Like the
weather the net can get rough in unexpected and unwanted places. There has been conflict between two sites I
look at quite often and it is a pity because the subject in question is
important, difficult and affects very many people, namely old age pensions.
Look at it here
if you are interested. One is the blog
by Frances Coppola coppolacomment dot com and the other The Slog by John Ward
at hat4uk dot wordpress dot com and what it tells me is that the subject is a
minefield that can trap anyone.
To get away
from the dispute and back to the subject, which is how to adjust and amend the
state old age pension (OAP) scheme to take account of modern life and living in
terms of what can be managed financially.
I confess that I find all the ins and outs at present difficult.
In 1947 when
the Attlee government launched its extended version for all I would agree that
it was optimistic to say the least.
Promise now, pay later is one of the fault lines of our democratic
politics and in the case of OAP a guaranteed large scale vote loser if hard
decisions were ever to be taken and any problems addressed.
But it was and
is not just the OAP it is also a feature of many pension schemes, private and
public, that promises and pensions of one kind might well become very difficult
if trends and obligations out ran payments in, if funded, or estimated costs,
if unfunded.
Again what was
typical was that when many schemes were created the key data on which they were
based were figures or estimates from the past.
As the future unwound it became often the case that these were either in
accurate or in fact a bad basis for estimating future liabilities.
One feature
was that at the outset what was not thought of was the implication of allowing
early retirement schemes for many that often tipped the balance or in the case
of OAP large numbers leaving the labour market early or joining much
later.
All those students
and older pupils do not pay national insurance or much in the way of taxes at
one end and those age groups in case being smaller than anticipated while at
the other end lives are much longer.
There are other things but this problem is going to be with us for a
long time and the one certainty is that it is bound to be an issue in which
anger is at a premium.
There is no
easy or popular answer.
Funding millions of non or minimal contributing migrants was also never possible.
ReplyDeleteSooner or later there will be a 'fair life action' which stops 'excessive' non prductive living as an 'essential reform'.
ReplyDeleteAnd small gas chambers will appear near the hospitals. Or the churches.
As you say, there is no easy or popular answer, but I wonder how many of today's youngsters will draw a pension and for how long.
ReplyDelete