Work until you drop, Literally
It seems former DWP Secretary Iain Duncan Smith is not content with the 150,000 or so avoidable deaths inflicted on vulnerable people since 2010 and the misery of the disabled and poor caused by benefit cuts and the Universal Credit monster he birthed.
He has now turned his privileged eye onto pensions and a plan to push them even further away from people who need them – and Boris Johnson and his cronies like the cut of his jib (with the emphasis on cut).
The Tories intend to push the state pension age up even further than its already-raised 68 – to seventy-five years of age.
In doing so, they will – and they unquestionably know it – be condemning millions of working-class people, especially men, to die without ever receiving the pension for which they will have paid for decades.
To literally work until they drop.
Average life expectancy among men in many working-class areas is lower than the seventy-five they would need to reach in order to claim their state pittance – the UK already has the worst pension of any advanced nation:
But in many parts of the UK – especially its northern, working-class areas but also in parts of Wales and Northern Ireland, millions will not live to claim even that:
“Tories – if they can’t kill you, they’ll at least make sure you die in miserable poverty.”
The numbers missing out on their pensions under the Tory plan look set only to increase, because the impact of Tory government and cuts has been falling life expectancy for the first time in decades:
Tories – if they can’t kill you, they’ll at least make sure you die in miserable poverty.
But could this be Johnson’s ‘#DementiaTax‘ moment? In the 2017 general election campaign, Theresa May blundered in anouncing a plan to force older people to pay more for care in old age, which was quickly and accurately dubbed the ‘dementia tax’ – and then even made a shambles of climbing down from it. Given that Tory voters tend to be older, it was a disastrous error for her hopes of a majority in Parliament.
Boris Johnson is expected to call a general election this autumn – and to even consider this pensions move now only underlines both his absolute toxicity and his rash incompetence. It can only drive away the working-class leave voters he hopes will support him.
As long as they get to hear about it, of course. Over to you.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here for a monthly donation via GoCardless. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
If you wish to reblog this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
All these aged workers dropping dead at work will really bugger up the Health and Safety statistics.
“condemning millions of working-class people, especially men, to die without ever receiving the pension for which they will have paid for decades.”
Just leave out ‘working class’. It’s true that the greatest impact is on the poorest – which, in turn relates to class. But the fact is that this impacts across a massive swathe of wage earners – working and middle class, and there is a need to create an alliance across the spectrum.
In fact, the proposal is inimical to the majority of the population – even those with modest assets, and this is what should be highlighted in political terms.
The general extension of life expectancy is a factor that any social programme has to take into account, but this doesn’t correlate with fitness for (let alone desirabilty of) working life.
This is a policy designed for wide opposition to the Tories.
Absolutely. To those who do survive that long, they will have lost several years of pension,
Absolutely vital to publicise this and hang it around their necks like an anvil. Everybody who reads this blog must play a part in getting this message out.
And what percentage of your ‘middle classes’ work in physically strenuous manual labour, compared to the ‘working’ class? What’s the difference in life expectancy between the classes, again?
‘Just leave out working class’ – What? Like they don’t exist, or summit?
You’ve got some weird aversion not only to/about the working classes but even to people mentioning them.
If you go to work,whatever type of job …We all are working classe,and thats why I use the word.Of course if you have joined the the royals or the titled class then you have deliberately set yourself apart.I would much prefer a classless society,but whilst we accept the ridiculous system we live under of subjects…..we are doomed to a class ridden country So whatever income level or educational level we are working classe and proud of it.
To me the working class is best defined by being reliant on wages, the ever-present knowledge that they’re only a redundancy away from penury and that their family depends not only on them but on their employers not screwing up or taking a dislike to them.
The insecurity of knowing that one’s family’s safety and comfort is at the whim of some greedy capitalist is an unpleasant thing for all but the most unthinking.
And yes, having worked hard physically for half my life and sat at a desk/bench for the other half I can confirm that manual labour is far harder and far less rewarding – but, apart from the physical danger from harsh environments and hazardous materials, physical labour keeps you far fitter and healthier.
What eats away at the working class is low wages and the powerlessness of working for bad bosses.
I chose not to have a family and I have some skills so I was always able to drop tools and walk, and I often did.
Most workers aren’t that lucky.
I accept that I speak from a privileged position in this but I don’t think we should treat differently those workers doing the bidding of the Tories.
Granted they’re doing despicable work which I wouldn’t do and which hurts the less fortunate – but they shouldn’t carry the can for the Tories who gave the orders.
As the Tories know and the Gestapo knew – threaten their children, even indirectly, and people do what they’re told.
A Johnson majority government would see an ultra Thatcher type screw down on all of us. It seems incredible that this might happen with the tacit support of the Lib-Dems and bitter ex-politicians like Umma and the Israeli lobby. Swinson is clearly still a Tory. Maybe she’ll be insisting her choice of PM will adopt her personal policy of selling off Britain’s forests? Even her Tory bosses thought that was going too far!
