The Cheek of It.

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Image by Couleur from Pixabay
Regardless of the impact of coronavirus there remains a bigger risk to my retirement in the form of the Government.

Little by little (or rather too quickly in the case of the WASPI women of whom I'm one) the state retirement age or date upon which we qualify for a state pension has been increased. Moreover and despite the triple lock, the amount of our state pension trails woefully behind those paid in other European countries.

This month, adding insult to injury, the Home Secretary suggested on Radio 4 that economically inactive people between 16 and 64 years of age should do the unskilled work that migrant labourers have been doing prior to Brexit. Yes, on the basis that my seriously part-time position as Parish Clerk can hardly count, her definition of economically inactive included me!

That woman has got to be joking. Does she seriously think that after 6 years exploring Planet Retirement I am going back to the workforce anytime soon to pick fruit or work in a care home?

No thank you, Madam. I have lived independently of the state since retiring and paid my dues when I was working. I now volunteer my services to charities of my choice rather than profit making companies. I pick my own garden produce and help my ageing Mum as needed so I may have the expertise you are seeking but, throw me in jail or stop my non-existent state handouts if you want to, because I have no intention of gathering strawberries for farmers or bathing geriatrics all with the aim of making somebody else a nice healthy profit in your new nasty system.

Honestly if immigration is perceived as such a problem that we are looking to get the sick and retired out there in the labour market, the country really has gone well and truly bonkers, but then we have known that since 2016, haven't we?



Comments

Royce Shook said…
Well said, once retired, we have earned the right to volunteer or not volunteer and control our time. The article you referenced said of 8 million people not working only about 1.6 million are looking for work. Retired people and sick people should not have to cover for the governments' incompetence.
1 March 2020 at 00:39
Caree Risover said…
Scary too that when its own ‘intelligence’ is suggesting that there is going to be such a void in the labour market, it dreams up such clearly daft ideas.
1 March 2020 at 07:40
Treaders said…
Well said. I've only been retired 15 months but there's no way I'd go back to working in a nursing home or picking fruit (not that the government pays my pension anyway). And can they really pretend to think the "non-actives" are going to replace the immigrant work force any time soon (or ever)? They've gone barking mad!
3 March 2020 at 15:34
Caree Risover said…
I’m not sure which is worse, a government that’s barking or one that’s incompetent. Luckily, the UK doesn’t have to decide, because it’s getting both in one package.
3 March 2020 at 18:54
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