OK, so some are quite keen on a Tory government I don’t know what I think, but I guess like many others we probably need some kind of change, be that not very drastic, but something which benefits all of us

Under a Tory government we would have to work longer for a state pension, could be a good thing depending on personal circumstances etc

George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor, will announce today that the Tories would raise the state retirement age to 66 in 2016. Labour’s policy is to set the retirement age at 66 in 2026, at 67 in 2036 and at 68 in 2046.

After finding this article I decided well OK, Ill summarise it briefly and then get some ‘ real people’ opinions courtesy of the original article

Mackname brings this interesting comment to the equation:

Firstly, quite frankly, increasing the rate of National Insurance is a much better idea than increasing age of pension. Secondly, what do we mean by working at old age? Does it mean full-time or part-time and how many hours it is? I don’t think that we can generalize working ability (also different working condition) as the same for everyone. Finally, this policy may cause obstacle for younger generation getting to work, etc.

Which is interesting as say you have an investment banker who’s job it is to sit say by a desk and then you have a manual labour kind of job such as a Brickie who’s job physically will affect him more then the Bankers – Cristal anyone?

2Barrows says this:

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, there are 11.1 million mortgages in the UK, with loans worth over £1.2 trillion. That is £1,200,000,000,000. For every 0.5% reduction in interest rates, borrowers save £6,000,000,000 in interest. That is £6 billion saved in interest payments per 0.5% change in rates. It would be far more equitable to take that saving (or part of it) as tax from those who are benefitting from artificially low rates of interest, rather than steal a year’s pension even though it is a pittance from those who probably really need it (where are the jobs for 65 year-olds now?); have paid contributions for it; have planned for it; and are probably already paying for the financial mess disproportionately because their savings income is reduced. The prudent, as usual, end up paying once, twice, and many times over. A first time buyer mortgage is well out of the cards for many right now…

I’m not even going to go into that one – it looks far to complicated to dissect and frankly I don’t have the time…

Cjdods is slightly more angry – perhaps he hasn’t worked and doesn’t have any form of savings and could well be being harangued by his local Corporate Bank.

So, pocket dipping Politicians now want us to work longer for their Coffers?? Typical Tory arrogance. Hate the lot of ‘em. Oh for a serious Political contender. It looks like out of the frying pan and into the fire if this lot get back in power.

Need I say any more on the subject – public (small sampled) opinion seems to be fairly mixed, which is a good sign, and definitely proves that this upcoming general election will be interesting!