounds like us lot up North owe you lot down south for our meer existance.You dont subsidise the North at all,we dont winge,we might have a bit of a moan,
have you not heard of the North South divide.Rather toungue in cheek oppinion,or is it,,,i,m all right Jack..

[Papaumau]

Sadly Visa, while living in Scotland I too feel the pain of the North/South divide just as much as the people who live to the North of Watford Gap.

This divide has always put us at each-other's throats even if - if we stop to think about it - we all live in the UK.

There is no doubt that over the years the South East has had the lion's share of government support and because of this, this is where most of the best-paid jobs are and where the lion's portion of the money in this country is controlled from.

The hoary old argument about the South subsidising the North is valueless as firstly, the Barnett Commission set what it thought was a correct amount of money to return to Scotland from the UK taxes and in modern times we have the Calman Commission AGAIN looking into this subject.

For those that don't just blindly support this ongoing lie, please read THIS and then they will know the full story.

[Hugh]

There is no shortage of money in Britain, our problem is we have been run by right wing government's since the 80's, and the right wing dont believe in the role of the State, hence the deliberate decline in the State pension.
[/quote]

Just why have we just paid £4billion on interest on the countries lone??

[visa]

We can post our thought,s on pensions between ourselves until the cows come home,the main argument  is, when are we going to come into line with the rest of Europe!!!The benefits that the rich European countries get are far in front of the UK,i dont care who we point our fingers at they all crap in the same pot.The money is their in the pot which wev,e all contributed to,it,s down to the selfish lot down LONDON who distribute our money to whom  they think fit,but i,m sorry  we dont fit into that catagory.The pledges that  our politicians vomit is beyond belief,anybody in the world can have our cash but the people in the UK who really need it.How this government,in fact the last shower as well, somehow manage to magic money from nowhere when someone at Brussell,s drop,s a hat that so and so country needs £90million,,the reply comes from the head of government,,"No Problem".They must firmly believe that all the country has their heads buried deep in the sand.