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The Great Squeeze: Cost of Living Crisis 2022

"Triple Lock" pensions, being turbocharged to 10%, regardless of wealth, is a national disgrace.

Benefits should go up by 10%, as despite what you may read in the Daily Mail, they do generally help the poorest people. The poorest pensioners should also see a 10% minimum rise.

But the government have pleaded poverty to public sector workers for 12 years now. Most of these aren't rich people. They're nurses, police officers, teachers, cleaners, fire officers, paramedics etc. All paid shocking wages for what they do who have had a real terms cut year after year for over a decade. It's appalling what some of these people now get paid and I don't care about the pushback I'll get, I fully support industrial action whilst rich pensioners get their pockets stuffed with gold YET AGAIN just in order to keep them in power.

But it's ultimately the young I blame. The reason these scandals exist is because *you* don't vote. They'll happily take you tax money away and give it to rich people who have gold plated pensions and are likely to have access to cradle to grave benefits and health care because they do vote for them. Try causing an electoral upset and see what they do about you tuition fees and your future prospects?
 
I don't resent pensions going up 10% but public sector pay should also be going up by fair amounts as well, otherwise it looks suspiciously like the Tories only care about keeping their core voters sweet while the rest of the country goes to hell in a handcart...
 
Unfortunately, as long as people keep going into these professions in sufficient numbers they'll keep on squeezing the pay and benefits. It's the way of the world. If people stop going into these professions in such a way that the systems can no longer operate then they'll soon start offering better pay and benefits. It's not really the best idea to go into a profession that in recent years has shown a disregard for its staff and then complain when they treat you with disrespect. But anyway, in essence I do believe that people in most industries deserve a payrise and that the people at the top are getting greedier whilst the people on the 'shop floor' doing the actual work are getting shafted in order to justify the larger profits and paypackets of those at the top. It is indeed about time people started to really make a big deal out of it.
 
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BarryZola said:
Unfortunately, as long as people keep going into these professions in sufficient numbers they'll keep on squeezing the pay and benefits. It's the way of the world. If people stop going into these professions in such a way that the systems can no longer operate then they'll soon start offering better pay and benefits. It's not really the best idea to go into a profession that in recent years has shown a disregard for its staff and then complain when they treat you with disrespect. But anyway, in essence I do believe that people in most industries deserve a payrise and that the people at the top are getting greedier whilst the people on the 'shop floor' doing the actual work are getting shafted in order to justify the larger profits and paypackets of those at the top. It is indeed about time people started to really make a big deal out of it.
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People have stopped going into these professions, the vacancy rate in the NHS is horrific at the moment.
 
The cliché view of what constitutes a "pensioner" is a 97 year old second world war widow living in a council flat in a high rise in Hackney using a candle for light and a hot water bottle for heating.

The reality is that millionaires born as late as 1957 on gold plated final salary pension schemes, getting winter fuel payments, free TV licenses, free bus passes and driving brand new E classes will get a few extra quid from Joe taxpayer next year to spend that little bit more at Waitrose on the weekend.

This will cost billions. Billions we're told we clearly don't have. The biggest scandal of all, perhaps, is the fact that whilst this "triple Lock" will keep loaded people in riches, it'll still do very little to curb the poverty of the poorest pensioners.

Successive governments have quite literally bought votes this way for decades and the quicker the country wakes up to this scandal, the better. Even my own Grandmother, as modest as she lives, does not need this money and she's not anywhere near the riches of the people you see parked In M&S food carpark on pension day tutting away behind the pages of the Daily Express.

To top it all off, I keep hearing the absurd argument that paying low paid public sector workers a fair wage will cause higher inflation. This isn't demand led inflation, hence the bank of England has barely scratched the surface with interest rates. This notion that if you paid people on low wages enough to cover their gas bill and they'll go out and buy new cars and TV's with it is laughable. But I tell you who will - wealthy pensioners.
 
There are an awful lot of people out there...including my good lady wife...who were told (for a great number of years) they would retire at 60.
She has been paying her pension contributions for forty years with that plan in mind.
With only a few years notice, my wife now retires in another seven years, not in a couple of months.
If you are under the age of thirty, I would start planning for a retirement at seventy five at the earliest.
 
Even better, don't plan, because that way you'll be looked after by the state anyway. Didn't work enough years to get full pension? No worries, have pension credit. What's the point in bothering. Just let everyone else bail you out.
 
GaryH said:
When people say dont vote Tory, thats fine, but vote for who? Labour are a waste of time at the moment and Lib Dems have all but vanished. It would be great to have a real alternative decent party to vote for and I really hope one comes along soon.
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Agreed there is little alternative presenting itself at the moment. The Lib Dems at one time under Nick Clegg did seem to be the party of choice, but sadly he sold his sold to the Devil and made a pact with the Tories for no other reason than to further his career and to hell with who he threw under the bus on the way. (Did that work??)

