The Balance of Pensionability
Less than one week ago, Age Concern and Help the Aged retired beaten from the High Court after a ruling by Mr Justice Blake that the vicious Default Retirement Age brought in by the Government in 2006 did in fact comply with EU anti-discrimination laws.
The mandatory retirement age was brought in under the Employment Equality (Age) Regulation, meaning an employer could force an employee to retire or refuse to employ them beyond that age without giving a reason. Employers can also refuse to take on anyone above the age of 65.
All those private sector workers who had reluctantly planned to go on working until 70 or even 75 in an effort to repair their ravaged savings and pension pots are to be legally prevented from doing so.
Enforced starvation courtesy of this caring Labour Government.
Less than a week ago….
This morning, under a news release embargoed until 00:01 today, it emerges that simultaneously – could it possibly be otherwise given the snails pace that these things move through the Civil Service – Sir Gus O’ Donnell, as Cabinet Secretary, has announced on ‘National Older People’s Day’, just to rub salt in the wound, that from April 2010 all Civil Service staff:
“who wish to carry on working after 65 will be able to do so, with government departments benefiting from their continuing experience”
He said:
“We should not put an artificial and unnecessary cap on the contribution of long serving, dedicated staff – at any grade. I am delighted that we will be freeing up the potential of our older, senior civil servants to continue to serve.
“Today’s move also shows the Civil Service is committed to using the knowledge and experience of its increasingly diverse workforce to improve the delivery of public services for everyone.
“Like any successful organisation we need people who have experience in key areas, as well as those with fresh ideas to challenge traditional methods. This announcement demonstrates our commitment to providing greater working flexibility for all civil servants.”
Those in the Private Sector with their derisory pensions are prevented from continuing to work by order of this divisive Government, whilst those in the Public Sector with their cushioned pensions are to be allowed to work longer and further inflate their pension.
I am too unspeakably angry to write any more.
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1
October 1, 2009 at 9:24 am -
Anna
you don’t need to write anything further. As you know this has been achieved by a mendacious government and it’s favourite sons for all of our eternal benefit. In what way EU law is ignored by this pile of the most devious earners in the country I don’t know. I do however think it’s time we burnt the whole ediface down with all the said employees in their offices at the time!!!!
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October 1, 2009 at 9:54 am -
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October 1, 2009 at 10:23 am -
The fact that public sector pensions at the age of 65 are already light years ahead of their private sector equivalents just adds to the misery that those outside the civil service have to deal with.
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October 1, 2009 at 11:23 am -
Anna
I understand what you say, I’ve not clearly said what I wanted to say – which is basically how can they get away with this, again???? I am all for the complete destruction of the public sector as it stands today. It is not there for us, it is there for them, and as such serves no meaningful purpose for the civilians of the UK – I will never be a ‘customer’ of such services.
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October 1, 2009 at 11:38 am -
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October 1, 2009 at 12:37 pm -
One interpretation of the law for them and another for us. All those public servants should have their pensions taxed at 110%.
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7
October 1, 2009 at 2:58 pm -
The problem is that all us Private Sector Plebs who entitled to a State Pension are living too long. We should all have died of malnutrition related diseases on the Minimum Wage before we retired. Those of us who survive can look forward to freezing to death or dying of starvation, or a bit of both.
I exagerate a little, obviously. But it is a fact that when The State Pension was introduced, many ordinary people were dead before the age of 70, where nowadays, people are living well into their 80s. This has completely upset the applecart. They have spent our Pension Contrbutions, and they haven’t got any money left to pay us, so we have to be encouraged to depart as gracefully as possible without implicating The Government in a massive fraud that would have resulted in a prison sentence for more ordinary mortals.
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October 1, 2009 at 4:11 pm -
Sabot
agree entirely
Milliband has today spoken of how the tories are a national embarassment. If that is true then what does that make New labour – with its hypocracy, crude authoritarian managerialism, corruption and total lack of economic sense – alternatively known as thieves and lying spivs?
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October 1, 2009 at 5:46 pm -
Sabot says: …They have spent our Pension Contrbutions, and they haven’t got any money left to pay us, so we have to be encouraged to depart as gracefully as possible…
…………………………..
Well, with this Autumn rumoured to be Swine Flu season I wonder if we can expect a high proportion of oldies with breathing difficulties not to make it out of the hospitals alive….. -
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October 1, 2009 at 6:06 pm -
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October 1, 2009 at 6:08 pm -
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October 1, 2009 at 6:11 pm -
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October 1, 2009 at 9:03 pm -
Anna
there was a sense of that refreshing new start. The Tories were as tired and adrift as New Labour are now. Although I believe New Labour have changed this country in ways that are manifestly awful, possibly forever, because I can’t see anyone who is willing to change things that dramatically and for our good (not there’s).
Think surveillance, think ‘nanny state’ nevermind the state of the economy and the singular lack of manufacturing, think ‘terrorism’ and all that that notion means. The divisions are enormous now and it is understandable that we each want to look after ourselves – there’s no one to trust anymore. This is not a scenario I am at all happy about and I don’t just write about it, I do things to create change as I’m sure many others do.
The sooner we get rid of the present government, their friends and all their insidious laws the better. Now, where’s the opposition in all of this………? I can’t do it on my own!!!!!
