The Conservative Party

[liveandletdive]

Daily Mail Readers and Reform Gammons, a large number of whom are on State Penion, a none means-tested benefit that you just have toask for when you reach a certain age!

And I suppose your A Guardian reader and a Labour Gammon..?

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

State pension, a none means tested benefit, are you serious you clown..

What else would it be?

 

[domalino]

Eh? If I decide to top myself it costs 1.5 mil? That cant be right. Samaritans will say anything

I can see it adding up. There’s probably got to be some sort of police investigation, forensics maybe? Possibly an ambulance/paramedic depending on how dead you are when found. A coroners inquest. Probate, funeral costs. Maybe counselling and prescriptions for your grief stricken loved ones or whoever finds you.

Depending on your job you suddenly dying could cause all sorts of costs in productivity or resources.

Don’t sell yourself short.

 

[liveandletdive]

What else would it be?

A wage/regular income paid by the government.
We've paid into for 40+ years, unlike benefits which can be paid to someone who just sits on their ass and have never paid taxes/NI in their entire lives.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

A wage/regular income paid by the government.
We've paid into for 40+ years, unlike benefits which can be paid to someone who just sits on their ass and have never paid taxes/NI in their entire lives.

It’s no different to any other non means tested welfare payment, such as winter fuel allowance.

Who is eligible to sit on their <arse> (English derivative) for 40 years and claim any benefits consistently outside of the infirm?

(Excluding tax credits to supplement shit wages to enhance shareholder dividends)

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Suicide is expensive. Around £1.5m costs to society for each suicide, according to Samaritans.

How do they work that out?

 

[I'm With Stupid]

A wage/regular income paid by the government.
We've paid into for 40+ years, unlike benefits which can be paid to someone who just sits on their ass and have never paid taxes/NI in their entire lives.

I get that's how it's sold to everyone. And no-one is saying that it shouldn't work like that. But the reality is that when you say you "pay in," that suggests some sort of investment that it saved for your retirement. In reality, National Insurance is just another tax that is immediately spent, and you are then promised a cut of future taxpayer's tax payments to pay for your retirement. Effectively, there is no relation between what you paid in and what you get out. Your contributions paid for your parents'/grandparents' pensions, and my contributions will pay for yours.

And that's fine, as long as the unofficial contract between the generations holds up. It's not fine when the state pension (as modest as it is) is ring fenced while working people's wages are stagnating, and nurses, train workers, teachers, etc, are told they can't get a pay rise to match inflation. If for no other reason than the practical reality, which is that if working people aren't paying enough taxes, there'll be no money to pay for your pension anyway.

Obviously, I'm very aware that it risks turning into this battle where generations turn against each other, rather than turning against the people who got us into this mess. But I think it's important that pensioners face up to the economic reality of how their pension is paid, and if you keep voting for (not all, but in higher numbers than any other age group) isolationist, tax-avoiding politicians that fuck up the economy, there won't be enough money to 'pay out' your pension no matter how much you 'paid in.'

The other option, of course, is to switch to an entirely individual model, where your National Insurance contributions go directly into a government-operated savings account, are invested on your behalf and can't be touched by anyone until your retire. Then you really will get out what you put in. But it'll take 50 years to transition to something like that, and in the meantime, we've still got to pay for pensioners somehow.

 

[TinFoilHat]

12 hours sat in A&E with a friend suffering.

Overheard a couple of paramedics saying Grantham are refusing patients and sending them here. Ambulances backed up and there's people laying on trolleys waiting for beds. Whilst a tarquin is demanding he gets seen first.

The staff on duty all look knackered.

What a shit show.

 

[Mon Autre]

Eh? If I decide to top myself it costs 1.5 mil? That cant be right. Samaritans will say anything

Man on the internet debunks the claims of a specialist charity because what they're saying simply doesn't sound right to him. Try being more curious before you just shut someone down.

I haven't seen that statistics myself but it's not hard to see how the economic costs associated with a suicide could spiral. The involvement of the emergency services, a coroner, loved ones taking time off work to grieve etc. The lost economic output/potential of the person who has died.

 

[MellowJoe]

Man on the internet debunks the claims of a specialist charity because what they're saying simply doesn't sound right to him. Try being more curious before you just shut someone down.

I haven't seen that statistics myself but it's not hard to see how the economic costs associated with a suicide could spiral. The involvement of the emergency services, a coroner, loved ones taking time off work to grieve etc. The lost economic output/potential of the person who has died.

You're right mate, I'm surprised it's only 1.5 million to be honest