General Chat

We all need to pay more taxes.

Harry, I am inclined to agree with you. June xx

Perhaps slightly off thread and I know there are two sides to this argument, but i wonder how much Iraq is costing us and yesterdays announcement of thousands of troops to afghanistan. Maybe this country chooses to bear more than its fair share of commitments. Africa is another place where we pay more than others, perhaps, but that seems more humane than the other two and I have no real quibble there. Perhaps we might look to the likes of Sweden where they seem to out-play us in most social aspects. Happy days

Jim, Dont thery realise that we did and do work until 65,and then pay tax on our pension. June xx

I noticed a bit of a fuss on TV last night because someone had the cheek to suggest that Public Servants, paid by the Taxpayer should be made to work (and pay tax and NI) until 65 like the rest of us!

This that why i and other people are paying tax on pensions that there partners have worked for but have past away before retierment i get £123.00 a month of which i get £86 the differance is tax as i have to work to live feel as if paying tax twice sorry to moan Val

It's all a big con, Jim. Doesn't matter which government we have, we'll lose out in the end. It makes me mad when retirement pensions are so low, yet so much public money appears to be wasted on projects like the Milennium Dome and on bureaucracy. It's so unfair. If the State pension is all you have to live on, life is very hard. CB >|<

I know CB. That is another of my gripes. I am now on about £84 a week. If I had been earning that in 1970 I would have considered myself quite wealthy.

Jim, I'm sure you know this already, but ... Nobody finances their own State pension. The money to pay for it comes from taxes paid by the working population from the time a person retires until they become 'ineligible to receive it'. It's the taxes paid by the workers which are invested to provide income in the form of interest, and that income from investment pays the pensions. If we all had to fund our own retirement by contibuting a third of our income into a 'personal' fund, anyone who retired this year (for example) at normal pensionable age, after paying a third of their income during their working life, would find the sum woefully inadequate, due to inflation. Most of us just have to accept that we're all going to be a lot poorer in future. Very sad, but true. CB >|<

It wouldn't worry me so much, if my wage was sufficient to make my own provision for old age, but it isn't. And it doesn't help when wage increases are far below the cost of living increase!!!

Just an explanation for the Chancellor of the Exchequer as to why the Pension Service, the National Health Service and the Unemployment Benefit Office are short of money. Take Pensions for example. How can they finance us for the rest of our lives if they don’t take at least 33% of our income to pay for these things. If I work for 50 years, but need to live for 75 (not counting the 15 years funded by my parents) then I need to save at least 1/3 of my Income to finance it. So it’s no wonder that there is insufficient money to go round.

65 - 15 = 50. 90 - 65 = 25.