To help ease the cost of living, I've been cycling to work this week (18 mile round trip, and fairly easy ride). Has been decent weather, so I guess once the storms clouds start gathering the car will come back in to play. Many forecourts now selling diesel at £2 litre or as they like to put it 199.9, with unleaded ranging between mid 180's to around 193. To think, when I started driving, I was paying that a Gallon, now paying that a litre 😥.
 
Would it be worth possibly means testing the rise in pension, as is done with benefits? Some pensioners will really benefit from it, while for others it will just be extra cash they arguably don’t need.

However, I can see why the government has gone for the blanket approach. If you went for means testing, that could generate considerable backlash among those who just miss out on it.

One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that many of the pensioners I know are also some of the most well off people I know. I know full well that there are plenty of pensioners who struggle financially, but I also know a considerable amount of pensioners who appear more financially comfortable than many working age people.

For instance; my grandparents are 66 and 69. They are both of pensionable age, and they aren’t exactly the most frugal. They often go out to eat at least once a week, my Nan often shops in M&S and Waitrose, they go on multiple holidays a year, including cruises on a semi-regular basis, and they were even debating whether to book a package holiday to India in April 2023 alongside coming to Orlando with us for 2 weeks in June 2023. Whenever I say about saving money, my nan is always very critical of this, with the attitude of “you can’t take it with you!”.

My older pensionable relatives (80+) also seem fairly comfortable. They often buy quite expensive things, and they often join my nan and grandad on cruises as well.
 
If you are of pensionable age now and weren't a complete waster or too ill to work, you should be quite well off now. If you pretty much worked full-time all your working years, paid into a pension and bought your own home the way the economy and pretty much everything worked in their favour over a long period of time they'd have to have been incredibly stupid or not forward thinking to not have landed in a very favourable position by the time they retired. And no, they're not interested in being means tested to help young people who are growing up in the worst economic climate for many decades as 'they worked all their lives so they deserve their triple lock'. It's the younger generations who will be expected to quite literally wipe their bums and clothe them in their later years too. Fortunately for them, some of the most caring people out there are those with the least income.
 
With recessions in the mid 70's, early 80's, 90's and 2008, not all of us have been lucky enough to be in constant full time employment over the decades mate.
Add in a fortune spent on post degree education, and further time away from work to attend dependent relatives, some of us who were rarely unemployed are looking at managing on means tested benefits in retirement.
Which will mean it will be pointless for me to continue working at 67, which I was planning to do, at least a few hours a week.
Very modest lump sum, and a local government pension that will most probably need topping up by the state.
That's all this gammon boomer will be getting in a few years.
 
I think the cost of living crisis is effecting everyone whether retired or in full time employment. I think steps should be taken to support everyone but I do with the idea that pensioners shouldn't just be automatically accepted to every benefit given out, many pensioners have more money then working people, it should simply be done on what you are receiving to survive, if it is clear you are struggling you should have access to support. Although I think there are some things that should be a blanket policy for everyone, like bringing down the cost of energy which should be a top priority.
 
rob666 said:
With recessions in the mid 70's, early 80's, 90's and 2008, not all of us have been lucky enough to be in constant full time employment over the decades mate.
Add in a fortune spent on post degree education, and further time away from work to attend dependent relatives, some of us who were rarely unemployed are looking at managing on means tested benefits in retirement.
Which will mean it will be pointless for me to continue working at 67, which I was planning to do, at least a few hours a week.
Very modest lump sum, and a local government pension that will most probably need topping up by the state.
That's all this gammon boomer will be getting in a few years.
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Fair point, I humbly apologise in your case. I should obviously have included people who had to care for others etc. I do however know plenty of people who lived through those years without doing any spectacular jobs and have found themselves very well off with mortgages paid off years ago and live very tidily. Just through working consistently and doing the basics that the banks told them to do like having a pension and getting a mortgage. These days you'll have to have amazing jobs or have got lucky with Crypto or something to end up with the spoils that most pensioners could be getting now without having a great job or having to gamble on the stock market.
 
One of my punters, many years retired and a very nice, decent salt of the earth bloke.
Pays more in tax than I earn in three years.
Jeez.
 
rob666 said:
There are an awful lot of people out there...including my good lady wife...who were told (for a great number of years) they would retire at 60.
She has been paying her pension contributions for forty years with that plan in mind.
With only a few years notice, my wife now retires in another seven years, not in a couple of months.
If you are under the age of thirty, I would start planning for a retirement at seventy five at the earliest.
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That’s equality for you.🤷‍♂️
 
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