Her first reaction to Corbyn’s plan, before she declared it ‘nonsense’, was to say she could never ‘put a Marxist in power’. No doubt she fears a Bolshevik style Revolution in the weeks Corbyn would be in power? Or does she (rightly) fear an electoral collapse when the country is asked to chose between Johnson and a Labour Government? It’s fascinating how the media are now simply avoiding the issue not sure what they can say about her now supporting a pro-Brexit policy with K Clarke, the 80 year old with a lifetimes opposition to anything left of centre. A bit like Swinson herself.
Making it all the more vexing that Jeremy Corbyn has thrown away the next election by backing the EU, stabbing the electorate in the back and chucking away the Leave-supprting target seats.
And trampling over the corpse of Tony Benn and a generation of REAL socialists in so doing.
Danny – you are pursuing farcical claims into the realms of the utterly loopy. Anyone who thinks that Brexit offers any future worth the name needs a brain transplant.
The majorityof Labour votes in ‘Leave supporting seats’ were for Remain. You want to bin those? What crass stupidity to really align with the extreme Tories under the pretence of radicalsm!
The small element of Leaver support is something progressive politics can happily abandon to the birds.
RH
Do the maths under FPTP if Labour leave voters switch to Tories or Brexit party in leave seats then that seat will be lost
Are you really saying we can win leave seats on remain votes alone
DANNY
No evidence JC or party have changed policy, same as 2017 with promise to pitch Labour brino v No Brexit, how do you think that vote will go
Doug, after three years of the slow drip of information leaking out, not even including the recent disclosure in the Times, many Labour leave voters just like other sensible voters, have realised that they were sold a pig in a poke and would not now touch Brexit with a barge pole.
Yes capital’s latest ruse is to get more out of working people by making them work for more years.
Labour should push for 65 for All and a 35 hour week leading to a 4 day working week for all.
Earlier retirement would also release jobs to young people plus make available more volunteers for voluntary groups plus unions and politics etc.
And in reality everything is dead – machines, computers, buses, trains, cafes, shops, pubs etc until you add the magic ingredient – working people.
We need societies which serve us working people not capital, we need to free citizens, at present we are ‘time poor’ so give us citizens more time to follow their interests like sport, art, music, holidays, walking, the theatre, be with friends and family, to go back to study etc.
We need Labour in and the Right Wing Neo-Liberal Capitalist Legal Thieves Tory Barbarians out!
The Tories time and time demonstrate they know the price of everything and the value of nothing!
Danny, If Corbyn said Israel was the greatest country on earth you may possibly have something good to say about him!
Jack T,
no, then he’d just be reported as extracting the nephrolar filtrate!
Given that the ‘Tory heartland’ is the Costa Geriatrica this could be their downfall.
Even if they retract, backpedal or deny it the damage might already be done.
Which begs the question, “Why NOW?”
Does it occur to anyone else that they’ve seen the impossibility of a good brexit and want to be voted out to avoid carrying the can?
Can anyone here not imagine brexit coinciding with another financial crash or another oil price shock or both?
Both are distinct possibilities.
David See my post below. I apologise I posted it before I read you comments .
None necessary Smartboy, I assumed as much 🙂
I hope the party thinkers have strategies ready to smash the Toxics out of the park once the election is called – given the scale of their ineptitude the opportunities will multiply with the MSM half-neutered.
I think maybe even a medium to heavy downturn – rather than a full financial crash – will be enough to open the EU up to a ‘new deal’ type response this time. That’s when we table nationalisation I reckon.
Anyone demanding QE and austerity again is likely to be lynched.
No Danny it’s people like you and Swinson and Umma who will ensure we suffer a 5 year far right Government.
Millions of Tory voting I’m alright Jack and Jills with their Private Pensions will be incensed that they’ll have to wait 8 more years to get their Holiday/Cruise cum Claret top up funds
Oh, FFS – don’t be so pathetically out of touch with reality – it’s not a good look. Hold hands with somebody and try to get in touch with the living.
David…..The Torys are the most politicised extreme party in British. politics in my liftime and I am seventy soon.They believe that the tory supporters will be pleased with anything that kicks yes…..the working class.All social security payments are to the people little more than charity too the peasentry and that includes the state pension.This move is inevitable from them,and predicted by many..including myself.We are going backwards,whilst bankers try to stave off the coming crash,the torys are panicking….they unleashed a monster of global crony capitalism and its pyramid systems are about to collapse…..watch the bond market watch the reaction in the far East were the city of London and New York are becoming increasingly irelivent…This time we will not be silent?
” a monster of global crony capitalism and its pyramid systems are about to collapse”
As in 2008?? That went well, didn’t it? (In terms of producing radical change).
Why do you think the extreme right are promoting Brexit? It isn’t to fulfil the wet dreams of Lexiteer suckers. The ‘collapse’ is for the Many; not the Few.
