Penalising success on retirement. The LIb Dem vision.

Nick Clegg vows to axe bus passes and free TV licences for 'rich' OAPs

Nick Clegg yesterday vowed to strip millions of pensioners of their free bus passes and television licences as a major row erupted between Liberal Democrats and Conservatives over benefits.
The Lib Dem leader said his party would fight the next election pledging to means test the handouts, to ensure they don’t go to wealthier or ‘millionaire’ pensioners.

Nick Clegg is turning into a proper shit. His Mrs is no better either.

Why do we give OAP's free bus travel and telly licences? Is it because they are supposed to be poor when they are pensioned off? I don't know, but in my opinion, if someone has been paying tax into the system all their lives, why not give them a bit of a break when they retire? What does a free buss pass cost? Probably nothing as it's not like they will be taking up seats that paying passengers could be using.

And hell, you have to be seventy five before you qualify for a free telly licence. Surely you've given enough money to the BBC by then. If you make it to seventy five, chances are you will only have a few years of free TV anyway.

If you have been paying tax all your life, it doesn't matter if you are rich or poor when you retire. Rich people will have paid more into the system than poor people. 'Millionaire' pensioners, as Cleggy Boy puts it, will probably have made it possible for a lot more people to pay tax into the system. If anyone deserves a break when they retire it's them.

Under current rules, those who reach pensionable age in England are entitled to free off-peak travel on public buses.
Councils have complained that the scheme costs millions to operate and have lobbied for restrictions to be introduced.

I doubt, I seriously doubt that the scheme should cost that much to run. It's off peak travel so pensioners are not taking seats away from paying passengers. All that is needed to operate the scheme is a basic travelcard, issued upon proof of age.

Councils are notorious for wasting money though. I bet there is a huge infrastructure of  administrators and facilitators, contracting various bits out to overpriced companies etc, etc. Councils could save money in thousands of ways that they just won't touch.

The over-75s also get a free TV licence, worth £145.50, regardless of their savings, at a cost of £500million a year.

But how much have they already paid to the BBC? Whats fifty years at 500million a year? Why penalise them just because they have managed to save up rather than squandering everything?

He said: ‘I’ve been very open about that – that we should be asking millionaire pensioners to perhaps make a little sacrifice on their free TV licence or their free bus passes.’

Make a little sacrifice FFS!? Millionaire pensioners are not in that position because they won the lottery, they are there because they have been sacrificing for their entire lives, and paying huge amounts of tax to boot. I'm sure you're not just talking about target millionaires though, but all pensioners who could afford to pay for bus travel and telly licences if they were forced to. That's your Grandfolk and mine. Hard working people, possibly the penultimate generation with a work ethic, who've managed to put aside a decent nest egg for their retirement.

Chancellor George Osborne was harried by Deputy Prime Minister Mr Clegg and his allies into raising out of work benefits by 5.2 per cent, while freezing Working Families’ Tax Credit.
Mr Clegg openly boasted that he had insisted on the huge benefit hike for those out of work, claiming it was fairer to help the poorest in society.

Not only is Clegg a shit, he's also the spokesperson in the coalition for the lazy and feckless. A huge benefit hike will not help the poorest in society. For those who just can't be bothered to work, a huge tranche of modern society, this increase will  mean they can carry on as normal. For those that do want to work, the financial incentive to do so will no longer be there. Any other incentive will drop by the wayside when they realise they can stay on the dole and get paid a decent wedge for doing it.

Benefits should be no more than a stop gap. They shouldn't provide a full and rounded lifestyle, but just enable people to survive for the short term. Increasing payouts only increases claimants, as we have seen through thirteen years of New Labour.

He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘I make no apology at all for us having had to make difficult choices, but in those difficult choices prioritising the poorest.
‘If you’ve lost your job through no fault of your own, you will have benefits and support fully uprated by inflation, over 5 per cent, in order to get you back into work.’

Money for nothing does not get people back into work. Prioritising the poor is ok as long as you don't prioritise those who are in that position through their own choices; those who choose a life of benefits because it is easier than working and pays well enough.

But a ‘furious’ Mr Duncan Smith yesterday said he would reverse the perverse punishment for those in work when his universal benefit plans are introduced in 2013.He admitted ‘the differential has been reduced’ between income for those in work and those out of work.But he added: ‘It’s not going to be the permanent direction of travel.’ A senior Tory source added: ‘We’ve got to be fair to people in work.

It's people in work now, people who have worked all their lives and the 'millionaire' pensioners that are picking up the benefits bill. If you want to be fair then stop squandering their money on the undeserving and let them keep the small perks they get on retirement.