Retirement (or Last of the Summer Wine)

Hello all BAD NEWS FOR EXISTING PENSIONERS. UK. I keep hearing very ill informed conversations, about the changes to the state pension that is due to start in 2016. PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY RECEIVING, OR ENTITLED TO RECEIVE THEIR STATE PENSION, ON OR BEFORE THE NEW STARTING DATE, WILL NOT RECEIVE THE NEW HIGHER FLAT RATE. I am so sorry to have to bring this issue to so many who are retired on our forum, who might be under the impression that we are all in for a windfall. The situation is not helped by the fact that MPs appear to be hiding behind this, not making this clear. The only people who will receive the new flat rate are those who are entitled to receive their pension, starting after that date. I do have my own very strong feelings about this, but our forum is not the place for that. *** I have heard this being talked about several times today, where pensioners think that they will all receive the new higher rate. *** Our government is so worried about the size of what they call the "grey vote", that this may be their politics of splitting the grey vote, but who knows!

It does seem a little sneaky, but hasn't it ever been thus. Highlight the good points and hide the bad in the small print. But at the same time let's not forget that many of the current pensioners are also able to fall back on defined benefit and final salary pensions which later generations will not have the benefit of, instead having to rely on defined contributions and 'luck of the draw' on how the economy is doing when they retire. Given the choice of having the new flat rate pension and a defined contribution pension or a final salary pension and a state pension based on contributions I'd definitely choose the latter. I think current day pensioners have a golden age - they're better looked after than their parents generation and many of the best benefits they get have been removed so their children's generations and beyond won't get the advantage of them. It seems quite odd that having declared defined benefit pension schemes unaffordable they appear to be doing the exact reverse with the state pension and taking it from a defined contribution scheme (based on how many years NI you have paid) to a defined benefit scheme. Although the thing that really gets my goat is how the government always decide to make themselves an exception to these things - they knew people would end up with less money getting rid of defined benefit so ensured they themselves weren't affected. Same with the smoking ban. The first rule of government should be if you pass a law MP's have to be the first to adopt it.

Hi Some of us are fortunate enough to have been able to make provision for our retirement with final salary company pensions, as well as the basic state pension, but the reason for my post is because I keep hearing pensioners discussing what they are going to do with their windfall, which they are not going to receive. The politics of who receives what is not my decision, but I wish that our politicians would make it clear. Following the county elections, Vince Cable stated on television news that one of the present governments great achievements was the new higher flat rate pension for everyone. The fact is, that it is not for everyone. No one during the broadcast picked him up on what he had said, because perhaps so few realise it is only going to be paid to those reaching pension age in 2016, not the millions of current pensioners.

It's very good of you to point this out to other members who are probably not as up to speed on such things as yourself, and hopefully it'll stop any potential shock to those expecting more, or worse someone spending their expecting windfall in anticipation and then realising they weren't ever going to get it. But when the changes are made it WILL be noticed. If ther's one thing that can be guaranteed it's that pensioners will complain, and they will do so very noisily. Expect the news to be filled with stories of livid pensioners complaining that they've been short changed again, and the usual slanging match by the schoolkids who never grew up in Parliament about it when the entire sorry thing could have been avoided just by making it blatantly clear what the changes are. I remember when SISU took over CCFC and said they'd invest £20m, and there were people assuming this meant a transfer fund. Despite me pointing out to them on at least a dozen occasions this wasn't the case and it involved paying off debts and infrastructure improvements even to this day some of them still insist SISU lied about spending £20m on players

Hi all, Hi AD, The problem for pensioners is that by the time that they are pensioners, it is usually too late for them to do much about the situation that they are in. That is whether good or bad. Also, for so many pensioners, who do try & make provision for their later lives, they find that they are often no better off in the end than anyone else because of the top-ups, paid to everyone else but them. In the new flat rate pension system that the government is raving about, I just wonder how long it will be before top-ups are introduced to those. I have posted a comment on our football thread about the lies & deceit there, so I will leave that there. One of the reasons that I love belonging to our forum website here is simply that most of our members tell events as they actually were, are & how they remember them. I love them for that! It's such a pity that people in high office cannot take a leaf out of the posts of our members, instead of misleading, cheating & prevarication which is sadly nowadays such a characteristic of so many our society leaders.

Morning Philip, I love reading your posts, always on the ball. In a nutshell I see the government (no different here) are only in it for what they can get out of it. They never look beyond their noses, just fit for kissing babies at election times. I do cast my vote - but it ain't working folks!!! Despite all that I hope you enjoy your day

Hi Dreamtime, or do I say Gaday! Thank you for your compliment, but I get it wrong sometimes. For years, one of my jobs in finance was looking out for bogus or scam claims on behalf of the company, at a time when the word scam was not in common use. Day-sheets submitted by contractors with the same person working in several locations at the same time, as well as bills arriving charging the company for thin-air. There is little new in that, but what I am so ashamed of is that so many in high public office as well as football clubs think nothing of saying anything to cover their own backs, no matter the consequences to anyone else. Sometimes hiding behind the skirts of someone else. Eg My Pam is now a medical receptionist (part-time in retirement) & is only too well aware that she is in one of the most hated groups in our society, now more unpopular than traffic wardens according to latest polls, yet ALL of these receptionists are only doing what they have been told to do by the partners & the practise managers up & down our land. It is they that dictate the procedures, but are never then to be seen, hiding as I say, behind the receptionists who then have to take the stick. It is the same in high office now, where we have a politician, just released from jail, lapping up the attention he is receiving as he enjoys his huge freedom breakfast, whilst most ordinary working people struggle to make ends meet. Why was he jailed? For lying. Simply that. His original motoring offence would just have been a fine ten years ago & forgotten by now. Also getting someone else to lie for him which put her in jail too. This is the real disease of our society. Lying. My dad caught me out in a lie when I was twelve & I can feel it now. He told me that there is nothing worse than a liar. With a thief there is at least something missing. With a murderer, we usually have a body, but with a liar, we don't know where we are! I don't need to flannel with our members on here, but as I have said, I love our forum site here because we are what we say on our tins. The people that I have met, or bumped into over the last couple of years off our site are exactly who they said that they were. You Dreamtime, I can reach out & touch you almost, even with our thousands of miles distance apart.