RH This time we will not be silent?…..That’s what is my belief in the response to a global collapse in the pyramid capitalist system.The spivs and fraudsters will not be allowed to walk away again and dump the responsibility on the people. The dollar will no longer be king and a dramatic realignment of trade will see government across the west collapse…..You may think that this is fearmongering,but its the normal realignment of power between east and west that been there for all to see if you study who the enablers of production are and how they accumulate and use the profits for the people,not the individual.!.The people of the uk will be better off when we start to produce for the many not the few parasites.The British system of establishment will be consigned to the dustbin of history were they belong……It maybe bumpy for a time but Socialism can be the only sensible conclusion to the destruction of our economies…..
Before 07 the poor were buying houses and feeling good, the crash screwed all that.
Different this time because the poor are far worse off already and they know the next crash coming before any recovery will wipe them out.
Radical change may indeed come this time but the cost will be high whether the change is good or bad.
Joseph – No silence – but the ‘spivs and fraudsters’ are walking all over the faces of those they impoverish. Trump and Johnson depend upon the self-harm that the electorate (or a significant proportion) will inflict on itself at their bidding.
And David – you are right about those at least on fairly ordinary incomes were able to buy a roof. But, of course, the other dimension was affordable rents – and decent accommodation – provided by the public sector.
The sad thing (connected with my comment to Joseph) is that Thatcher was right in diagnosing that the big sell-off would attract votes. We really aren’t much further on today in terms of political awareness and countering Tory propaganda.
It’s all academic.
Labour will be in power after this year’s GE. And this hideous plan will be put where it belongs- in the bin !!
When the old age pension was introduced in 1909 following the 1908 act the qualifying age was 70. The Edwardians recognised that it was cruel and immoral to expect old people to work until they dropped so they introduced a state benefit of 5 shillings a week( 7s 6d for couples) to enable people keep a roof over their heads and have enough to eat in their old age.
Move forward 110 years and we now have a conservative government seeking to raise the qualifying age to 75.
This will cause a lot of hardship to a lot of people. It will also limit employment opportunities for young people as old people will have to keep on working several years longer than originally planned.
This callous government does not care about the welfare of its elderly citizens nor the despair of its younger ones but as Theresa May learned governments dismissing the elderly do so at their peril.
However the cynic in me asks -Is this Johnson’s “deliberate mistake” so that he can avoid having to govern in a post no deal Brexit situation ? Very likely I think.
https://welfareweekly.com/uk-pensioners-suffering-the-worst-poverty-rate-in-western-europe/
UK pensioners ‘suffering the worst poverty rate in western Europe’
Tories warned against further rises to the state pension age.
Stevedavidh thanks for the link…..it doesn’t take an einstien to work out that the the UK pension pot has been badly managed by government..The uk pensioners have been shortchanged by the mps who have not given the attention to the funds that was required.They were very professional in ensuring that their own pensions are ring fenced and extremely generous for themselves.My wife and I are told that the 647pounds a month is adequate and there are many others on less to live on.We all know that the pension is inadequate,so the obvious is to increase uk pensions to come into line with other pensions across the western world.Private pensions undermine the state pension the same as education .My blood boils when I think of the insulting rate for state pensions and the whole fiasco of treating pensioners as if we are senile And don’t some smart arse on here say can we afford it!.?….I rarely swear but don’t tempt me!
Ps… Sorry my pension is 674 pounds not 647 pounds.So I will be investing in an offshore account with the winnings,or buying a yacht…. difficult decission?
Pensions as we know them were not introduced by the Liberals, but by the 1945 Labour government, responding to a wave of popular expectations following the wartime Beveridge report. The report instituted universal social security, but Beveridge himself recommended that pensions be phased in over a 20 years period. However, the Minister for National Insurance, left MP Jim Griffiths, insisted that pensions be paid at once. The Tories want to dismantle every reform that made life more comfortable for the non-propertied class.
Hard to think what they’re playing at, given that the older you are the more likely you are to vote.
And not every OAP votes toerag now like they used to. But then again this is a dummkopf-schmitt policy. If that monumental gobshite had his way, he’d be sending kids up chimneys again.
…On second thoughts, don’t put it past being (close) future toerag policy.
Of course the rich & better off THEM won’t be working till they drop as state pensions (unlike for US the many) are small fry to them so for THEM it’s early retirement at 55, 60, 65 because of all cash they have had thrown their way by Neo-Liberal capital whilst we have had Austerity!
An old socialist, the Labour MP, Joan Maynard, used to say: “The Tories don’t preach class politics because they are too busy practising them!”
And as the song goes, “If you tolerate this, your children will be next!”
Kick the Tory Barbarians Out!
Didn’t anyone hear when the waspi women were asking MPs to ask questions about the pension pot twenty billion was of it surplus but now it’s going missing used to give tax breaks they robbing the peasants blind with their greed