Author Topic: Blunkett wants us working until we drop  (Read 1115 times)

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Online Grumpmeister

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Blunkett wants us working until we drop
« on: September 08, 2008, 06:25:36 PM »
And of course you are going to follow your own recommendations arent you, after all you will have the choice because you will have a generous pension paid for by us taxpayers unlike the pensions people laid a fortune into only to have gutted by your buddies, not to mention that you have taxed people so much that a large portion of the public cant afford to make any provision for their retirement now!

And then there is the equity release 'suggestion', you are saying that people who would have worked and paid taxes their entire lives should put their property into equity release to pay for their own care because your companions have totally bollixed up both our economy and our health service.

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Older people should carry on working as long as they are physically capable, ex-minister David Blunkett has said.

In a speech to the Counsel and Care charity in London he said it should not be assumed the government had "prime responsibility" to support the elderly.

Mr Blunkett also said people should use equity release schemes to raise money from their homes to pay for care.

The former work and pensions secretary said it was important to raise the debate over the UK's ageing population.

Mr Blunkett said: "My presumption is this. That all of us, every one of us who is capable of doing so, should aspire to continue with some meaningful activity to the point of our incapacity overtaking us.


"Preferably work, of course, increasingly part-time, flexible and in many cases, very different to the work undertaken in our earlier lives.

"Perhaps, increasingly, volunteering - within our own family and immediate circle as well as outside. Offering what we can and receiving from others what we cannot."

Home ownership

Mr Blunkett said £700bn was tied up in home ownership by those who had retired.

"In our endeavour to protect people's inheritance, have we not made enough of, and are we not clear enough about, the release of equity from the enormous home ownership that exists in Britain and the divide of those with and without assets which this trend has accelerated?" he said.

"In my view, and I am open to persuasion, we should be looking to reinforce the responsibility and capability of the family and the immediate community to continue helping themselves."

In english, we've made such a total cock up of things that you are going to have to pay for this yourself.

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Mr Blunkett later expanded on his speech to the BBC.

"I'm suggesting that part-time work - often a different kind of job - is one way firstly of sustaining people but secondly of people remaining active," he said.

"Why should someone who's not saved, who's not put money by, expect those who have to sustain them to do so not just in working life but in retirement as well."
The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements. Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest.

Offline Snoopy

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Re: Blunkett wants us working until we drop
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2008, 06:54:50 PM »
The man is a tit ~ but then we all knew that.
I used to have a handle on life but it broke.

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Re: Blunkett wants us working until we drop
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2008, 06:56:22 PM »
Unfortunately given the grasping nature of Brown inc its a pretty safe guess that they will have listened to his comments thinking how much money they could save at our expense.  cussing:
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Offline Snoopy

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Re: Blunkett wants us working until we drop
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2008, 06:57:36 PM »
Possible but I suspect they'll be out on their collective ear within a couple of years.
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Re: Blunkett wants us working until we drop
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2008, 06:58:34 PM »
A couple of years would be all they needed to gut your savings though.
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Offline Snoopy

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Re: Blunkett wants us working until we drop
« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2008, 07:22:29 PM »
Ah! ~ Having a first heart attack at the age of 35 made insurance companies very wary of me. Of course I had existing insurances/pension plans etc but 5 years later I was relieved of all those in a divorce settlement (it being argued that SWusedTBO had "contributed" by being my wife whilst these were being paid for out of my earnings ~ don't ask me how but that is the way the lawyers saw it). All such insurances were cashed and the proceeds divided. Restarting such savings plans at that point in my life (two more heart attacks had occurred by then) was not an option, besides all spare cash was being eaten up by educating the children of that marriage who had by now gone onto college and at various times lived with me and "sponged" for all they could get ..... as did their mother with various tales of woe.
Eventually I remarried as did my ex and that drain on finances ceased. New wife is much younger than me (12 years) and we decided that given my health problems and her comparative youth it would make more sense to put her through Uni and thence Teacher Training than to p*ss about with a pension that would cost the earth (because of health issues) and be worth very little at the end of the day. Better we reasoned to make her my pension plan and that is what she is. Gordo and co cannot take what I have in the way of savings because I simply have nothing for them. The house is in her name. I own two hundred premium bonds and sod all else. The pension I receive is a very small occupational one from the Royal Mail (under £1k per annum). I have nowt and owe little. Frankly I don't give a fat rat's arse what they try to do, they can't touch me.
Meanwhile I am raising my children with the idea of multiple income streams being better than a "career" and hope that they will have the good sense to get out of the UK as soon as they are able.
I used to have a handle on life but it broke.