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October 1, 2009 at 9:13 pm -
“National Older People’s Day”? Good grief. Clean forgot it was today. Major celebration in the calendar. How could I miss it?
I am now feeling deeply ashamed that unlike Sir Gus, I failed to mark the day by giving taxpayers’ money away.
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October 1, 2009 at 9:14 pm -
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October 1, 2009 at 9:44 pm -
And therein lies the problem. At the moment there isn’t any credible opposition. What are the policies of the Conservatives? Until they indicate what they have planned for when they get into power, then the electorate may be forgiven for voting for the “devil they know”.
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October 1, 2009 at 10:12 pm -
Don’t ever go any where near a hospital in UK. These are the new Killing Fields. Don’t even visit. God knows what you might catch.
If you think you are going to be ill, take a holiday in France. But don’t tell anyone else. Otherwise we all won’t be able to get in.
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October 1, 2009 at 10:54 pm -
Saul @ 9.44pm – But we do actually know this devil – and since we do, this is really very seemples! We (the voters) either believe them (Labour) based on their stint at the helm of the country or we don’t. Cut through the fancy posturing on-stage and the thick-kneed wives popping up to assert their belief in their husbands/heros, and the more they promise now is in effect what the Labour Party knows it needn’t deliver when eventually we to to the polls. I know that the alternative to Labour isn’t going to work any better. So do we all. It’s just that enough is enough, but I’m afraid that to my ears everything the Government decides to state as its objectives sounds to me like Derren Brown saying he’ll get people to stand on one leg without resorting to any subliminal messaging. Yeah, right. The Government is only prepared to promise it will deliver X,Y & Z because it knows it will never have to; but the next government will be asked why it isn’t able to deliver the X,Y & Z that the wonderful Gordon and his Brown Party promised. Win, win, win, as has been pointed out. But we’re not idiots and even though we can only make a cross on a ballot paper, knowing we cannot make our voices heard, we’ll still stump up and make the mark with a heavy heart.
We can change the party in power but that in itself won’t make the difference – only those we elect can change themselves.
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October 1, 2009 at 11:00 pm -
The problem is that when whoever is voted in…..then, that’s it for 5 years. Yes we do know this devil, it is the devil we don’t know that I am worried about.
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October 1, 2009 at 11:01 pm -
Would like to join the debate, but always too busy here with French and Dutch politics, which don’t make you feel happy neither … Would that mean that there’s something basically wrong with politicians?
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October 1, 2009 at 11:03 pm -
“Saul October 1, 2009 at 11:00 pm
The problem is that when whoever is voted in…..then, that’s it for 5 years. Yes we do know this devil, it is the devil we don’t know that I am worried about.”
***
You mean: getting rid of a small devil to get in a big one…
I have experienced that … -
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October 1, 2009 at 11:17 pm -
Saul @ 11:00 pm 01.10.09
The problem is that when whoever is voted in…..then, that’s it for 5 years.
…….
Exactly the point I was trying to make – the present government knows it is unlikely to ‘get in’ again and spends this Conference blowing pretendy-bubbles out, each containing claims and promises they won’t ever have to deliver; it’s the same every time a government stays in power too long. Blah-conference-blah – we’re the only party who can save the world – blah, blah – the fact is, they are all the same but the after so many years in power the extant government gets rumbled and we, the electorate, suddenly realise we are viewed as one big Village Idiot. Come election time, we vote out the party that have been most recently insulting our intelligence. And it will happen next time. Then, we’ll have a new party who will pretend not to insult our intelligence for a while. Same old, same old, same old, plus ca change, same old, etc. I have now lost the will to live. -
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October 1, 2009 at 11:18 pm -
Yep! Be careful what you wish for…… you may just get it.
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October 1, 2009 at 11:27 pm -
It is time for a change in how the country is run. Party politics is a thing of the past. What we need is GB PLC, finding the board members is the hard part. What we don’t need is showbiz celebs and 15 minutes of fame candidates getting into parliament.
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October 2, 2009 at 12:03 am -
Call me a simpleton if you like but just suppose, just suppose that this present government suddenly suggests whizzing a 3,100th law through and the next general election is all about proportional representation? It’d be a neck-gnawing fight between Lab and Lib Dems about who got to be the Shadowmancer and the incumbant Tories would have their clever blue hands tied. And Parliament would be a place of unresolveable quarrels, maybe.
Quarrels akimbo and the devil take the hindmost! Just the right circumstances for a man whose uncontrollably smug and girlish squirmings can be due to nothing more than being rich and powerful enough to wear ermine-lined underpants; imagine if there was someone standing in the shadows who only had to check his £21,000 Patek-Phillipe watch after a Labour electoral defeat to gauge when the time was right for him to gigglishly step forward and claim his birthright… PM = PM?
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October 2, 2009 at 9:22 am -
I don’t expect The Tories to be any better either, but it won’t do any of them any harm to know that there is a limit to what we will put up with. Just keep chopping and changing if that’s what it takes.
Something happens to these people when they walk through the portals of Parliament. Letting them know that five years might be their limit could well keep them a bit more aware of the common man who put them there.
And whether they like it or not, the pensioner vote is growing.
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October 2, 2009 at 5:28 pm -
The mandatory retirement age needs to be dropped to 60 and it should be a criminal offence to employ anyone over that.
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