Just Awful

[happy daze john in oz]

Dont know what the full aussie pension is now, but believe it is about 1100 dollars a fortnight for a couple, about 550 a week, translated at 2 to the pound is 275 pounds a week. Should imagine is well above the English pension, I the same as everyone do not receive the proper UK one so don't know what it is. However whatever the English one is thought when I was last there would hate to have it as the only means of income. JS

John, kit is $1188.38 per couple per fortnight, but the increase currently at about 2.5% only comes twice a year, unlike UK who only get it once. But you must take into consideration the cost of living difference between the two. Prices are based on general wage costs, ours here in Oz are much higher than in UK.

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Hi Rodney.. just curious, how come you retired at 46 years, here in the UK it's 65 years with talk of it approaching 70 in the future.

Fred.

There is no retirement age, if you have the money you can go at any time. Retirement is not going to be 70, that will be the age you need to be to get the pension.

[j.sabourn]

John, think we get about half of that. Only find out when they send a letter. Paid 1160 dollars tax this year, is better than the 40,000 that I paid on average when working I suppose. There again the income was slightly higher. That tax man doesn't leave anyone alone to retire in peace and quite. Cheers John S

[cappy]

###dont think any reasonable person can complain about the uk pension ........if you had the forsight to also make other investments for your retirement you should be in a reasonable position to be contented ....as long as your plan comes to fruition ......my late mother in law who passed last year said she had never been so well of even though she worked all her life....she could not believe what she was due .........my only grouse is my council tax at 240 pounds per month times 10......but such is life and that is a little grouse i suppose.....as for the constant nattering about the nhs ........i only know from my family and friends who have needed to use it ....the service has been beyond compare .......sadly it has been used as a political football by the left ......regards cappy

[Captain Kong]

I do object that my neighbours on Benefits DO NOT pay taxes, Income taxes or Council Taxes and have never ever paid one penny into the system.
I have paid taxes all my life for 65 years a Tax Payer, I pay Council Taxes and they Tax my State Pension that I paid for .
Something wrong there.
As regards the NHS, I would not be here but for them. The Left do use it for the gullible as a political football.
Brian

[Jim Brady]

The NHS.I was at the hospital yesterday and I could not complain in the way in which I was dealt with and the outcome of the consultation by my doctor.My experience over the past 9 months I cannot fault.Many people have had bad experience's in the A&E and on the wards and you may notice it is not the "lefties" who are doing the complaining but the people on the front line.This is what the chair of the British Medical Association has to say about the NHS in todays paper,maybe he is a "leftie" I don't know.
Regards.
Jim.B.
NHS: Britain's top doctor says hospitals ''bursting at seams'' and slams Government's ''sticking plaster solutions'' - Mirror Online

[Rodney Mills]

Fred re. #39.

Both John in W.A. and Johno in Oz got it basically right in regards to me retiring at 46 and my wife at 36.

Got a question for ya'll. Last week I read a book written partially by the late British author Dick Francis and completed by his son (?) Felix Francis, titled "Damaged" and published in 2014, so it is current times. In the book a character purchases a round trip, first class train ticket from London to Portsmouth....Four hundred pounds?

I continually am shocked at prices quoted by ya'll in the posts, because I'm stuck in a time warp, back in the fifties when it comes to U.K. prices, but four hundred pounds seems outrageous. My last time over, I parked my rental car at a meter in London and it was a pound a minuet. Ten minuets equaled two weeks work as a 2nd. cook on the UCL...I choked.

Cheers, Rodney

[vic mcclymont]

Jim, like you I have no complaints regard NHS. Wife has R.A. and requires injections, weekly, and fortnightly. Sees the consultants on average every six months. Any problems gets an appointment in a matter of weeks.

[Lou Barron]

As Jim said #37 we pensioners are doing ok its how you looked ahead when you was in the work force and looked ahead to retirement how to have a few extra bob to enjoy life i know that a lot of people have had a bad spin with health and so forth but that is life

[Ron B Manderson]

If I live to get it , I would have to think hard
Spend it or invest wisely
Live is such a bitch at times.
Ron the batcave

[Red Lead Ted]

Terry you have never been more wide of the mark, how you reached that conclusion I don't know.That is the weekly pension that I receive and I certainly don't thank Cameron or Osbourne for it it is what I worked all my life for and paid into.I have always said pensioners of today are well off and it is all the young people of today who need tobe looked after,as regards young disabled I know about that as well nearer to me than what you would know.
Regards.
jim.B.

Jim, as I said mate I am not wishing to see you or any other pensionair loose anything your quite rightly are entitled, It was more of a quip on my part making a point, As for your disabled grandson I am only to well aware believe me I have a similar scenario to you and is why I wish for more help for my daughter, And more importantly the lad himself. Regard Jim Terry.