Lord Bichard: Retired people could work for pensions

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

So, the age where you can expect a little leeway and some services as a given or a right is getting later and later. God forbid that our extented lifespans ever become a burden to the state.

Retired people should be encouraged to do community work such as caring for the "very old" or face losing some of their pension, a peer has suggested.
Lord Bichard, a former benefits chief, said "imaginative" ideas were needed to meet the cost of an ageing society.
And although such a move might be controversial, it would stop older people being a "burden on the state".
The peer is a member of a committee investigating demographic changes and their impact on public services.
The panel was told that the transfer of wealth from young to old in the UK was the highest in Europe.
Lord Bichard, a former head of the Benefits Agency and top civil servant at the Education Department, who is probably best known for chairing the 2004 inquiry into the Soham murders, said the debate on rising healthcare and pension costs needed to be broadened out.
"Are there ways in which we could use incentives to encourage older people, if not to be in full time work, to be making a contribution?," he asked the rest of the committee.
"It is quite possible, for example, to envisage a world where civil society is making a greater contribution to the care of the very old, and older people who are not very old could be making a useful contribution to civil society in that respect, if they were given some incentive or some recognition for doing so."

(More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20044862)

[l'Enfermé]

An increasingly aging population would be a heavy burden in a communist society too, though.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

There isn't a real problem here, even under bourgeois society which could easily tax the rich at a higher rate to fund these benefits.

[x-punk]

They have attacked most groups in society with their cuts so its no surprise they are setting their sights on pensioners now.

I reckon they are just testing the water with this just now as pensioners are one of the hardest groups to attack in this manner. Many of them are financially independent, they have a lot of free time, they tend to be politically active and also, unlike other groups, most people assume or hope they will be pensioners one day and thus any attack on pensioners is really an attack on everyone.

However, maybe its just my imagination, but i have noticed peoples attitudes changing towards many pensioners recently. As other groups have felt the back of the government's hand many people now struggle just to keep their head above water. Young people have been severely hit, many families are indebted up to their eyeballs with colossal mortgages and arrears etc and the cost of living and subsequently the quality of life is deteriorating for many. However, many now see pensioners as having an unfairly high quality of life. Many own their own homes (they bought when houses were affordable) and are financially independent, something that looks like an impossible reality for many young people today. Many retired early with generous pensions and for many younger people today this again seems like an impossibility. Moreover, when the other groups were being attacked (unemployed, young mothers etc) many people saw the pensioners as not really giving a shit about it.

Although this would be true for some, the reality is that many pensioners are very poor and live in poverty. They have struggled all their lives and now can barely afford to turn their heaters on in winter. And this is the group who will be most severely hit by these measures. Moreover, many older people do care deeply about what happens to the younger people as many have families in difficult situations and many just have a social conscience. But, from the govts point of view, if they are going to make cuts on pensioners this is probably the easiest time to push them through when support for pensioners is probably the lowest its been for a long time. So its no real surprise they are starting to look at these measures now.

To me, the govt is sending out a clear message. If you require the state to help you financially for whatever reason you will do their bidding and work as they require it. However, if you are financially independent you can get on and enjoy life. All this is does is breed more competitiveness between workers, further dividing them and pushing down wages and working conditions. Moreover, this disgusting measure of forcing pensioners back into the workplace will only increase the amount of labour chasing a limited and ever decreasing number of jobs, again further driving down wages and working conditions.