Baz 🇬🇧

5000 people PER DAY are signing up for ‘disability benefits’ Yet you want to yell at poor Joan who has worked for 40 odd years non stop for getting a pension that’s minimum wage and below most of Europe Get out of here

The National Living Wage is right now, £12.21 per hour. In a 35 hour week you will earn £427.35 so in a year it’s £22,222 Presumably they call it a living wage because that gives you enough to live on. A pensioner gets £10,000 less than that. Greedy blighters.

I asked grok this question: "If a UK employee started work in an average paying job 46 years ago, and retired today, still in an average paying job, and they and their employer paid NI all of the time, how much would that NI money have grown to by age 67, and what weekly pension could it buy, if it had been invested in a UK stockmarket tracker during those 46 years?" Grok's answer: Approximately £930,000 lump sum, which could buy a single-life level annuity paying roughly £1,400 per week (or around £900–£1,100 per week if inflation-linked/RPI-linked). Bear in mind that the full state pension for someone retiring today is about £230 per week. Just shows you what might be possible if employees' NI was actually invested in a pot for the future, rather than squandered by the government of the day, and if governments didn't operate on the basis of futile hopes that there will be enough NI payers 40 years from now to cover all the pensions when they are due. The right time to start a scheme like this to gradually phase out the existing Ponzi-based state pension scheme and stop being a hostage to our future demographics was decades ago, but the next best time is right now.

5000 people PER DAY are signing up for ‘disability benefits’ Yet you want to yell at poor Joan who has worked for 40 odd years non stop for getting a pension that’s minimum wage and below most of Europe Get out of here

And this is the change in the last 30 years. It's become significantly less fair over time.

The 1946 National Insurance Act was called 'the best insurance policy the British people ever had' by the Labour government at that time. It entitled pensioners to a contribution-based pension that would not be means-tested. To renege on that contract now would be one of the biggest betrayals of the British people ever.

5000 people PER DAY are signing up for ‘disability benefits’ Yet you want to yell at poor Joan who has worked for 40 odd years non stop for getting a pension that’s minimum wage and below most of Europe Get out of here

When I married in 1981 we both worked & most of our salary went on paying the mortgage as the interest rate was 15% at the time. Everything we owned was 2nd hand & we never went out for meals as we couldn’t afford to. We rented our TV Went to the launderette every weekend as had no washing machine. Only had new clothes at Xmas & birthdays as presents. We went without until we could save enough to pay for something. It’s always been hard whether you are young or old. So those out there that think we had it easy we didn’t. Our governments are to blame, not the old.

I asked grok this question: "If a UK employee started work in an average paying job 46 years ago, and retired today, still in an average paying job, and they and their employer paid NI all of the time, how much would that NI money have grown to by age 67, and what weekly pension could it buy, if it had been invested in a UK stockmarket tracker during those 46 years?" Grok's answer: Approximately £930,000 lump sum, which could buy a single-life level annuity paying roughly £1,400 per week (or around £900–£1,100 per week if inflation-linked/RPI-linked). Bear in mind that the full state pension for someone retiring today is about £230 per week. Just shows you what might be possible if employees' NI was actually invested in a pot for the future, rather than squandered by the government of the day, and if governments didn't operate on the basis of futile hopes that there will be enough NI payers 40 years from now to cover all the pensions when they are due. The right time to start a scheme like this to gradually phase out the existing Ponzi-based state pension scheme and stop being a hostage to our future demographics was decades ago, but the next best time is right now.

PSA: Pensioner Spending is the single largest line item here - *£160bn*. More than half of all benefit spending. More than NHS England, or all NHS Providers. Want to pay less tax? Reduce the benefits we give to people who’ve had an entire life to prepare and save.

I asked grok this question: "If a UK employee started work in an average paying job 46 years ago, and retired today, still in an average paying job, and they and their employer paid NI all of the time, how much would that NI money have grown to by age 67, and what weekly pension could it buy, if it had been invested in a UK stockmarket tracker during those 46 years?" Grok's answer: Approximately £930,000 lump sum, which could buy a single-life level annuity paying roughly £1,400 per week (or around £900–£1,100 per week if inflation-linked/RPI-linked). Bear in mind that the full state pension for someone retiring today is about £230 per week. Just shows you what might be possible if employees' NI was actually invested in a pot for the future, rather than squandered by the government of the day, and if governments didn't operate on the basis of futile hopes that there will be enough NI payers 40 years from now to cover all the pensions when they are due. The right time to start a scheme like this to gradually phase out the existing Ponzi-based state pension scheme and stop being a hostage to our future demographics was decades ago, but the next best time is right now.

For the retired people in the comments claiming "I paid more than my fair share". Actually, most of you didn't. You're being subsidised by me, my peers, and the children we won't be able to have.

I asked grok this question: "If a UK employee started work in an average paying job 46 years ago, and retired today, still in an average paying job, and they and their employer paid NI all of the time, how much would that NI money have grown to by age 67, and what weekly pension could it buy, if it had been invested in a UK stockmarket tracker during those 46 years?" Grok's answer: Approximately £930,000 lump sum, which could buy a single-life level annuity paying roughly £1,400 per week (or around £900–£1,100 per week if inflation-linked/RPI-linked). Bear in mind that the full state pension for someone retiring today is about £230 per week. Just shows you what might be possible if employees' NI was actually invested in a pot for the future, rather than squandered by the government of the day, and if governments didn't operate on the basis of futile hopes that there will be enough NI payers 40 years from now to cover all the pensions when they are due. The right time to start a scheme like this to gradually phase out the existing Ponzi-based state pension scheme and stop being a hostage to our future demographics was decades ago, but the next best time is right now.

No. I don’t think pensioners should have to sell their houses to retire

5000 people PER DAY are signing up for ‘disability benefits’ Yet you want to yell at poor Joan who has worked for 40 odd years non stop for getting a pension that’s minimum wage and below most of Europe Get out of here

My timeline is suddenly filled with posts along the lines of “We can easily give pensioners a better deal if we cut immigration/scrap DEI/end foreign aid/find some other footling saving.” Most of them look like bots, which raises the question: Who wants to push this narrative? Some unfriendly foreign power, presumably. For the avoidance of doubt, of course we should cut immigration, scrap DEI and end foreign aid. But that will barely make a dent in the budget. The biggest spending items are health and social security, and pensions are the biggest element of this latter. Politicians who don’t want to tackle these budgets a don’t want to cut spending. Every British party is currently failing this test.

5000 people PER DAY are signing up for ‘disability benefits’ Yet you want to yell at poor Joan who has worked for 40 odd years non stop for getting a pension that’s minimum wage and below most of Europe Get out of here

5000 people PER DAY are signing up for ‘disability benefits’ Yet you want to yell at poor Joan who has worked for 40 odd years non stop for getting a pension that’s minimum wage and below most of Europe Get out of here