Hello again Philip, I will take your last comments as a compliment and gives me a warm feeling as I am sure most of us downunder here feel when you welcome new members to the forum. There cannot be another forum like this one where we are allowed to say what we think and accept all comments along the way. I sincerely hope you enjoyed your day today. By the way, I have not travelled on a bus for nearly 30 years and I have a bus pass too (I can hear your thoughts). However, having said that I have every intention to use it in the coming weeks. I have always been fortunate to have a dream of a chauffeur, so I will take in the sights on the bus now and enjoy my free rides.

Seems they are not for the people who have paid in Philip, like now Clegg wanting to take bus, tv, heating from the likes who are rich he claims that have paid in all their life, as he states why should they have houses here and abroad, and the poorer ones pay for it, when others from abroad none British can have a house in their country yet not paid in all their life, then claim another house here. Bedroom tax just the same, Liverpool, Lancashire and Birmingham are trying to prevent this tax, Lancashire by redefining the bedrooms eg brick them up, mostly knock through so their disabled and people don't have to pay, yet Coventry it's a no no, they support this tax. Same with the NHS if we needed the high level of care and treatment that we provide here, we would have to pay for that better care in the EU countries. Even yesterday news said Doctors said our lives are at risk especially the vunerable as they can't cope any more

Hi all, Stereotyping is a way of life for most of us, no more so than as we age. I remember the old, as well as the current road signs that warn of approaching older people. Two people, half bent over with a walking stick. The intro to "Waiting for God" tele- sit-com has a stereotypical air about it with music to match. I was sat out at the front of my home this morning supping a cuppa, when a chap delivering leaflets walked up to me & commented on how peaceful it was here. I told him with a sense of seriousness that this end of the cul-de-sac is all "Old peoples Homes" & that I was waiting for matron to return. When he had gone, thoughts circulated around my mind that reminded me that the statement was at least half true. I am old, I live in a home, so that surely makes it an old peoples home. It does not matter whether I live in 'Bay-View' or Saint Pam's house. When I was 7, I can remember wanting to be 14. At 14, I could not wait until I was 21. Now, at nearer 70 than 60, I wish that I was 21 again. Yet, by most standards I have had it so good for so long, in spite of being almost written off at birth, along with fourteen years of complex orthopaedic surgery. Every now & again, something really nice happens, like meeting friends off our forum. Some formally by arrangement, or like yesterday when I was sat waiting for a bus, next to one of our very fairer members. I so wanted to be 21, as I sat in her company. I realise that some of our members are not mobile like I am at present, but that makes me want to share even more by being their eyes & ears, for as long as I can. I do hope that all of our retirees live in happy homes, whatever you call them.

Lovely post Philip. I know it is nice to sit and reflect, and I do wonder how it would have been if I was not all these miles away. My thoughts are of the green green grass of home, but then WA has its own beauty with its bush lands and ranges, and different colours when the sun goes down. I sincerely hope I would have found the forum no matter where I was. So it's nice to think the older you get the more lovely memories we have to share, and I thank you for sharing yours.

I enjoy your posts Philip with all your memories and travels shh don't tell too many your age you don't sound like your nearer 70 than 60, age is just a collection of numbers after your name, you're as old as you feel. As for myself missing out on travelling about, I travel all over looking at your ventures also my friends' travels on a garden site, I see it as like one man who once said he had been married 25 times, the radio presenter said 25 times, he said yes it's like missing one bus and down the road comes another.

Philip (and others) may be quite interested in this item from today's Daily Mail

Fingers crossed that Ian Duncan Smith and Cameron don't see this I notice they have a Devon pass, when my mum had her oap bus pass in Coventry it only covered certain areas. Concessionary passes for older people

Hi & thank you. I had read it, as I have several similar events going back to when the universal free pass started in 2008. The thing is, I like a bit of comfort too & the thought of spending more than an hour on a local service bus does not thrill me one bit. My three year rail-card at a cost of £60 gives me at least a third off any rail ticket price, which is more up my street. I have used National Express coaches in the past too. Whilst I realise that there are bus enthusiasts, just like there are train & so on, reading the full article in the Daily Mail, I some how have a picture in my mind of this couple kneeling up at the front seat, pretending to drive the bus, just like I did when I was five years old. I always had to get off the bus when mummy got off, so the illusion always came to an end. Ding ding, hold tight. The favourite seat for so many children. "Which pedal stops the bus, daddy? It's a heck of a long way down. I can't reach it". Notice how our girth has increase since the post war "Nimble Bread" period. The couple nearest can hardly sit on their seats.