Report comment

Please fill in the form to report an unsuitable comment. Please state which comment is of concern and why. It will be sent to our moderator for review.

Comment

Under current rules the National Insurance fund, from which pensions are funded, has a credit balance of about £30Billion and is forecast to reach £61.7Billon in 5 years. Winter power subsidies, free bus passes, free TV licences etc are not paid for from this NI fund, but from general tax revenue. These extra benefits to all pensioners could be means tested to reduce the impact on all taxpayers. One issue the Lords should address is that of unfairly freezing the pensions of 4% of the UK's pensioners, 95% of whom are retired in Commonwealth nations with which the UK, post Brexit, will need to make trade agreements. The UK is the only OECD nation which discriminatorily and unfairly freezes a few of its pensioners' pensions. The saving of £600million is just 0.57% of the UK's annual £107Billion pension payment. To put this amount into perspective, a small increase in NI contributions of 0.6%, an average 40 pence per week, from 30Million pay packets would provide this £600million, 40 pence could buy "1 fag" per week, hardly a massive impact on the pay-packet of the average worker!!!

Your details

Cancel