Any other pensioners here?

I thought it was, "To those, according to their needs; from those, according to their abilities"?

I had a job 40 years before retirement for a period around 1.5 years and my the salary was commensurate with a very junior member of staff in an industry that paid skilled workers around the average industrial wage. My compulsory pension contribution was taken from my pay packet.

Some time later the pension scheme was wound up at a time when it had a large surplus which was distributed to pension members before being held by a third party financial institution as pension pot that couldn't be taken until state retirement age. 40+ years later it has given me a pension of £3k per year albeit with future payments not linked to inflation above 2%??

This has to be put into context as a lot of today's value of the pension is due to it being invested as inflation would have reduced the initial amount in the pot by at least 8x, and in my case the distribution of the surplus.

It might have started that way, but the weaponized version that today' Leftists use to wreck everything is as I said.

Those things can be found in *people* *in* *the* *UK*.

They are members of society, of course. But that does not mean that the society in the aggregate subscribes to any or all of those things. Thet's because there are also people who don't practise them.

There are no laws to prevent discrimination in general and neither should there be. Selecting applicants for any job necessarily INVOLVES discrimination, if only against the under-qualified or the over-qualified.

When the NHS is appointing surgeons, you want the not-so-competent and the incompetent to be discriminated against, don't you?

If you don't, you're in a minority. Same with teachers. Same with (I hope) the police. And judges.

The best post of yours I've ever seen.

Low bar.

And that, in a nutshell, is your explanation for inequality?

No idea. I'd like to think we all had enough.

The question wasn't about absolutes.

It was about relativities.

Hello, is there an intelligent human being in there?

I don't need any excuse for inequality. I'm not God.

Inequality is part of the world. People who pretend it isn't are living in Lala land.

Indeed.

It wasn't a *reduction*, it was a reset, back to their original position, and still far batter off than they were 25 years ago.

I know that for years, British people retired to the Indian Ocean French overseas territory of Reunion, also got the 'Winter Fuel allowance', as did huge numbers living in other hot parts of the EU.

And for 50 years, todays whinging pensioners jetted off to Spain for their hols oblivious to the possibility that one day they would be retired and those absurdly low energy prices of the

As they (the Gov) will be in Novemeber if the mooted raid on dividends and other tax increases materialises

As was my reply since reaching SPA depends on whether you hit that age before or after April 2016

Now use the ONS inflation graphs to see what that £8K is actually worth compared to what you claim you paid in.

BTW, most private pension contracts started back then (*)front-loaded commission so that most of your first 2 years (and sometimes longer) contributions vanished as charges, and if you stopped paying in, then another clause would mean ongoing charges would soon munch through what was left.

QED, I struggle to believe your claim that you paid in £500 for just one year and still ended up with that amount after 40 years.

(*) Mrs T's pensions changes where people could be (mis)sold private pensions and contract out of SERPS started in 1988. I started two in that year under the 'new' rules.

Amusing, since _yours_ is clearly a "weaponised version" if there ever was such a thing.

Andrew said that whether you got the old or new pension depended on when you were born (and that was correct).

You said (if I interpret the attributions correctly!):

"Err, no. It primarily depends on whether you retired before or after April 2016?, [sic]".

But it doesn't. Irrespective of the date of retirement (which may be years away), it's purely based on whether you were born before that all important date in April 2016. You can get your old or new pension while still working if you want it. Retirement is not a requirement.

So you really ARE trying to argue that a reduction in income was not a reduction in income (and are now trying to argue that it was an increase! :-)

Have you been studying at the Diane Abbott School of Higher Mathematics?

And?

Do you begrudge pensioners their pensions?

It seems you do.

But hang on long enough and if you're lucky and don't go under a bus or anything, YOU'll be a pensioner some day. I wish you well in your journey.

And you didn't know the origina and genesis of the WFA scheme.

Was that their fault?

If "No", what are you talking about?

If "Yes", please explain your view that pensioners are responsible for high world fuel prices.

If you can.

APOLOGY: That was RJH.