Will retirement become a thing of the past?

[Anna B]

£1 for £1

 

The 100% MDR/EMTR.

 

A.k.a. Economic suicide.

 

The reason why some are better off in benefits.

 

To paraphrase;

 

The reason why for many "Work doesn't pay".

 

And they don't even take into account travel costs and the likes.

 

Most rational people agree that 'working people should be better off than non-workers', except for those in favour of slavery.

 

Yet hardly a sole understands EMTRs!

 

Sorry but what does MDR/EMTR stand for? Not heard of it before.

[Ms Macbeth]

Sorry but what does MDR/EMTR stand for? Not heard of it before.

 

Good question. I think its to do with as earnings increase so benefits decrease, but a clear explanation would be helpful.

[gnvqsos]

Good question. I think its to do with as earnings increase so benefits decrease, but a clear explanation would be helpful.

 

I think he means it is effectively a marginal tax rate of 100pc,meaning all extra earnings are lost-sometimes described as the poverty trap.This guy s poverty is a narrowness of scope and somewhat opaque expression.

[boyfriday]

Where do the banks come into the government pension? As I understand it the money paid by today's workers goes to paying today's pensioners..not from their own "savings"

 

That's mostly right truman, the current pension and social welfare provision is pretty much 'pay as you go'. The problem isn't necessarily the recent financial debacles but the fact that when government actuaries were calculating the funding requirement for long term pensions and healthcare the UK was a very different place to what it is now. People weren't expected to live so long post retirement which has left a massive funding gap, those 'older than expected' people also place a heavier burden on the NHS because quite simply they were expected to die rather than be kept alive with modern treatments and advances in surgery.

[Ms Macbeth]

I've just watched 'The town that never retired' about a group of 70+ year olds who went back to work, and presented by Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford of 'The Apprentice'. It is suggested that in the future people may have to work into their seventies. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00tt325

 

It was always going to be obvious that the physical effort required to do a full time manual job was too much, they were slower than the younger people, and behind with stuff like IT skills and new technology. But I do think older people can work, in the right job, on a part time basis.

 

However, their people skills, work ethic and general employability put the younger people who were given the same chance, in the second part of the programme, to shame. Ruth, the 76 year old who worked as a waitress, was an inspiration! She was offered a part time job at the end of her stint.

 

Only one of the young people was offered a job, and he stood out from the beginning. What a pity they didn't grasp the opportunity to gain some work skills, but as one of them said on one of the days he bothered to turn up, the job was 'boring'. Makes you wonder what someone with no qualifications or experience expects.

[iansheff]

When you look back at the 70s NIC for 18s and over it was 87p per week if I recall correctly, (I remember they used to ask how much you paid to see if you were 18 at some clubs and pubs). It makes you wonder how that little financed the health service etc.