The Pensions Commission is chaired by Adair Turner, who is not a civil servant. Instead he is Vice Chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe, director of United Business Media and a professor at the LSE. He was previously Director General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and was also with BP and Chase Manhatten.

This guy clearly is not going to have to rely on an old age pension when he retires...

Perhaps people here would like to ask him at what age he will retire and what weekly pension he will get?

He is currently proposing that people should retire at 67 and get just 100 pounds per week.

His e-mail address is:

 adair_turner@ml.com

Go on, ask him!!!

I have two friends who are on incapacity benefit. I find it awkward to deal with the fact that both openly confess that their initial genuine problems are long gone, but they intend to stay on this benefit for the rest of their lives. Both claim chronic backpain, and laugh that the doctors cannot disprove it. They are otherwise lovely people.

How often does a needed and valuable social benefit get threatened with reduction or withdrawal because of the legions of abusers who creep out of the woodwork. End result is a reduction of help to those in genuine need.

Both justify this as taking money from "the government" but as it turns out it will have been from their genuinely incapacitated brothers and sisters.

' have two friends who are on incapacity benefit. I find it awkward to deal with the fact that both openly confess that their initial genuine problems are long gone, but they intend to stay on this benefit for the rest of their lives. Both claim chronic backpain, and laugh that the doctors cannot disprove it. They are otherwise lovely people.'

your friends might not be telling you the whole truth

I have chronic back pain,the consultant has been unable to find the cause because I have not had an MRI or other tests that would find out the cause.Sometimes I am in excruting pain but noone ever sees me then.They only see me on my better days when I go out.
Many people on longterm incapacity are in fact depressed but dont want it on their sick note.
Before i went on incapacity I was living on £53 a week dole and was unable to eat properly and my debts were getting bigger by the month,this is why people will stay on incapacity.dole has only gone up about a fiver since labour got in thus condemning people to fraud by taking illegal part time work,there are lots of business owners who only want to take on unemplyed people because they can pay them £3 an hour or less.
I would love to get a job,but once you are longterm unemployed noone will give you one.
I still sometimes apply,but not as often.You cannot begin to imagine what it like spending years,yes years applying for jobs most of which you never hear from,then getting the occasional interview and being rejected yet again.For people over the age of 50 it is virtually impossible to get a job unless you already have one, yes most jobs advertised are merely passed around among those who already have jobs,also many jobs are extremely low paid.

It suits the state to have a large army of surplus labour as it gives them more control over the workforce.


If you are miserable then no one wants to know you,hence your'friends' cheerfulness.
I now have about £20 more to live on than when I was on the dole but it is still difficult to manage.I am not proud of it but what else can one do.This is about survival.Without this I may be dead from suicide by now.
So you are wrong to resent your friends bit of extra money.Are you thinking od shopping them to the fraud section?Have you ever done anything to help them find work?One problem that people whohavnt worked for some time have is a total lack of references.

How much do you earn?