Did anyone watch this last night?

[andsome]

Very interesting investigation last night on TV. There have been several causes for the collapse of pension schemes, but Comrade Gordon bears the biggest share of the blame.

Gordon Brown - Where's my Pension Gone?

Brown 'led pensions scandal'

Campaigners for 125,000 people who lost their life savings when company pensions went bust accused the Government of persistent dishonesty ahead of a European Court of Justice ruling on the scandal, expected tomorrow.

Dr Ros Altmann, a former Treasury adviser and governor of the London School of Economics, said: "The Government deliberately misled people about how safe their pensions were in the 1990s – and they are doing the same thing now.

"Back then, in a series of official leaflets, the Government told members of company pensions their money was fully protected when they knew it was not. Now they plan automatic enrolment for personal account pensions, when they know that many people will get no benefit from them because of means testing."

Dr Altmann is in no doubt who is to blame for the pension crisis. She tells viewers: "If there is one person in the Government that is responsible for this scandal, it has to be the Chancellor."

Chancellor Gordon Brown, who has been arguing that Britain cannot afford to increase the state pension, is sitting on pension savings paid for by the taxpayer equivalent to £1.75m. This will ensure he has a pension of at least £53,000 a year for life. If, as expected, he becomes Prime Minister after Blair leaves office, Brown will see his guaranteed pension entitlement more than double, even if he only serves a few months as leader...

other ministers enjoying large pension pots include: Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett (£1.7m); Trade Secretary Alastair Darling (£1.5m); Social Exclusion Minister Hilary Armstrong (£1.2m;) and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell (£1m). Pensions Secretary John Hutton has a pot worth nearly £900,000. In total the most senior 15 cabinet ministers have a pension fund equivalent to £25m, more than the £20m the government has put into the Financial Assistance Scheme this year to help the 85,000 retired workers who have no pension at all because their companies went bust.

Sometimes, just sometimes I wonder if there is enough rope in the barn for the glorious day.

HERE

[catgate]

I have no time for our slack jawed financial disaster architect, but his ill conceived prestidigitations are not the sole cause of our mess. It must be conceded, however, that he must bear much of the blame for the recent acceleration in the problem. Were it not for inflation, and the heavy burden of the usury industry, disaster would have struck some time ago, and eve without his assistance it was inevitable at some point before Tony's carbon footprint became a real problem.

The real problem is in the totally ludicrous expectation of a man to save one third of his income through out his working life in order to provide an income for himself in the last period of his life.

Were there no inflation this task would be onerous in the extreme but if inflation is added in then things become totally hopeless.

The attached "graph" illustrates this to some extent, but things like taxes (currently at something in excess of 40% of income) and surcharges and NHS contributions, not forgetting the raising and educating of a family, are difficult to quantify but never-the-less significant factors.

There does not seem to be a way of feeding the ever hungry demands of a hoard of greedy "democratic" leeches, and providing for a comfortable retirement for oneself (particularly when the leeches need your money to buy popularity with those who are not prepared to fend for themselves).

[Tankus]

guys , its not your problem .... Its mine and every one else here in our forties and fifties ...........!

[catgate]

guys , its not your problem .... Its mine and every one else here in our forties and fifties ...........!

Anyone in there twenties will not make it, let alone the 40 and 50 year olds. The system needs correcting before anyone can hope to provide enough to retire on. It matters little which party is "in power" because they can do nothing (*) with the present financial establishment.

What interests me is how the Muslim banking system works. There is something that we may find worthy of investigation.

edit

(*) Other than make it worse, as the continually demonstrate.

[andsome]

guys , its not your problem .... Its mine and every one else here in our forties and fifties ...........!

I don't envy you at all. However those now at my age were the first to be hit by Comrade Gordon, though to a lesser extent than you. Had he not acted as he did as soon as he had the chance, I would be in the region of £750 to £1000 per annum better off. Not a large sum by todays standards, but a great deal taking my total income into account. I loath him.