Author Topic: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?  (Read 3524 times)

Papaumau

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1674
WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« on: Nov 07, 2009, 12:43:29 PM »
I am sure that all of you that are pensioners - or near to becoming pensioners - are considering the expense that will be coming during this imminent "festive season". With this in mind I was wondering if many of you will be thinking that you can manage to do what you would like to do insofar as servicing the needs of your children and grandchildren - maybe even great grandchildren - at this time.

Christmas should be a time of rejoicing at the celebration of the birth of Jesus and a time for the children to look excitedly forward to a visit from Santa on the night of Christmas eve but to those of us that are struggling to pay for decent food, decent warmth and a secure roof over our heads this wonderful time will be diminished by poverty.

It is sites like this one and my own that should be fighting tooth and claw to ensure that the pensioners of Britain at last get a fair deal and if we cannot get as good a deal as the Europeans get as far as state pension payments are concerned then at least we should not be targetted for ever more and more tax in our so-called twilight years.

We need to let any and all politicians from all parties know that we have had enough and that we feel that it is time that our "demographic" ( yes, I like that word ), get a fair crack of the whip at last.

Together we have a powerful vote and they know that together we can make em or break em as we wish.

Don't you agree ?

If you do agree, then what do YOU think we should do about this situation ?
Regards....

Papaumau.



Edna

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 32
Re: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« Reply #1 on: Nov 07, 2009, 03:07:39 PM »
I shall be staying with my son and daughter in law in Tenerife.

I do wish you and Ivanhoe would stop making out that all us pensioners are living on the breadline.

Papaumau

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1674
Re: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« Reply #2 on: Nov 08, 2009, 01:45:11 PM »
Hi Edna.....Please don't connect separate personalities here as this defeats the whole idea of open discussion on any forum like this. Just because Ivanhoe and I see eye to eye on some subjects - or not - does not mean that I should join the baying throng by leaping at his throat like the rest do. I have never been impressed by the actions of any kind of mob-mentality and for this reason I give EVERYBODY, including you, a hearing.

NOW....Just because I refer to the "poverty-stricken" pensioners of Britain does not mean that I am one of them; in fact I am quite well off thanyou. This does NOT stop me from feeling that I - from my position of strength - should not try to support the ones that ARE struggling.

I am in fact sure that more than two thirds of the pensioners in this country are wondering where their next meal or there next rental payment or their next council-tax payment or their next energy-bill payment is going to come from.

Just because you are lucky enough to be able to spend Christmas with your relatives in Tenerife does not mean that you or I should not fight for the ones that cannot even start to think about finding the money for such a trip.

I am NOT Ivanhoe, I am Papaumau !

Please remember this !
Regards....

Papaumau.



Hells Granny

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 156
Re: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« Reply #3 on: Nov 09, 2009, 06:14:32 PM »
Hi Edna,

More than a few of us Are living on the breadline, and would love to be able to escape to Tenerife or somewhere similar.

I envy you.

Cheers, HG
What do you mean, my Birth Certificate has expired?!

John

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 693
Re: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« Reply #4 on: Nov 21, 2009, 02:43:32 AM »
From studies that are made outside this government, that find it extremely difficult to present the real picture on any matter.

About 25 percent of pensioners are on the breadline. That does leave 75 percent who live life above it.

You can be in full time work in the UK and live on the breadline.

So enjoy your time with many others in Tenerife.

I would rather see no-one living genuinely living on the breadline in the UK.

Papaumau

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1674
Re: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« Reply #5 on: Nov 21, 2009, 12:27:20 PM »
I personally see that "25%" as only the tip of the iceberg !

The government don't want us to know exactly how many pensioners are "on the bread-line" but it is really quite easy to work out for ourselves.

If we do not have a private income of decent proportions over and above our state pension then EVERYBODY that is receiving a state pension IS on the bread-line. I do not think that many of the pensioners out there are in this happy situation.

To find out more of the truth just look at these two links:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2004/jun/24/socialexclusion.business

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2105770/Number-of-pensioners-in-poverty-rises-for-first-time-in-decade.html
Regards....

Papaumau.



John

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 693
Re: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« Reply #6 on: Nov 22, 2009, 03:29:14 AM »
These newspaper reports do not indicate figures above 25%.

The basic State Pension should be higher, particularly against
levels of Taxation and National Insurance (a further Tax).

But again if they were higher, this would lead to even more tax.
Fuelled by Brown's withdrawal of the 10 pence Tax band.

Whatever position we are in today, it will be a better one then
tomorrow. Our Gold and Taxation reserves have been wasted
away by inefficient government. Failing to see economic crisis
under its very nose...


Papaumau

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1674
Re: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« Reply #7 on: Nov 22, 2009, 11:42:36 AM »
Quote
John said:
Whatever position we are in today, it will be a better one then
tomorrow. Our Gold and Taxation reserves have been wasted
away by inefficient government. Failing to see economic crisis
under its very nose...

