Vocal Voices

Well here it comes, pensioners are to be hit in the next couple of years. Tax allowances will either be frozen or in some cases will disappear altogether. What incentive is there to save for your old age these days - you just seem to lose by it.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17472829



Basically, if I was earning over £150,000 a year I would have my tax rate cut. If I was a pensioner with £100,000 savings I would lose all tax allowances

Incentive for everyone who works, saves, runs a small business is being wrung out of us squeeze by squeeze. Last year 2011/2012 my income was higher than normal and initially I was delighted but every bit of this increase has vanished in income tax so where is the benefit of my success? Oh! Silly me! Gone to buy flat screen TVs and billiard tables and a sports car for a murderer who fathered seventeen children and killed six of them.

While there are people better off on benefits than those who go to work something is very wrong. So the 1% cap on benefits is hurting. Try being a saver, a worker, self employed and feel the hurt!

Cross with the Piddle-Takers!

I'm on Annual Leave at the moment. Didn't stop me getting a text yesterday to ask if I can do some extra-time over the next couple of weeks in order to hit a deadline. My response was 'yes, but I want time off in lieu' the extra tax and NI wouldn't make it worth my while having more pay and my time is more precious to me.

I don't mind in the slightest paying tax and NI because we need to pay for our NHS and education and the safety net which is our Benefits system, etc. I can afford to eat, keep warm, drive a car and go on holiday: realistically, anything more is a bonus and so I willingly give to maintain the country, and those who are struggling or in need. But like you Fugi, and like many more, I get just a little bit irritated and annoyed by those who take the p1ss and take us for mugs, but I can't blame anyone for 'working the system' whilst we have a system that can be 'worked'. So, I get even more irritated and annoyed by those who would rule over us and who allow p1ss taking by being incapable of joined-up thinking!

Well I don't willingly give to the country. I have given quite enough. I am going to be penalised now (like many others) for working hard and putting money aside for my old age.

Ooj wrote:I get even more irritated and annoyed by those who would rule over us and who allow p1ss taking by being incapable of joined-up thinking!

The next time that joined-up thinking happens in government it will be a first.

Those being hit are the ones who down the decades have followed the wisdom and the rules of saving for their futures. That is now being stolen from them because they are an easy target and there is not much they can do about it.

Anyone in their mid twenties doing a career forecast well into the future and discovering that they will never be 'rich' would be a fool to rely on cash savings. A mix of savings plus 'value' that does not show up in a bank account would be far more sensible - antiques, art, gold, jewellery...

Rodo wrote:Well I don't willingly give to the country. I have given quite enough. I am going to be penalised now (like many others) for working hard and putting money aside for my old age.

Aye, the more you have the more you have to worry about. Spend it, quick! Give it away to those whole only inherit it, anyway. Enjoy it and enjoy seeing your loved ones enjoy it, before it's swallowed up by something to which you object. Once it's gone, it's gone and you may drop down dead today and you can't take it with you. Once it's gone and if you live, the taxpayers will have to help keep you (although it may not be in the manner to which you've become accustomed).

The fact is, we are still in a very real recession - blimmin' double/triple/quadruple dip means sod-all - and apart from the seriously rich, we're all feeling the strain. It's not fair, it's not right, but that's life . . . and I'm saying that from the perspective of someone having had all our life savings stolen by bankers.

Workingman wrote: . . . A mix of savings plus 'value' that does not show up in a bank account would be far more sensible - antiques, art, gold, jewellery...

Ah but, eventually 'they' will cotton on to that and will be quick enough to bring in some 'material goods' tax!! I'm surprised they've not yet re-introduced the windows tax.

We'd be better off rewinding time and doing away with money altogether and live self sufficiently and co-operatively. Now there's a thought.

I often find it interesting that the "tax the rich" scenario always comes with expectations as to who is "rich" and not.

Simply put, in this administration" the "rich" are that 70% who have more than those on benefits. And they will tax them as that is core LD policy.

The "super rich" are just one category of the rich. What the coalition ensures is that the benefits get squeezed as well as the "rich". The only one's who will gain are those who are in the very slim bracket between benefits and "rich".

That's life. That's how we avoid grinding austerity whilst the government continues to spend. Someone has to pay for it and that someone is us.

Suff, I used 'rich' in the way that I did because of what you say - rich is relative in the same way as poor is.

Where I live many of the people live in four/five bedroomed semis or detached houses, double garages, two cars. They are richer than those in The Gipton or Middleton, but the reality is that they are well-off. In contrast with many other areas of the city they are average, yet these are the ones, all of them, being hit. Rich enough to have been caught in the Child Benefit mess, but not so rich as to get a 5p tax cut. These are the ones who should be saving in other ways rather than in money, property or shares. Many of them will at some stage have been Tory voters. I wonder how many will be having a rethink?

The other rich, the really rich, live in different areas of the suburbs, or the old centre, and they are bulletproof - as bulletproof as the real scroungers under Labour.

The whole system needs sorting out.

Rodo wrote:Well I don't willingly give to the country. I have given quite enough. I am going to be penalised now (like many others) for working hard and putting money aside for my old age.

Agree with you Rodo.
Because I get a private pension from my former employer, over £100 per week is deducted from the graduated pension which is in addition to the basic state pension. The graduated pension has not been increased for at least two years like the basic state pension. Fortunately we are still able to go on cruises and go dancing and are still reasonably healthy considering our age.
If we have to have any repairs done on the house we will always pay cash.