Retirement

[ahinton]

Yes. And not only is it a cornerstone of income , but it is an important part of our national life,something we should cherish, invest in, be proud of, improve.

What kind of "cornerstone" is an income amount like that to those whose only income source it is? However, you do mention that it's something that we should "invest in" it and that's what's never yet happened; it might well "improve" if some way is found to "improve" it, but there's no "investing" without funds and, for example, the people in your workplace of whom you write who are on salaries below even the national average will indeed be in no position to do that., so you're quite correct when noting that "paying in extra voluntary contributions for most younger employees is probably a complete non starter". Indeed, it's partly for those reasons that some people cynically say that "working indefinitely is the new retirement"...

[teamsaint]

The state pension is vital. It needs improving, not to be allowed to shrivel away, or consigned to history.
This is still a wealthy country that can afford to fund the things that most of us want our government to do.

If we need to find extra money,then we need to do that by consent, and also from those with the deepest pockets. Income and wealth inequality have deepened sharply,and that can be addressed through progressive and simplified taxes, amongst other things. It really isn't beyond us.Making and buying nuclear weapons is probably much more difficult.

[ahinton]

The state pension is vital. It needs improving, not to be allowed to shrivel away, or consigned to history.
This is still a wealthy country that can afford to fund the things that most of us want our government to do.

If we need to find extra money,then we need to do that by consent, and also from those with the deepest pockets. Income and wealth inequality have deepened sharply,and that can be addressed through progressive and simplified taxes, amongst other things. It really isn't beyond us.Making and buying nuclear weapons is probably much more difficult.

Were UK to become sufficiently serious about this as to persuade those in charge of it no longer to allocate so much money to weapons of all kinds and to make sweeping cuts to its "defence" budget (as well as simplifying / harmonising its taxation systems in order to make them much less costly to operate and with lower margins of error), there might indeed be a substantial amount of new funding for this, to most people's ultimate benefit (or do I mean "pension"?!); I do agree that successive governments in UK have shown insufficient interest in fundamentally reorganising their spending plans to such ends.

[Serial_Apologist]

As teamsaint and others have pointed out, taxation on those on higher incomes and not spending on socially wasteful projects such as HS2 and foreign nationalised industries control and repatriation to them of profits from energy and service providers provides a temporary solution to the problem of an inadequate state pension, or retirement benefit system, whichever term people prefer.

But for sustainability there has to be a long-term solution to the problems endemic to the economic system underpinning all these problems in the first place, which leach ever-needed monies into the casino sector enjoyed by the toppermost income sector whose benefits to the rest in the shape of pension schemes depend on the vagaries of market mood, speculation and the scarcity artificially resulting from periodic overproduction, none of which affect the richest who've spirited their wealth abroad or in property. While the latter is depended upon by people who in the end act as apologists for the economic status quo, temporary solutions will be little more than sticking plasters, and the ruling class's means of mass disinformation dissemination, the mass media, used to divide and rule.

The only effective long-term solution to progressive impoverishment and the destruction of hope in a better future lies in a plan of investment in socially and environmentally sustainable production, geared in the first instance to meeting and protecting primary needs; one which by vigilance and democratic controls exercised if necessary through new organs of state power at local and national levels obviates the malignant workings of stock and money exchanges aforementioned, so that a place such as London no longer need vest its international reputation thereon, let alone the system's perennial need for excluded categories of people who can be blamed for its endemic failures. For this to happen it will be insufficient just to take control out of the hands of line managements, people at the intermediary power level who are just doing their masters' biddings. Local digital economies are starting up around the place already, if this lunchtime's report on one being established in Hackney is anything to go by!

[Lat-Literal]

As teamsaint and others have pointed out, taxation on those on higher incomes and not spending on socially wasteful projects such as HS2 and foreign nationalised industries control and repatriation to them of profits from energy and service providers provides a temporary solution to the problem of an inadequate state pension, or retirement benefit system, whichever term people prefer.

