My mother is in her late fifties, not in very good health and she has just received notice she will not be allowed her state pension at the age of 60, as she had been promised in written declaration that this would be so. Instead, she needs to work until she is 66, for a lower pension!

She has been a tax payer all her working life. And according to the government this is what she deserves.

justice or what

Depends on your definition of 'justice'. The reality is the country can pay the pensions it can afford. There is a reason that everyone does not retire at 50 years old for example.

"My mother is in her late fifties, not in very good health and she has just received notice she will not be allowed her state pension at the age of 60, as she had been promised in written declaration that this would be so. Instead, she needs to work until she is 66, for a lower pension! "


I wonder if your mother views herself as lucky to live in one of the few countries in the world where universal healthcare, free at the point of delivery ensure her poor health is treated combined with the peace of mind that she will receive a pension and not have to work until she drops.

Typical last two comments from the likely already well-heeled.

The access to NHS care is likely to be over once this bunch of money mad capitalists in Government get their way on it (current bill must be dropped entirely, ort even in an emasculated form, would for the basis for full privatisation (USA style most likely) during another Tory b*****d government.

As for welfare., having already lost two frinds to suicide and aggratvated health conditions, this passing of the Bill marks another nail in the coffin of decency, dignity and real protection for the sick and disabled in the UK. The Tories have always hated the idea of parting with a single penny to help others other than the few who gave to charity and a few philanthropists (mid-late 19thC mainly)

It was Joseph Rowntree who said around 1909 though that charity and Philanthropy were all very well but not the answer to poverty. It took until 1945 Labour Gov ( with two world wars, high unemployment -esp after WW1,the 1929 financial crash, Depression etc, during that period, to change things. Beveridge though was proposing and changing things during a time when mostly full employment (male) was still possible: women 'chained to the kitchen sink' still sadly, albeit due to post-war Keysianism etc and the Bretton Woods agreement et al. Also a time when little modern tech was available to reduce both job levels and incomes as is happening now.
REight wingers broke all this from 1970 Tricky Dicky Nixon broke Bretton Woods, at the behest of big business, followed in the mid-1980's by demented from birth in my view, Thatcher and Regaan. Major in the Uk allowed banks to 'creat online money' and allowed building socs to 'bribe' people to go for bank status (early 1990's)

We need not so much a sea change as and oceanic change in attitudes to money, incomes and work( incl voluntary as long as it doesn't take a single paid job for those health enough to do them- this being paid at a rate equivalant to the 'Living Wage' to ensure no-one really drops into poverty- the 'Citizen's Income' idea perhaps; and especially for those over 50 or 55 with long term health problems. Such as in maybe the first comment posters mother's situ...)

The New Economics Foundation's report 21 Hours (working week) and another sponsored by them regarding getting rid of 'online money creation'; which greatly helped lead to current financial debacles should be starting points. Closing ALL tax havens and the Robin Hood Tax aswell. No more Quantative Easing only to prop up banks and Government, but to Gov to spend ring fenced on green and infrastructure manufacturing projects incl housing albeit sensitively done as a priority.

If the top 20 people who 'own' £120billoin between them (albeit it varuous ways), were made to reliquish £110 bn to allow cancelling of ALL cuts and (£81bn and tax rises £29bn) the'd still have half a billion left each for their baubles!

OK not so easy to do as to say, but surely better than basically causing poverty, misery, and death as the Tories especially ID-S et al (and their Wisconsin USA style reforms) are deliberatly doing. Wisconsin now has 40% plus of it's people in poverty and queing for soup kitchens. If I.D-S etc like that so much, let them up sticks immediately on a one way ticket to live there- though let's keep their ill-gotten gains (Cameron's £30mill legacy, Osbourne's £3 mill one) to help give to decent people including the sick, disabled and those in work by paying a Living Wage to all...

Cue whining , winging , spin, denials, crocodile tears, blather etc from the Tories who crawl and slither on to this site.....