You don't KNOW that unless you have a crystal ball !

As I have said many times before, "it is an easy thing to do to criticise the encumbent government" but it is not so easy to see what might happen in the future with some other mob in control. All we can really do is go by their past history and remember how we felt when we booted them out last time.

It is a dead cert that the pensioners who ARE on the breadline, ( we shall just beg to differ on the numbers here ), are not going to be off that line any time soon.

The best way to fix this scandal would be to ensure that the spending powers of the low paid and the pensioners are NOT made worse by tax...ANY Tax.

Regards....

Papaumau.



John

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 693
Re: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« Reply #8 on: Nov 22, 2009, 12:10:29 PM »
Many pensioners have seen themselves better off in other economic times
and under other successive governments.

The breadline is different to people's lifestyles. Be they a pensioner or not.

The average Doctor on £100,000 per year would no doubt see £50,000 as
being on the breadline now.

Members of Parliament make do with £65,000 per year. In fact they are so touched
by that feeling, some have to cheat and lie about their expenses.

Fiddle what allowances they get to ensure that there is royal jelly and freshly
baked bread in the mouths of their relatives. Even with a communication
allowance of Tax Free £10,000 per year, many suffer great indiginty and
hardship communicating...

Papaumau

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1674
Re: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« Reply #9 on: Nov 23, 2009, 11:39:07 AM »
I am not talking about an "aspired to" standard of living here I am talking about the real thing.

I am sure that even the billionaire's out there would be looking for more if they find that their spending is outrunning their income.

When people are forced into making choices of "either/or" instead of "how much" I think that they are suffering from poverty.

An example:

If a pensioner is sitting in the cold and wondering if they might be able to save money this month by NOT buying decent food or NOT paying the rent or NOT paying the energy bills because they cannot see their way into paying ALL of them then that pensioner or lower-income person is in poverty.

That analogy is easy to see and recognise for anyone that is not trying somehow to blame the poor for being poor.
Regards....

Papaumau.



John

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 693
Re: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« Reply #10 on: Nov 23, 2009, 12:32:57 PM »
Poverty to me:

In a benefit driven society,

To forego food to make ends meet.

In a non-benefit driven society,

To forego food.

"When people are forced into making choices of "either/or" instead of "how much" I think that they are suffering from poverty."

The choice between a Rolls Royce or a Bentley?

Papaumau

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1674
Re: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« Reply #11 on: Nov 24, 2009, 11:48:32 AM »
Exactly...that is why the choices for the poor and the disadvantaged are no kind of choices at all. My old Irish grannie used to call that "Hobson's choice".

It is a damned good job we are in a "benefit-driven" society as if we were not Britain would start to look like Ethopia or Biafra or many other African states where a child dies every two minutes from poverty.

Just because the poor are forced to partake of the benefit benefits does not mean that they are necessarily to blame for their plight.

I always look at how the world or Britain - in this context - is divided when I see one third of the population controlling almost all of the wealth while the other two thirds of the population are left to scramble about on their knees fighting for what is left to them.
Regards....

Papaumau.



David G

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1741
Re: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« Reply #12 on: Dec 01, 2009, 11:42:03 AM »
Edna, and that is why some people argue that the £250 winter fuel payment should be means tested, they don't need it but just take it as it's their entitlement, there again why shouldn't they?
Am I looking forward to Christmas ? no, It's for families and I don't have close family, I will spend it in my little flat on my own. Sixteen flats in this development, and last Christmas day I walked around  the grounds and my flat appeared to be the only one with someone home.
Of course I could always go to a hotel for Christmas, but to pay the prices they ask and spend it with strangers maybe not a good idea?
Anyway Mr Cheerful would just like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year :)
Opinion. A view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Papaumau

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1674
Re: WELL, are you looking forward to Christmas ?
« Reply #13 on: Dec 01, 2009, 01:09:25 PM »
That's AWFUL David G. !

I think that many of us take it for granted that we do have family around us at this time of year and like when we take ANYTHING "for granted" we really miss it when it is gone.

I don't know the easy answer to your dilemma but I do know that the ones that care about others try to ensure that people - especially elderly people - are not left on their own at this time.

I have lost all of my grandparents and I am now one of the grandparents myself but when I was living up north the wife and I "adopted" a sweet old lady from two doors down and tried to make her life a wee bit better by ensuring that she was not too lonely. Even recently I used to have an elderly lady - an ex school-teacher and a right character - staying next door but she has now gone into care. We still see her now and again.

All I can say to you is to make sure that your neighbours know you are there and that you are on your own without seeming like a bit of a pest and you may find that they will voluntarily be interested in you.

Good luck to you too and I hope that you have as good a Christmas and New Year as you can.

( Remember, a "stranger" is only a person that you still have to get to know ! ).
Regards....

Papaumau.