Seems that’s the latest ‘imaginative’ idea to floated by a member of the house of lords. Apparently

Retired people should be encouraged to do community work such as caring for the “very old” or face losing some of their pension, a peer has suggested.

Lord Bichard, a former benefits chief, said “imaginative” ideas were needed to meet the cost of an ageing society.

And although such a move might be controversial, it would stop older people being a “burden on the state”.

from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20044862

I know we’ve got a pensions funding issue, especially state pensions for people without a private pension but surely the pension is in essence there to support you when you’re too old to be economically productive. Once you’re on the pension you’re out of the labour market. Maybe raising the retirement age in line with life expectancy / average ability to work would be a better way forward rather than making people eligible for the pension feel like scroungers.

We’ve got lots of problems to solve but maybe we could do with some more common sense / facing up to realities and less ‘imaginitive’ ideas. If the state can’t / won’t fund pensions as we’d like they should at least be honest, not give with one hand and then take back with the other.

I wonder how large Lord Bichard’s pension is?

but maybe we could do with some more common sense / facing up to realities and less ‘imaginitive’ ideas. If the state can’t / won’t fund pensions as we’d like they should at least be honest, not give with one hand and then take back with the other.

I suspect those of us under 55 are all going to be working til we drop anyway. The whole concept of pensions and retirement will be steadily eroded until its just considered as something they used to do in the olden days. But which politician is going to actually come out and say that?!

I certainly look at my parents generation, and wonder if they truly realise they’re as close to ‘living the dream’, retirement-wise, as its ever been/going to be. Its all downhill from here. And I speak as someone with two pension plans, who could sit and weep when I get my statements, and see what its predicted to provide me with in retirement. About the same income as doing a paper round. Abject poverty here we come! Woohoooooooooo! 🙁

Heres a radical suggestion instead of old people working for their pensions how about working age people working for their benefits and let the retired have some peace – maybe put them in the house of lords maybe we’ll get some sence out of there then or better still lord dickhead or what ever he’s called could lead the way god knows its likely to be the first work he’s ever done g

Binners, you’re right. I can’t see myself ever drawing my pension either. The interesting thing will be what happens when the “grey vote” becomes the dominant politcial force. When pensioners (in the literal sense) get to decide how and where the money is spent, then we’re going to be in even bigger trouble than we are now!

The future for the current generation of mid-twenties to mid-forties is a pretty bleak place…

I have a great idea, why not take money from all those fat cat a-holes who live in million pound houses and put the money into something, oh let’s call it a decent state pension for everyone who has worked their whole lives.

The time is getting closer to when the people really need to take control of the country.

I am currently working for a major provider of pensions. On my first day one of the guys who builds and designs pension illustration (prediction) systems said to me:

It is common knowledge [in the industry]that the state pension is the biggest ponzy scheme of all time, private pensions aren’t far behind.

We will all be battery OAP’s one day. 😐

The interesting thing will be what happens when the “grey vote” becomes the dominant politcial force.

I think we’re already there fella. To a certain degree at least.

The government cuts haven’t had any impact on pensioners at all. Winter Fuel Allowence, Free TV licenses/Bus Passes etc have remained resolutely off the table, while everything else is cut to the bone. Lets be honest, if you’re 15-30 at the moment, its absolute open season on you

No politician would dare upset pensioners, as they all get out there and vote!

. Lets be honest, if you’re 15-30 at the moment, its absolute open season on you

Eh try 15-65, in what way do you think 31 year old+ is having a free ride?

Steve – What I’m saying is that the younger you are, the harder you’re being hit right now. Want an education? That’ll be 9 grand a year please? Want a job? Tough. There aren’t any? Want housing benefit? Jobseekers as you can’t get a job? **** right off!!!

Be honest: would you fancy being a school leaver now? See the situation improving any time soon?

To be fair, he’s not exactly been idle since he retired

The 65-year-old crossbench peer, who has taken on a number of roles including the vice presidency of the Local Government Association and the chairmanship of a national after-school film club since retiring from the civil service in 2001

So he is practicing what he preaches.

No politician would dare upset pensioners, as they all get out there and vote!

The problem is that as the current band of pensioners die off fewer & fewer of the replacements will be regular voters (look at the decline in voting over the past decade) so the impact they have as time goes on will reduce.

Oh god, that’s soooo depressing…….

Steve – What I’m saying is that the younger you are, the harder you’re being hit right now. Want an education? That’ll be 9 grand a year please?

Be honest: would you fancy being a school leaver now? See the situation improving any time soon?.

Too many people going to uni for too few jobs not enough emphasis on the “trades”
The 9 grand bit is just a small part of the costs. Housing, living and course costs can be crippling. If my son had gone to uni there is no way we could have afforded to send his sister. As it is he opted for an apprenticeship in engineering. He has since been fortunate to use the skills learnt to transfer into civil eng and obtained a degree payed for by his employer. He is off to Newcastleton sometime this week to look at designing a bridge over a river to give access to the 7Stanes trail 😆

At my work we have a number of over 65s who are staying on for as long as they can. We have a number of apprentices coming through looking to be employed. They will only be employed if there are vacancies when their time is complete. Major flaw in the idea of us oldies working till we drop don’t you think ❓ 💡

On the issue of the old looking after the older my Dad has been retired for 20 yrs, 10 of which he has cared for my Mother. Having to agree to her going into a care home nearly broke him but it was for the sake of his own health as much asMothers that he was persuaded to let go. He has now had a review of his medication and has had a lot of it removed and his health other than his arthritis is much improved.

