excellent post that. its actually a far different world for a 65 year old than at 80 year old who had less opportunity to boost a pension other than relying on the state.

I get the state pension and have two pensions of my own…but it doesn’t come anywhere near the Living wage and I’m paying tax on my two personal pensions

There has been a real awakening to the can of worms opened by Rachel Reeves when she anounced this. The Junior doctors were offered 22%, costing around £10 billion to the public purse. They were demanding 35% for quite a long time, without any sign of budging from that and all of a sudden an offer nowhere near their demands was plucked out of the air and recommended to the members by the BMA. RR panicked and knee jerked a black hole into the mix, then knee jerked again by stating she would partly fund this pay rise by removing the WFA for pensioners, stating it was a necessity. A necessity to fund a black hole of her own making, blaming it on what she inherited and shifting the burden of funding this massive pay rise elsewhere in the public purse and that elsewhere was the pensioners. As the pensioners contribution is only £1.5 billion of this black hole she has created, further raids have to be dreamed up and, lo and behold, she is now saying more taxation in the autumn is probably inevitable. Diggety Doo and Dompetty domp, isn't that a surprise.
Today it is the pensioners and maybe the next move may also involve the pensioners but rest assured that just as night follows day, the rest of the country will get it. So those of you who might be beginning to feel left out, don't worry cos the bold Rachel hasn't forgotten you. Your turn will come.

I'm not any sort of financial whizzkid but I struggle massively to see why an annuity only pays 6%.

If I put my £100k pension pot in an ISA I would get about 4.5% annual interest (£4,500) and would still have the £100k principal sitting in my account
If I give it to an Annuity company they will give me an extra 1.5% for my lifetime (£1,500) but then keep the £100k principal. That would mean I need to live for nearly 67 years post retirement for me to get the same value.

I know this is simplified and there are tax implications of giving me my Pension pot to invest (which was saved income tax free) but those sums don't seem to add up to me

I wonder what % return on your NI contributions (including your employers' contribution) the State Pension is for the average person? Obviously the more you get paid the worse the % will be to balance those who get the same state pension for contributing nowt.

It's a funny old country we live in. This brings back a memory of Michael Hesletine appearing on Question Time, maybe twenty years ago.

In one question from the audience he answered something like "what you have to remember is Britain is a wealthy country, one of the best economies in the world, blah blah, fart fart, waffle waffle, so we CAN AFFORD to do XYZ"

Then half an hour later, after another question from the audience, something to do with normal people struggling, he said something like "what you have to remember is Britain is not a wealthy country, we have a deficit, we have debts, we are short of money, we simply can't afford to give people this that and the other willy nilly, blah blah, fart fart, waffle waffle"

I was sat watching this chicanery in disbelief and no one pulled him up on it. What he meant (and it's still the same) is that there is money available to big us up on the world stage, to fritter away on expensive vanity projects, to lose in governmental cock ups, but there isn't money available to give a large portion of the population a decent standard of living.

If you removed your pension pot into your bank account, first of all you would face a very large tax bill leaving you with a great chunk of it gone.(although you will have your 25% tax free lump sum but it is rumoured RR is considering abolishing that perk) Then in order to get Isas at the interest rate you quoted you would have to take up a fixed term offer on each tranche of £20k which you invested, always bearing in mind thay you can only put that amount in each year, so it would be a while before it was fully invested and also the rates return to measly proportions at the end of each fixed period. You may have to find another investment route. I have two such Isas currently which are one year fixed deals which will yield £1780 tax free, in this financial year but the I have to find a new home for them and interest rates are starting to fall. RR will also consider the fact that Isas are tax free and will certainly have a look at that. There are a few avenues that could be made taxable which are also tax free like premium bonds, lottery wins etc.

I do agree though that annuities are pathetic.

This Youtube action is worth a look. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0X4uPjcEsE

Governments, Labour or Conservative are not standing up for white English people. Don't have a clue why not but be in no doubt we are under attack. Farage had better watch his back as they are coming after him big style!

Think about which demographic group is in the majority in getting the State Pension. Removing the Winter fuel payment is just the start. Tax free lump sum will be next to disappear followed by means testing. If you have saved to have a better retirement forget that.

I can't fathom out who is behind all this but shortly you will be unable to protest without getting arrested and getting a criminal record along with everything that comes with that.

Am I wrong but didn't Boris put NI up to fund Social Care? Then was it Sunak brought it back down again? Why not just put the 2% back on and leave pensioners WFA alone, and of course improve Social Care.

I mentioned that reduction from 12% to 10% yesterday. I'd forgotten about BoJo's idea to increase NI for Social Care.

Unfortunately during the election everyone hung their hats on no increases to income tax or NI so it becomes difficult unless they are prepared to admit their manifesto was the load of guff we all believe them to be anyway.

Lets face it, If this was France there would be hell on.

Zimmer frames up and down the Champs Elysee stopping the traffic

Its the BBC the ?s are rigged, And if you show genuine concern you would be ejected,

It would be normal folk, Because they unlike here realise it will eventually be themselves.
The apathy in this country is (fill in the blanks)

Over here if there was hell on you’d be vilified.

They took to the streets the other week because the French government wanted to put the retirement age up.

To be fair Jamie they’d be burning tyres and manning the barricades if their cat got pregnant.

Not a very good start for Starmer n Co.

Pissed off the Pensioner's and hasn't got a clue on immigration resulting in a violent Rebellion all over the country.

Thankful we got SuperNige and his excellent team waiting in the wings to clean up this Tories /Labour debacle.

