2 Big Stories
Chancellor-on-way-out promises freeze in public managers’ pay:
The freeze in effect represents a pay cut. And by targeting the richest public-sector figures, it will be seen as a sign that the broadest shoulders must carry the heaviest burden.
Chancellor-in-waiting proposes raising retirement age:
Shadow chancellor George Osborne would raise the state pension age from 65 to 66 from 2016 if the Tories win the next election to help tackle the UK’s debts.
2 Must-read Posts
Cllr Daisy Benson gave her readers a story about the human stories behind the unemployment statistics:
This morning, on my way to work I bumped into a couple of my constituents on the bus.
I asked how they were doing – they looked downcast and said they were on their way to the Job Centre Plus in town.
Neil Stockley offered us his latest thoughts on how the Lib Dems can create a human-friendly story from our mountain of policy papers and philosophical thought… and begins by looking at people’s preconceptions and how they compare with the messages of our late conference:
Look at what happened at Bournemouth conference. Yes, the Lib Dems’ “fair taxes” are “for the ordinary people not the best off”. But talk of “savage cuts” – which are more likely to hit low and middle income people hardest – can surely be defended as “honest and principled”. These are hard to reconcile and I doubt that the phrase “progressive austerity” quite does it. (Where’s the story?). But retreating into fanciful and dishonest lists of unaffordable policies would not match the narrative either.
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7 Comments
If there aren’t enough jobs, how can raising the pension age help pay off our debts? Seems about as clever as bullying sick people into applying for jobs that don’t exist.
The way to sort out the problem is not to keep the wrong people earning, but to ensure that we have an economy that encourages investment in things that will give us ‘green growth’. It really does look like Sir Humphrey is advising Boy George.
I agree with Neale. The gross saving may be 13bn, but when you take into account the benefits that will have to be paid to extra unemployed, older people remaining on incapacity benefit who would otherwise be claiming their pension and so on, the net figure will be much lower.
Now the Tories actually have to state their policies, they start to get into difficulties.
“The gross saving may be 13bn,”
Or possibly not
http://webbsteve.blogspot.com/2009/10/tory-rise-in-state-pension-age-do-sums.html
(Of course there is the possibility that Cameron/Osbourne are better at understanding pensions than Steve Webb)
I couldn’t get this number anywhere remotely near £13 km – the policy itself makes sense but isn’t going to make any more than a modest contribution to solving our fiscal problems.
The latest from the Tories is that their figures are based on macroeconomic modelling by the National Institute which suggests that if you phased in a one year rise in working lives (not quite the same thing as raising the state pension age) for both men and women (not just men) over a seven year period, then you could get a boost to national income etc. which would improve your fiscal position by around £13bn pa in the long-term. Since only £2bn of that comes from savings on spending on men’s pensions, that’s a very big gap to fill. Now DC has ruled out touching women’s pensions until after 2020 (and would it be legal to raise men’s pension ages unilaterally ahead of time?) it’s going to be an awfully long time before they get anything like the figures they are talking about.
Mmm… I’ll take a look. http://www.niesr.ac.uk/pubs/searchdetail.php?PublicationID=2406 seems to be the report in question.
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[…] Dem Work and Pensions spokesman Steve Webb was quick to share his thoughts about George Osbourne’s plan to raise the retirement age with Lib Dem Voice […]