Proposed Retirement Age.

[Captain Kong]

I think John gets the £200 heating allowance in Holland. am I right John?? I think they can get it in Spain also.
I agree with the above posts. I get nothing off the Government but the basic State Pension. I paid NI Stamp all my working life and income taxes and still do for the last 62 years. Now I do not believe that someone somewhere is working to keep my state pension going, I have paid in and still am, not counting the other taxes like 20% VAT for 62 years. I have earned my miserable state pension, no one else earned it for me.
Cheers
Brian .....off to watch DADS ARMY, TO HAVE A LAUGH.

[John Cassels]

Now let's keep this in context gentlemen. I was under the impression that the current workforce paid for todays pensions ,
as in most European countries. If this is not the case in the UK then it aint me who lives on another planet.
If it is the case the David owes a round of thanks to his "recent immigrants"who are contributing to his pension.

My initial reason for commenting was David's reference to the increase in age of concessionary bus passes from 60
to 62. There are very few countries who provide this free and substantial benefit and he should be well pleased
to recieve it in the first place.

I am not aware of any heating allowance . It has not been the subject of any correspondance between myself and
Newcastle. If offered , I will of course gladly accept as some poor east european recent immigrant has probably
worked hard to provide this benefit.

Lastly , no , I will not share the other benefit. None of you would qualify anyhow as it has to do with an obscure
EEC regulation.

[Chris Allman]

I am afraid I do not agree with ex pats getting any allowance. If they have contributed to their pension then fair enough, they are entitled to the equivalent amount of pension they have contributed to but that should be that.

If by their own choice, they leave the UK to live in another country then they should forfeit any extra allowances such as heating allowance. They are not contributing to the UK economy by paying local taxes and VAT as Gulliver rightly points out, nor are they paying the energy prices that we are paying, so why should they get any extra payments or benefits paid by us UK citizens, who don't forget, are still paying Income Tax on our Pensions and as such paying for their allowances.

As for getting other benefits from the EEC through obscure regulations, this should ensure that any payments from the UK other than the O.A.P. should be stopped totally.

Chris.

[vic mcclymont]

I have no problem with expats receiving the allowance.
I disagree with family allowance being paid to children who are resident in their own country and their father is claiming benefits or is working here.
Family allowances etc should only be for residents of the UK or expats who contributed to our system.

[Les Woodard]

I can assure you Chris that I do not get any of those allowances here in Oz. What I get is 60% of the UK pension and the wife gets 60% of my pension on top. This is frozen at the amount we start on and get no more rises so in ten or more years we will still get the same amount. Our Australian pension is different in the aspect that it is income and asset tested and we get the lesser amount plus they take 50% of our UK pension from our Australian pension. This results in our pension here in Oz going up and down because of the exchange rate. Now the systems are much the same as to where the money comes from to pay for all of this. If years ago they had banked the money for future use as pension then what is being said is right in the fact that we only get back what we contributed to the system. We all know that successive governments have dipped into the pot and relied on taxation to foot the bill which the way I see it is the basket case that is the pension fund of today. Because of the baby boomers there where more workers than retirees hence more money coming in and the old people where not living as long. In fact was not unusual years ago that they would die before pension age. Now that the baby boomers are coming up for retirement the ratio of worker to pensioner is becoming a problem for the governemts of today and hence all this shite about cutting costs. Can understand what John C is saying that the pensions are being paid from tax's collected from todays workforce. What does seem unfair to me is if I was to move to the Philipines where cost of living is cheaper I would also be entitled to all the extra increases in the UK pension and probably all the allowances as well. But I am just grateful for what I get and can not for the life of me see why the feck I should whinge and complain about it all. Face facts we are alive and surely that is the biggest bonus of all. Of course we are going to be screwed by our pollies but then again we have ended up with the ones we deserve have we not.

To sum up the pollies have been fiddling with the books for years and now it is time to have an audit with neither party wanting to own up to the mess they fostered.

[Tony Morcom]

pensions.jpg

[robpage]

AVERAGE RETIREMENT AGES IN EUROPESourced by Eurostat from 2007 in a 2009 paper - See the full list (p.78 of the PDF)
Country Average retirement age State pension age
France 59.4 60
Greece 60 65 (m) 60 (w)
Italy 60.4 65 (m) 60 (w)
Germany 62 65
Spain 62.1 65
Portugal 62.6 65
UK 62.6 65 (m) 60 (w)
Netherlands 63.9 65
Ireland 64.1 66
Norway 64.4 62

So in the Countries where the euro is stuffed , Spain Italy and Greece , They all retire before we do , I really think that sucks !!! I retied at 58 and to be honest by then I had had enough . I know builders labourers , who have worked hard all their lives doing a full days work into their seventies who seem to have a lot more tenacity than i do . My Bus Pass , obtained at 60 , My heating allowance , awarded at 61 , My pension when I get it at 65 , I don't regard as Free , I regard it as forty two years of contributions paid into the system , The only return on that investment was six weeks Job-seekers allowance some twenty five years ago . When I look at he Tax and National Insurance that I have paid in , well I think I am getting a poor deal on the returns , If that National Insurance had been paid into a private scheme I would be on five times the pension .

Just out of interest I believe in Two years time when I get the payout from the pension , I believe it to be £97.65 a week ( Euro 123.30 ) how does that compare with the Netherlands. Because I think , and John Cassals may prove me wrong , that we are the lowest paid pensioners in Northern Europe

[John Cassels]

Chris Allman - like it or lump it but the Uk must adhere to EEC. regs . As said , I do not as yet get any heating allowance ( whatever that is).

Do you pay National Insurance contributions on your pension ? .

Rob , no , I cannot prove you wrong. Don't know about all EEC lands but can confirm that both Dutch and Belgian state pensions
are far ( and I mean FAR ) above the UK state pension.
Then again , we don't get heating allowances nor any sort of free or reduced bus and train travel !.

Good point re the retirement age in those 3 countries - also the three with the biggest € problem. Caused huge amounts of aggro
here as well as a lot of bad feeling towards Brussels who apparently knew for years that Greece was going down the sink and did
nothing.

[Captain Kong]

- like it or lump it but the Uk must adhere to EEC. regs .
.
Hopefully not for long, I hope they use eUROPE AS A NUCLEAR TESTING GROUND.
.
It has destroyed my Nation.

[john sutton]

Is it not a bit insulting to think that a persons choice of activities in retirement is an athema?.We do what we want to do when we want to do it and if a certain subsriber to our site would rather be in a box good luck to him.Who am I to criticise his wishes and who is he to criticise anyone elses retirement preferences.
I retired at 60 and am still enjoying myself immensly after 18 yrs.I dont go anywhere ,my life is full with the jobs around the house,my 3 cats ,my dog and mywife(2nd and 26 yrs younger than me )
Incidently I have just installed new light fittings all over the house(it aged me considerably)and am now familiar with spanish light fittings if anyone needs advice.
keep taking the tablets
john sutton