Not sure. There is a one size fits all cure for our problems

Given the news we saw last night I may be joining the big unemployed crowd soon 🙁

I think he has the right idea. The idea of retiring and sitting on your arse/tending a small garden is already outmoded and has no appeal to me. I want to work until I drop, or at least be contributing to society in some way (I’m 39), and I’m very proud of that.
I loathe the old fashioned idea of downing tools at some arbitrary age because you’ve somehow earned it.

Lord Bichard retired with his “gold-plated” Civil Service pension in 2001, at the age of 54. Since retiring, he’s done loads of “work”.

To be fair, he’s not exactly been idle since he retired

He retired at 55!

EDIT – beaten to it

I’ve already lost 1/2 of my pension when my US employer folded leaving the UK pension fund with a billion dollar hole:

“The UK Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is unlikely to have access all of the funds needed to plug a massive £2.1bn (€2.5bn) deficit in the Nortel Networks UK Pension Plan following a recent US court ruling.”

So, I’m not expecting a rosy retirement…..

Personally I’m resigned to working to at least 70 (assuming I’ve still got a job at this point). I’ve got multiple pensions from different employers, all worth peanuts despite reasonable contributions from myself and my employers(with Binners on this). I’m early 40’s and ought to at least retire with some assets and savings, I think I’ll be one of the lucky ones which doesn’t say much for those that aren’t so lucky.

A few have alluded to it above but we really need to politicians to be honest about it, state pension will / is like any other benefit, it’s there to stop those that have no other income from failing through the net. I don’t fully agree with barkm’s sentiment but he guts of his statement about downing tools at a set age does now seem somewhat quaint and old fashioned. Can’t see Mr Cameroooooon owning up to that anytime soon though, or Ed Millipede for that matter.

Another compelling argument for House of Lords reform. We’re stuck with the idiot who proposed this, beyond democratic sanction or recall…

When is this Stankhovite nonsense going to end? When the unemployed and pensioners are clamouring and fighting each other for ‘voluntary’ positions in order to qualify for just about enough not to live on? And exactly what is a pensioner with multiple health issues supposed to ‘do’?

Save the badgers, cull the Lords!

if the human race doesn’t wipe itself out by the time i’m 85 then i’m sure that in 55years time the concept of pensions will all be a little bit odd, any money saved now will probably be worthless considering inflation vs interest rates.

meh, ignore pensions, save for a house, buy a house and hope the government doesnt decide that all property belongs to them at some point in my life. if retirement is still something that exists when i get to that age then i’ll go for the old drug overdose or robin hood type crime so the government has to look after me…. this is of course if assisted/suicide isn’t legal by then, which considering population growth vs resources, i’m confident it will be

I also think its not just pensioners (lack of) incomes that are going to change pretty radically in the not-too-distant future

We’ve lived for a long time with a steady, constant rise in peoples life expectancy. Glasgow excepted, obviously ;). I expect that’s going to go into reverse before too long, as the effect of future pensioners living in poverty outstrips medical advancements. Of course, as with most aspects of our wonderful society, absolutely enormous differentials will quickly develop, depending on where you live.

And we’ll look back at this time as somewhat quaint, I reckon. With people presently being coy and squeemish about discussing both rationing of medicines and treatments, and euthanasia. I think pretty soon its going to born of necessity that you can bow out yourself, when you’ve had enough. Or that in some cases that decision will even be taken out of your hands.

Blimey… I’m a right little ray of sunshine this morning. Have I out-Cressered Cressers?

No one out-Cressers the Doctor of Doom!

EEK!!!

agreed binners, gap between rich and poor widening, cost of healthcare rising and value of money lowering etc etc and so forth.

no matter though: gaffa tape, penknife, bike and a pretty face will mean you can survive anything

There is an irony here, there is massive wealth in this country, its not distributed correctly, with corporate tax evasion/avoidance now the norm, apparently its why they like it here!– things will get harder for those at the blunt end, while life for the rich seems to not vary at all– off to monaco for brekkers as usual…..

. if retirement is still something that exists when i get to that age then i’ll go for the old drug overdose or robin hood type crime so the government has to look after me…. this is of course if assisted/suicide isn’t legal compulsory by then, which considering population growth vs resources, i’m confident it will be …

fify…

and to mis-quote Ian Hislop;

all of these creative tax wheezes (phil green, starbucks, etc.) are very amusing, but it’s time to hand over the money now.

Glad a few other people think it’s about time we as a country woke up and smelled the coffee, Binners, that’s a fairly clear view of the future and I agree with Phil about property. I think in the future if you get to the point you can’t work / find work, owning your house and having no debts will be seen as having done alright, having a meaningful pension to fall back on will be a massive bonus available to a few well paid executives and the public sector (although that won’t be sustainable indefinitely as retirement prospects for everyone else get bleaker tolerance or support for good public service pensions will eveaporate and the politicians will see some easy votes to be had).

Rudebwoy, you’r technically right but you’re living in cloud cuckoo land if you think that’s going to change without a civil war (and they don’t have a history of going to well / utlimately changing things either). You could in theory redistrbute the wealth of the top 25% to 5% of the population but that’ll really hack off the people actually managing the country on a day to day basis (and remove a lot of the incentive to do the more complex and difficult jobs), the top 5% won’t let their wealth go until you prise it from their dead cold fingers and they’ll take most of us with them before that happens.

Better to die fighting than grovelling.

barkm – Member

I loathe the old fashioned idea of downing tools at some arbitrary age because you’ve somehow earned it.

Somehow, Somehow!

I have earned it, both in NI contributions and paying into my pension at £300 per month, I’m not doing that so I can work for another 20 years after 65.

of course there would be some collateral damage with a big upheaval/revolution, but the alternative is pretty bleak for most people, and they don’t inhabit/frequent this site…well not many anyhow.

I’m also a person who would rather stand and fight than grovel on their knees