But for sustainability there has to be a long-term solution to the problems endemic to the economic system underpinning all these problems in the first place, which leach ever-needed monies into the casino sector enjoyed by the toppermost income sector whose benefits to the rest in the shape of pension schemes depend on the vagaries of market mood, speculation and the scarcity artificially resulting from periodic overproduction, none of which affect the richest who've spirited their wealth abroad or in property. While the latter is depended upon by people who in the end act as apologists for the economic status quo, temporary solutions will be little more than sticking plasters, and the ruling class's means of mass disinformation dissemination, the mass media, used to divide and rule.

The only effective long-term solution to progressive impoverishment and the destruction of hope in a better future lies in a plan of investment in socially and environmentally sustainable production, geared in the first instance to meeting and protecting primary needs; one which by vigilance and democratic controls exercised if necessary through new organs of state power at local and national levels obviates the malignant workings of stock and money exchanges aforementioned, so that a place such as London no longer need vest its international reputation thereon, let alone the system's perennial need for excluded categories of people who can be blamed for its endemic failures. For this to happen it will be insufficient just to take control out of the hands of line managements, people at the intermediary power level who are just doing their masters' biddings. Local digital economies are starting up around the place already, if this lunchtime's report on one being established in Hackney is anything to go by!

That's the political theory. Now for a few home truths. I am the sort of person who believed into my fifties that my very survival depended on the emotional support of my parents, whatever lifestyle I lived by necessity. That turned out not to be the case. But I can see why I thought in that way. Their attitudes suited me. The organised dependability. The humour in the case of my father. The driven practicalities and romantic, very feeling, worldview of my mother. I never found anyone remotely better for me and I never will do. My mother's risky double heart bypass last year took years off me. It seemed to be the killer after enforced unemployment and it certainly contributed. But she and we were lucky. She pulled through and for a year fought back to do what physically she had always done. Be thirty. In parallel, the shock contributed to my father's loss of words. If he loses any more words, his average sentence will be "You know, I thing thing about that thing". She can't handle it - she blames the fact that he turned everything upside down in earlier age possibly to be humourous from his egg in the egg cup to deliberately pronouncing the place "Detling" as "Delting" and the one she never saw, pretending to be me by copying everything I did and calling it his own.

When I reached senior school, he joined one of their evening classes. As soon as I smoked, he started to smoke. After I grew a beard he grew a beard. Before I went to football he went to football as the "son" of stockbrokers who took him to football. Then they asked him about his son. Do you think you could take him there once on your own? Indeed he could. Once. Well, one survives it. He was a funny man. On the plus side, I really loved him. He made me laugh as much as he could anger me if there was something inadvertently sinister in that mix. He had a tongue on occasions. Mostly he was mild. He didn't fleece strangers. He remained loyal. But now she has gone awol herself. Slow is not the half of it. That is very painful for someone who was used to such efficiency and deep love. It gets to the point where it is virtually dangerous in terms of one's own health. Imagine if you will the conversation earlier today about the car that has just got through it's MOT. Yes, he still drives. "How many miles do you think it has done this year?" she asks. Her answer is the epitome of madness. 56.

One feels the gutted feeling inside hit a new rock bottom and says absolutely nothing to avoid any conflict. But he is ready to argue it. "No, it's 56 million miles" he says aggressively. "Well, I don't know anymore, that isn't what you said". Some five years ago, he said to me that she said "people live too long". "What do you think?" I asked. "I don't know", he replied, "I just don't think about death. Never have done." "I do" I said. "I think about mine all the time now and don't believe I will last long." "Oh, when we were your age we just didn't think of it". Same then. Same now. He is 54. How can one say what is for the best? What is not for the best for me today may just still be best for them although it's very debatable. She was in Eastbourne with her club yesterday. Hasn't said that she enjoyed it and is at an amateur production of "West Side Story" tonight with a neighbour in her early sixties. Oh do please spend as much time, Mum, with that neighbour as you can. She doesn't get confused. She's good for you. But she doesn't hear. She's talking like some use fists then incessant coughing which has been going on for years. I hate the sound of coughing. I find it almost unbearable to hear in those who are closest to me when the behaviour could possibly be adapted.

