Students always have the freedom to return home
BEFORE starting, I wish to make it very clear that there are a large number of youngsters who do themselves and their country proud.
They are the backbone of our future and we should do all possible to nurture and encourage them.
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Are students having to tighten their belts?
On Monday, March 18, at 8pm, on Channel 4, there was a programme about pensioners.
The theme of the programme appeared to be a complaint by students of having to "tighten their belts" while pensioners (many with large incomes) lived on the fat of the land at government expense and lived in houses far too big for them, which they could hand over to hard-pressed students.
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This was backed by interviews with students of which, as far as I could tell, 100 per cent were from overseas. I would point out the following
Most OAPs have worked hard and paid taxes for many years. They have earned their pensions. What have these students contributed?
Many OAPs had very poor families and started work at 15. After that they improved their education, much of it at their own expense.
In our youth, we had to save if we wished to buy something and shopped and shopped until we got the very best value for money. None of today's instant gratification.
Many of today's well-off OAPs did so by building a business from scratch.
This often meant years of long hours and living like a pauper until the business "came good". None of this living off government handouts.
The idea that those with a large income at retirement should for go their state pension is wrong. They have paid into it and therefore should get it.
Besides which, 40 per cent of the pension will be handed back as tax.
The proposal that large houses should be handed over by OAPs to students is preposterous. In most cases these houses have been purchased by prudent saving. If an OAP chooses to live in a big house, with all its increased cost, surely that is their right.
Finally, I would comment, that the ITV interviewed mainly, if not all, overseas students who were complaining that they wanted more and it could be taken from pensions.
Well, we have another freedom in this country – the freedom to return home
Malcolm Bouchier, Park Row, Louth.
The Telegraph says
Pensioners who have worked hard all their lives deserve a retirement that is comfortable and worry free. Comment at www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk
5 Comments
by Chixxey
Thursday, March 21 2013, 12:51PM
“The programme "Dispatches" stated that of the 14million over 60yr olds, 1 million of them have £1 million EACH in assets.
An estimated 2 million of the over 60yr olds have between £50,000 and £5 million in the bank the programme states.
£2.5 billion is currently spent on the universal benefits paid just to pensioners.
Please do justify how these individuals "need" a £10 Christmas bonus or winter fuel allowance?
What about the 75,000 ex-pat pensioners most living in Spain who still claim and receive their winter fuel allowance?
By making some of these universal "entitlements" means tested, how much money could be saved and re-invested in this country and it's future generations?”
by Chixxey
Thursday, March 21 2013, 12:25PM
“Bet no patriotic pensioner whether wealthy or not would not turn down free medical treatment at the local NHS by a non-English doctor or nurse though would they?”
by Chixxey
Thursday, March 21 2013, 12:11PM
“P.s. It would be very ironic of this student ended up specialising in geriatric medicine and care wouldn't it? (Given that this student has worked non-stop in retirement homes since leaving school) Because the vast majority of pensioners, I suspect, would seek free NHS care whether they had £500,000 in the bank or not so it's not just the "wasters" in life who drain the system is it?”
by tone1428
Thursday, March 21 2013, 12:09PM
“Well said Malcolm Bouchier! I am a pensioner and I certainly dont live in a 'large' house its a small 2 bedroomed job which is bought and paid for by my wife and myself after many years of struggling to pay our mortgage!
So after all that, we should sit back and allow foreign students to move in? Over my dead body! Damned cheek of these people they should be grateful that our system allows them to come here for their education,immaterial of whether they pay for it or not (and I sincerely hope they are paying) they will get their degrees and clear off back to their country of origin without putting anything into our system (except their Uni fees and rent) of course they also get to use our beleaguered NHS while they are here too!”
by Chixxey
Thursday, March 21 2013, 12:01PM
“If it was the same programme I watched, there were very comfortable and able bodied pensioners playing golf and sipping whiskey and when asked by Michel Beurk, had no idea that they were either in receipt of the universal benefits of winter fuel allowance, Christmas bonus and free tv license or indeed what they spent this money on. The figures given by the programme suggested that a high percentage had a bank balance of way over £500,000 per year yet they were still "entitled" to these universal benefits.
I understand that when one has been prudent and worked hard "all their life" should be entitled to enjoy the fruits of their labour but when one can afford to very comfortably retire in their mid-50's (as one bloke said he had) I do question whether he really needed these "entitlements". When one can "retire" in their mid-50's and the average life expectancy is now in the mid-80's, I would suggest they have not "worked their whole lives" but merely a third/half of it.
I know a lone parent (an English one) of a student living away from home and at university and studying medicine (the parent incidentally is qualified but unable to find work in this area despite daily searching and regular applications) who has had to try and send as little as £5 to their child because they literally have no money for food, eating just x1 meal of 11p noodles a day (hardly the best way to achieve the best results or grades). As of 1st April the parent won't even be able to do this because of the spare bedroom tax, the very bedroom the student vacated in order to go off and study and better themselves, will mean this parent will have to try and find an extra £13 a week. Meanwhile x2 single pensioners, both living in x4 bedroomed homes in the same street, are exempt from the spare bedroom tax.
Yes I appreciate that some pensioners have paid into the system and should enjoy the fruits of their labour but some who have made so much money via property or inheritance really don't need these universal benefits they don't even know they are in receipt of. Make these benefits means tested and then perhaps the next generation (especially those students who will end up with anything from £32-£42,000 debt when they qualify) will have a chance to succeed in life too.”