The Labour Government

[hampshireblue]

The current figure for people aged 16-24 in the UK who are ‘economically inactive’ (people not in work and not looking for work is 20.6 million. It has risen sharply since Covid and continues to increase. Admittedly not all of them are claiming benefits, but a decent chunk of them in all probability will be. The number of people not working due to long term sickness is now 7% of the working age population. This just isn’t sustainable.

Lets start with the definition of Economically Inactive:

" Economically inactive people are those without a job who are not seeking work and/or are not available to start work in the next two weeks. The main economically inactive groups are students, people looking after family and home, long term sick and disabled, temporarily sick and disabled, retired people and discouraged workers".

Now, how do you know what proportion are claiming benefits? Finger in the air, gut feeling? I count as one of those "economically inactive". I took retirement at 56 after a serious illness. I had paid not only into "the system" for 38 years but also into a company pension for that whole period. I now drawdown on the pension and pay 40% tax on it. So how am I economically inactive? The same applies to many of my ex colleagues who are taking advantage of the pension freedoms introduced in 2015 by Osborne, to retire, usually at about 57. They too will be put into the same statistical group as I am. We are far from being inactive economically but for some reason it's easy for the ONS to lob everyone not looking for work while being below retirement age into the same category. It's also easy for people on forums like this to pedal the idea that they are lazy scumbags. Looking at the list, in many cases nothing could be further form the truth.

The majority of benefits paid, apart from the state pension, is in the form of those paid to people in work. Effectively some employers are being subsidised because they pay such crap wages.

There is no doubt that long term sickness has risen-why? Could it be anything to do with "the system" no longer being able to offer the support it once did? Getting people treated quickly and efficiently is the key to having a healthy workforce but we have gone from high levels of patient satisfaction with the NHS in 2010 to where we are now. And don't blame C19 as the system was in a spiral long before that hit us.

So when you say the present state is "unsustainable" you're right. But the key is, what are your ideas for making it better?

 

[KS55]

How do you know what proportion are claiming benefits? Finger in the air, gut feeling? I count as one of those "economically inactive". I took retirement at 56 after a serious illness. I had paid not only into "the system" for 38 years but also into a company pension for that whole period. I now drawdown on the pension and pay 40% tax on it. So how am I economically inactive? The same applies to many of my ex colleagues who are taking advantage of the pension freedoms introduced in 2015 by Osborne, to retire, usually at about 57. They too will be put into the same statistical group as I am. We are far from being inactive.

There is no doubt that long term sickness has risen-why? Could it be anything to do with "the system" no longer being able to offer the support they once did? Getting people treated quickly and efficiently is the key to having a healthy workforce but we have gone from high levels of patient satisfaction with the NHS in 2010 to where we are now. And don't blame C19 as the system was in a spiral long before that hit us.

So when you say the present state is "unsustainable" you're right. But the key is, what are your ideas for making it better?

JD Vance says “Cut health benefits by getting better.”

 

[Vic]

America. My wife is a US citizen anyway.

Will you pay more on health insurance than any tax increase in the budget?

 

[Vic]

If it's the 5.71% that's predicted it'll be circa £650 which you fully deserve after paying in for 40 years.

What some people don't realise is the current cost of living increases eats into the savings us FOC's have made to make our retired life comfortable whereby some people in employment are now getting inflation busting pay rises.

A brick layer I know is now charging £300'a day and his "hod carrier" gets £170 a day, equivalent to £40k per year for a labourer.

The EU brickies have gone home.

 

[hilts]

The post said the "worst" thing is not that there might be a few million pensioners in the middle, struggling, but now not getting the WFA. The "worst" thing was that there are a small number of people who are marginally "less deserving" than a small number of people just over the pension credit limit.

Given that benefit entitlement will often open up additions from free prescriptions, or access to replacement boiler programmes, some of the right wingers on here must have been constantly outraged for the last few decades.

ps. If you there are a large number of pensioners who have only ever worked 2 days or even 20 months in their entire lives, I'd like to see the stats. Given the number who reach pension age without doing any work is apparently tiny, it's a huge stretch to imagine there is any kind of significant number who have hardly worked.

I have no idea j just said how many haven't worked a single day isn't that important more how many haven't regularly worked. None of this matters to the fact the govt are willing to put a number of pensioners at risk.

 

[stonerblue]

The current figure for people aged 16-24 in the UK who are ‘economically inactive’ (people not in work and not looking for work is 20.6 million. It has risen sharply since Covid and continues to increase. Admittedly not all of them are claiming benefits, but a decent chunk of them in all probability will be. The number of people not working due to long term sickness is now 7% of the working age population. This just isn’t

The current figure for people aged 16-24 in the UK who are ‘economically inactive’ (people not in work and not looking for work is 20.6 million. It has risen sharply since Covid and continues to increase. Admittedly not all of them are claiming benefits, but a decent chunk of them in all probability will be. The number of people not working due to long term sickness is now 7% of the working age population. This just isn’t sustainable.

Gotta be 18 in most cases to claim UC.

 

[inbetween]

The current figure for people aged 16-24 in the UK who are ‘economically inactive’ (people not in work and not looking for work is 20.6 million. It has risen sharply since Covid and continues to increase. Admittedly not all of them are claiming benefits, but a decent chunk of them in all probability will be. The number of people not working due to long term sickness is now 7% of the working age population. This just isn’t sustainable.

The 16-24 year old figure correlates directly with the rising numbers who are going to university. The inactivity rate for 16-24 year olds has steadily risen from 25% in the early 90's to 42% today. It hit 40% nearly 15 years ago so it hasn't really changed recently. Either 20% more kids are doing nothing compared to 40 years ago or 20% are staying in education later, my bet is the latter.

The biggest change over the years has been the huge reduction in economically inactive people who are approaching retirement. Clearly a lot less people are retiring early and instead are staying in work, probably because their pensions aren't worth enough after successive recessions and now they have no choice but to carry on working.

 

[Vic]

The old age pension was introduced when 5% of the population was over 65. That's now 20% and still rising.

The birthrate is going down.

What happens when there are more pensioners than people working to pay for pensions - and for the health care costs for millions of people in their 90s?

(Discuss without reference to the current outrage over winter fuel payments.)

 

[oldius]

The old age pension was introduced when 5% of the population was over 65. That's now 20% and still rising.

The birthrate is going down.

What happens when there are more pensioners than people working to pay for pensions - and for the health care costs for millions of people in their 90s?

(Discuss without reference to the current outrage over winter fuel payments.)

Across the western world, this is the picture, yet we have the lowest pension AND the highest retirement age. Meanwhile, swathes of companies who conduct their business here divert their profits to havens to reduce their tax bill. The two are incompatible: do business in this nation, pay tax in this nation.

 

[bluenova]

The 16-24 year old figure correlates directly with the rising numbers who are going to university. The inactivity rate for 16-24 year olds has steadily risen from 25% in the early 90's to 42% today. It hit 40% nearly 15 years ago so it hasn't really changed recently. Either 20% more kids are doing nothing compared to 40 years ago or 20% are staying in education later, my bet is the latter.

The biggest change over the years has been the huge reduction in economically inactive people who are approaching retirement. Clearly a lot less people are retiring early and instead are staying in work, probably because their pensions aren't worth enough after successive recessions and now they have no choice but to carry on working.

I thought that 20m sounded unusually high. Turns out more than half were people who had taken early retirement. Another quarter were either students, or people looking after their kids. There are also a chunk of people who are not working, but aren't looking (who are well off, or taking a break), and there will always be a significant number between jobs at any particular point in time.

There has been an increase after Covid, but that number was pretty high before too.