In the meantime Reform are happy for violent disorder to rule our streets. The thugs are attracted to this and our town like many others has this underclass of kids who are anti society, uneducated and looking kicks. For God's don't give them the keys to power!

I was thinking about this "underclass" - ultimately, who's fault is that? If people are so miserable, fed up and have nothing, then they have nothing to lose.

In WW2 there were spies and criminals etc but were there hordes of feral kids raking about, so what's gone wrong?

Less jobs, poor education and parents who don't have good values. In all civilisations ultimately this happens because elites don't care. People become desperate and believe people, public school types like ,Boris, Nigel and Mr Tice. And they are the best liars. Society crumbles when people don't see a future. Add to that these terrible kids.......

I’ve got a glimpse of my future and our new saviours have pickpocketed my winter fuel allowance…it’ll be fuel duty next to put the icing on the tombstone..

Free prescriptions, bus passes, means tested pensions, GP appointment fee (refunded if you turn up), higher road taxes, also coming to a country near you soon. On the other hand assisted dying will be legalised for when it gers too much.

Farage has not got a team his party is an empty shell.

that must be their far right or feral kids doing that surely if their MSM report it like ours would.

agree and well before the end of this parliament as well. be a miracle if thats the worse we,ll end up with but those housing a dingy diver might get exemptions.

that includes many due to the last pension increase who now have to pay tax. out of that increase with tax to pay and the fuel allowance taken away how much money extra did people receive in money they can actually spend.

Mind that said there’s a big gap between the Minimum Wage and the living wage anyway.

Yup. If he seriously yearns for power he could tone it down a bit and join the Conservative party.

just cannot see the point of stating what a living wage actually is when there are millions who will fall short of that. no wonder people are not satisfied with their lot. got a shock yesterday when i watched a clip on youtube of a vintage bus rally at gaydon. it showed the driver training bus used in coventry at the moment where they showed the average ernings for a driver was £400 a week. i got more than that 21 years ago when i left that place so what the hell has gone on over the years there.

Maybe they've seen too many left wing wokey types kicking off the past couple of years and it's rubbing off.

I don't condone violent behaviour from anyone

Some interesting info on this vlog more so on how the triple lock is calculated,
https://youtu.be/16u72xUPt_Q?si=Je-tW3sEej084z19

C’mon It’s all Ratboy can do in his job as a verminator with rats and foxes, he’d be a nightmare with a gun

Patience mr blue.All will be revealed at the Reform UK 2024 National Conference in September..Expect some fireworks.

Rarely excepted then

I thank you most generously for your exception kind sir

In May 2024 and in opposition Starmer told Sunak the WFA for pensioners must not be touched, less than 3 months later and obviously now in power it's gone for over 15% of the UK population.
Labour manifesto pledged to cut fuel bills, well that's not happened and won't happen before many are plunged from just above absolute poverty to being in poverty. It's not just financial this will harm the lives of frail and vulnerable people.
Milliband has £11bn to offer foreign countries to help them develop green energy projects and policies.
Bet the MPs all still get their energy bills paid on expenses by the taxpayer.

people mention this foreign aid. fine if this country is rich enough to help others along side of other rich countries who also do the same. brings up another question of how rich or poor this country actually is. depending on the subject, one minute its one of the worlds biggest economies and when it suits them they say the country is skint. come on politicians which is true or both if its trying to act bigger than what it is.

To be giving taxpayers money to foreign countries while we have high levels of UK citizens living in poverty is just plain wrong imo. We also have the largest National Debt since the end of WW2 yet we give money away instead of paying off debt. In reality we've been borrowing money to give to the likes of China, India, Pakistan, etc absolutely unbelievable. Martin Lewis for Chancellor.

got to remember that we are not globalists unlike those who have run and are running the country now. the WEF and WHO are bigger enemy,s to us than any illegal immigrant will ever be. they like us are just the little man whether we want them or not.

Swap ML for Lee Anderson for Chancellor.
He's said he would give these foreign countrys jackshit because charity begins at home.

Basic sensible Reform Policys
Already looking to my Retirement under our lot.

SOK

funny as far as i know nobody has rioted or marched for something a section of the community have actually lost money over. the taking away of the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. thats something thats nailed on and proven. not because mohammed from mogadishu has arrived on a dinghy and many who hate the filth and always will.

Because the people affected are of an age that know they’re wasting their time and would probably classed as Far Right by that cuddly Mr Smamer…odd as was fighting to save it a few months ago.
Is he really in charge..,?

Yvette Cooper, with a look of anger on her face says the full power of the law will used against the ‘rioters’ and rightly so….but, shouldn’t that apply to everyone though as the norm.

Think a lot of politics around the world are now singing from someone elses song sheet.

If you are Black/Gay or both then you are PRIVILEGED.

That's a good question, Snowy. Makes you wonder.

For the first time in my life I feel as though we are being moulded into compliance.
So called public servants are now public masters . No longer serving but controlling.
The faceless clerks seem to set the agenda where like in Orwell’s 1984 the state dictates that 2+2=5 representing the States control over realty and truth.
The State demonstrates it’s power to decide what is real and to manipulate and oppress individual thought and understanding.
George might have had a point.

It's definitely happening. What's strange is that many ordinary folk are seeing it and calling it out, but where are the firebrand and maverick mps to question things? We've got a ruling class regardless of party who are united in the same things, control of the population, keeping the masses down while improving their own lot.

if you are a minority you are for sure. once a minority had to go with the majority in every way and were not regarded as being special but having the choice of liking or lumping it. if you wanted a change in a subject you had to fight for change and get the majority on your side and not having governments handing over the majorities rights and views to you on a plate or for the sake of diversity, inclusion and equality to enrich us when we do not want enriching.