Are old people bleeding the country dry?

[Speccy24]

I wonder when you get older in life ,would you still hold this point of view about old people sucking the country dry..I doubt it ... leave them alone they deserve a decent life in the few years left for them on this earth...

 

Totally agree with you.

 

We should care and look out for old people. I am sure we would expect the same when we get old. I think some people forget old age comes to all, no matter how much plastic surgery they have

 

xx

[retrogo]

Where's Ladondole when you need a sarcastic comment?

 

Must have a dodgy internet connection at the skeggy caravan?

[Bassman62]

And pensioners today didnt have it easy when they were young, None of this health and safety rubbish, My grandad worked on the bins, He used to carry them on his back! No wheels or wagons driving next to them, then the rationing after the war, My nan had to cut her only frock up to make a dress for my mum to wear to school, A neighbour felt sorry for her and gave her a tatty old curtain, which my nan then made a dress for herself again, they had it hard! Our (my) generation have had it easy compared to them, No baths, no central heating, No tvs, No loo roll, My great nan used a old book for weeks as loo roll ( different pages obviously ), Everything we have today that makes our lives easier and take for granted they had none of it, So to all pensioners, You have ya pittance from the goverment, Youve earned it!!

Thank you for a well balanced and accurate reply, I well remember living in Sheffield shortly after WWII getting sweets at the weekend via the ration card and all the other things associated with the so called good old days and then starting work in the late 50s and paying towards the welfare/pension of my Great Uncle who came to live with us he was born in 1878.

[Bassman62]

Many old people, even those who have rarely worked are entitled to full sate pension £137.35 per week, .

Rubbish my wife doesn't qualify because of the time she spent raising and looking after our four children instead of going out to work.

There are many many thousands like her who only find out at the last minute that there are shortfalls in their contributions and are asked to pay £hundreds to get anothe fiver or so a week.

[Green Web]

It's Green Web hanging on to a respect issue. He's saying respect should cut both ways. I asked why it should. Why do people on benefits deserve respect over anyone else. That's how I understood it. If I got the wrong end of the stick he needs to make himself clearer.

 

It's quite simple you respect everyone, young people on benefits are not sub-human.

[Green Web]

Rubbish my wife doesn't qualify because of the time she spent raising and looking after our four children instead of going out to work.

There are many many thousands like her who only find out at the last minute that there are shortfalls in their contributions and are asked to pay £hundreds to get anothe fiver or so a week.

 

i said 'many' this doesn't all, it's actually those whom didn't get a private pension or a mortgage that benefit the most.

[Green Web]

As i predicted there is too many people ranting without actually reading what I made perfectly clear in my original post.

 

"now before you start ranting, I'm not saying old people do not deserve this level of income and support, but compared to other age groups and immigrants they do use a lot of resources and receive a very good standard of living"

[Green Web]

I think there's quite a few Somalis in Sheffield who do the same

 

Somalians get no where near the benefits or support most old people receive.

[Iuchi_Zien]

Let's have a bit of honesty here. Worekers have never paid for their own retirement pensions. They have always paid for the pensioners currently claiming. Which was great when the ratio of workers to pensioners were high, not so much fun for those who are going to be burdened with looking after the ever increasing older population. I should imagine especially galling for the youth of today who are being slagged of by the people who's pensions they are going to have to pay. Workers over the past fifty years have had it very good indeed. If they paid into the pot what they are likely to get out of it their pension contributions would have to almost triple (Rountree's foundation). I do not begrudge pensioners a decent standard of living, I do find it difficult to see to see how they struggle to manage on an inciome higher than I've got looking after two young sprogs, who grow out of clothes faster than I can wash them. But, hey I'm not a pensioner yet. All I'd say is if yu are a pennsioner now, make the most of it because in twenty to thirty years you'll be working till you're eighty and unable to claim a pension till you're ninety!

 

PS Green Web nice thread!

[Green Web]

Thanks Iuchi, good points ^ But most old folk who never took out a private pension or bought a property realise they've got it pretty darn good compared to the youth of the today, i sympathise far more with young unemployed than your average pensioner claiming state pension.

 

Young people do more voluntary work than any other age group, work and study longer hours than previous generations and get far more flack than any age group.

 

Very few working now have over £137 a week left to solely spend on food.