In the meantime, he's been off for a chat in Wallington. The Nationwide when it should have been the Nat West. He's been on six buses and he still doesn't comprehend or accept the facts of what happened. They love to tell these stories. All the events of downright chaos and confusion and I try to stop them. In doing so, they absolutely drive in the features of their mental demise. It can be deeply distressing. It is utterly heartbreaking. It takes years off those who are younger. And if the person who devised the system where one retires at 59 and lives to their 90s were here, I'd give him or her a jolly good clout for the torture it inflicts. This absolute societal obsession now with increasing lifespan for ever more is a cancer and it is equal to the talk of illness the media constantly shove down our throats to ruin living. It will be great news for future generations if they only live to 70. I'm not planning on getting anywhere near that point, nor would I expect total strangers to weather it. There is only one answer. Come armageddon come. And it will do. That should really sort all situations out.

(If nothing else, this might just show to those who know they get on my wick that I could conceivably love you really but not as much as the ideal blueprint, not that you could care)

[Lat-Literal]

Come Armageddon Come:

Such an odd relationship with this song although it is good to have a relationship with any song. It starts in the late 1980s somewhere in North London and on the way to concerts where the reach towards other galaxies seemed possible. So high and not with artificial enhancements. Sure, the song was miserable but it was also as atmospheric as it was naval.

Switch on to 2014 plus and it becomes UKIP at Clacton. Grrrr. Now it seems to be Britain and the fight to deliver the outcome of the referendum. Inevitably it is now being lost to the establishment - for which read everyone other than May and Davis - but it's more important than anything to me, a person who voted tentatively to remain. I'd happily adhere to the majority vote if it meant the UK went down to the drain as I believe absolutely in the principle of one vote at one time and the majority wins. No ifs, buts, or I'm an almighty on high.

Actually, I'd gladly starve on that principle and watch everyone else starving too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0LeL9BUPtA

(Now that's what I call dogma)

[teamsaint]

Ok, so who understands the new state pension?
And the Cope rules?

After a bit of a read up,I think I do. But I’m not certain.......

Good article from Paul Lewis here.

https://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/money/retirement/pensions/paul-lewis-how-to-boost-your-state-pension

Just FWIW, and as an example, I had a Cope reduction amount of £ 6.50 when I got an NI Contributions record a couple of years ago, but I think my contributions ( any full years over the 35?) from 2016/2017 onwards, will reduce that down, eventually to zero.

Thoughts on your own experiences or knowledge ?

[Zucchini]

Good article from Paul Lewis here...

Sad times when a fine concert pianist has to take a job as a financial advisor to make ends meet ...

[teamsaint]

Sad times when a fine concert pianist has to take a job as a financial advisor to make ends meet ...

Probably had his interest piqued by having to pay both class 2 and 4.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Sad times when a fine concert pianist has to take a job as a financial advisor to make ends meet ...

He's not the only one:

https://www.grosvenortaxservices.co.uk/tax-health-check-ups

[teamsaint]

It must be to do with all those Key Facts they give you on financial quotes.......

[Serial_Apologist]

It must be to do with all those Key Facts they give you on financial quotes.......

Or, being in the black..............

[Padraig]

Or, being in the black..............

...or maybe an awareness of how the left plods along in the doldrums while the right soars to ever-dizzying heights

[Serial_Apologist]

...or maybe an awareness of how the left plods along in the doldrums while the right soars to ever-dizzying heights

Known in jazz as a walking bass line.

[ardcarp]

There are so many posts, I haven't read them all, but the government now refers what we used to call the State Retirement Pension as a 'benefit'. I object to this strongly because the word 'benefit' implies some sort of goodwill handout rather than something which is yours by right (and by contribution). However the weasel word 'benefit' is now used by HMG to avoid paying out some actual benefits. We have an example rather close to home where a grandparent was full-time carer for a seriously ill and parentless child. On applying for a carer's allowance, the reply came along the lines of:

We are pleased to inform you that you qualify for a Carer's Allowance
Amount you will receive £0.00
Reason. You are already in receipt of State Retirement Benefit.

Incidentally, if anyone finds him or herself in a similar situation there is a benefit, well buried in HMRC's website, called a Guardian's Allowance. It's not very big but worth applying for.

https://www.gov.uk/guardians-allowance