Tory propaganda war to push over-65s back into the workforce
Over 65? LOOK OUT: the Tories are backstabbing senior citizens by forcing them to stay in the workplace longer. In some cases, they could be literally working people to death.
This is sick from the Tories and their shills in national papers like the Express.
The state pension age is rising steadily, month by month, after successive attempts to stop the changes have failed.
This means hundreds of thousands of people at a time are being forced to wait longer for the pensions that their elders received earlier in life.
And how do papers like The Express report this?
BRITAIN’S booming economy will be powered to new heights by over-65s who want to carry on working.
Because they are being forced to work the extra time!
The nonsense continues:
The 282,000 expected to take up jobs when over 65 will be crucial to British economic performance in the years to come, say experts.
Really? Why’s that, then? And what experts?
But last night employers were urged to end age discrimination against those who still have much to offer.
Were they? Or were they just told that they have to retain people who would have retired otherwise?
You can read the Express story (if you’ve got the stomach for it) to see comments by the shills (including one from Age UK) who are supporting this propaganda bid to make pressganging people into work acceptable when they should be drawing their pensions.
You may be particularly sickened by the paragraph claiming it is “ageist” to turn down older job applicants.
It is unreasonable to accuse employers of ageism for rejecting somebody who is only looking for work because the Tories have raised the retirement age without anybody else’s consent.
If they genuinely wanted a job because they wanted to work, and were rejected, that would be ageist – but that isn’t what’s happening here. Be prepared to hear a lot of whining from Tory apologists who want to use this as justification, though.
This is pro-Tory propaganda of the lowest, sickest, vilest kind because it tries to put a shine on cruelty. But (of course) 14 million people voted for it and dragged us all into the Tory mire with them. Expect much more of this in future.
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I’m 66.They told me I’d get a pension that would allow me to live OK when the contract was completed. Now I find it doesn’t even cover my rent.
Why would I want to go through more years of ritual humiliation whilst forcing down the already depressed incomes of much younger people? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. No thanks.
Were I fool enough to take a small job, they’d reduce my pension, as if it were their money, not my accumulated taxes.
If they really want experienced mature people they would scrap Nursing retraining loans, return to bursaries and, in part solve the problem they created of being 44,000 nurses short.
It’s ridiculous. I have already been rejected by employment agencies on grounds of health. Many of them require you to complete a health questionnaire upon registering/applying, they don’t want people with hernias, arthritis, high cholesterol, diabetes etc. Most of the work on offer is “fast paced” production/warehouse work, they want younger people who can work fast, not doddering about with bad backs and dodgy knees.
The Tories never believed in a public provision pension, just like they don’t believe in the concept of a national health service. They can’t get away with abolishing the state pension just yet, so what better way to abolish it by stealth than by increasing the age at which it is drawn? And with, on average, rich people living longer, it would be statistically more likely that well-off pensioners that are more likely vote Tory will be the main benificiaries of a state pension starting at 70 or 75.
“The 282,000 expected to take up jobs when over 65 will be crucial to British economic performance in the years to come, say experts.”
This is laughable – if so-called experts need a quarter of a million old people to keep the future economy going, then the economy is already screwed.
I’m 65 and 7 months. I finally get my state pension this month (paid monthly in arrears). I’m not even getting the full state pension, only 75% of it because the government claims I was “contracted out” for about 10 years (my financial advisor said the company I worked for probably opted me out without asking me). I worked in international trade for 40 years and got out 18 months ago because it was so damn stressful, exacerbated by the uncertainty around Brexit. I could only afford to retire early because I moved from Berkshire to Nottinghamshire, the difference in house prices gave me some capital to live on, plus I had some small company pensions. My company pensions plus the state pension will just about be a “living wage”, and I am one of the luckier WASPI women in that I own my own home with no mortgage. The government’s treatment of older people, particularly women, makes me mad. Especially as women STILL don’t earn as much as men (and therefore have smaller company pensions). When I retired the man who replaced me (younger, with less experience and knowledge) was hired on 10k pa more than me. So don’t tell me that there’s no discrimination in the workplace.
Daily Express and other sh*trags has a lot to answer for, the working class Tory voters in my office tell me their WASPI mum’s don’t want their pensions back because Labour will only take it from someone else, they don’t want the minimum wage increased because they say companies will still pay out the same and sack more staff to make up the difference… it goes on like that before we even get into the overtly racist stuff.
We cannot win while people believe this rubbish, it’s getting working class people to destroy themselves.
No we don’t want to work these great ages you hit this magic age one day and you all will mark my words , and every joint and muscle ache like hell and that’s before you get out of bed . Let alone running around all day lifting and carrying heavy weights. With a list of other health issues to add to it . We just want to retire quietly. If fit and able all well and good but there is no support if you can’t do it . What happened to the 50s women pension money that was stolen from us . Why did they not put women up 63 bring men down 63 would have been a lot fairer . Don’t blame us for living longer when it’s government dipping in the n.i.fund. 😡
Having read that awful article that literally gushes in places at the prospect of the fortunes to be made from the exploitation of people who should be retired the comments below the article are mostly highly critical of the idea.
Age UK should be taken to task for their uncritical and naive support for the Tory policy over the state pension. It’s thoroughly shameful that a body supposedly representing the interests of older people should be endorsing a policy that negatively affects those who they purport to represent.
Meanwhile on the other side of the Channel there is a whole nation that is on strike and on the streets over a proposal to raise the recommended retirement age from 62 to 64, whereas, as a meme doing the rounds points out, the UK voted in a government that wants to raise the state pension age to 75.
Sadly, the very people who should be fighting the Tory greed and cruelty are the Unions and in fact all workers who will be the ones to suffer. What a pity they don’t have the guts and foresight of the French to fight for their futures. The Cons will certainly take advantage of their complacency.
And what about the laws restricting what unions can do in the UK? Do they not matter?
It clearly is a Deliberate policy to Keep people working after 65 , Either in the hope they Die Before retiring ( having to pay the pension out or people who will only be able to draw on a little of it before death.
I’m a fit and healthy 72 year old. I have my own freelance business and love to work. As I no longer own property, I also need to work. But it’s not for everyone and nobody should be made to work above pension age. The (good) problem is that we’re thankfully living longer and longer and the pension system cannot sustain us for ever. I have a strong feeling that the future will not be in a state pension system but private provision for all. Young people need to take this on board to fully prepare for their later years. BTW: I’m a Labour member/voter but one has to be realistic and see the writing on the wall. IMHO, that is.
Private pensions have been tried. The funds get raided and the pension holders end up with nothing. Not the answer.
It’s a bit of a myth that we’re all living longer, some are but that’s not the norm in my experience as most of my old mates have died in their 50s, and there’s still a lot of folk dying in their 60s.
Have you not noticed life expectancy has now started to fall? Worse in manual jobs and poorer areas….