Since my retirement I'm beginning to think the answer to that question is a big fat NO. When I worked in the jobcentre with the long term unemployed, we often grew suspicious about some of our customers, especially if someone who was looking for painting and decorating work came in with paint on their clothes and hands. It's a bit of a giveaway and they would always give the same answer when challenged 'I'm decorating the living room'! This is when we filled out referrals to the fraud department and they would follow it up, but not everyone was successfully prosecuted.
I have always been honest and truthful, it's how I was brought up and also the way I taught my daughters to be. I have never even had a speeding fine or parking ticket and have always declared every penny I've earned. I have paid my taxes all through my working life and even worked on nearly two years past my retirement date when I had to give in due to health and mobility problems. I would have happily gone on for a lot longer.
This week, I discovered my income tax for this year will be £80 per month from my £166 monthly occupational pension. The only other money I receive is a full state pension and a few pounds of housing benefit but everything else is paid by me. When I have paid all my bills I am left with very little money to live on.
Someone who has never worked, lived their life on benefits and fiddled the system gets all their rent and council tax paid and receives more money in pension credit without ever contributing anything. This is also true for the huge numbers of immigrants who have come to this country but never worked here because they won't learn to speak English (and they're not all refugees from countries at war).
Apart from all these who get everything paid, the only others who can spend a comfortable retirement are the ones who have been fortunate enough to inherit proprty from parents or who have been able to earn enough money to buy their own house. The rest of us have to go without and still pay income tax (which enables those who have never paid anything to receive more than we do).
It those liberals grandma. They support laziness and make up causes for those who are honest and hardworking to pay for. They've always been good at spending everyone else's money but their own.
ReplyDeleteWhen you're a child, you're told to be fair and play fair. When you grow up, you see that nothing is fair nor will it ever be. I know that sounds harsh, but it's been my reality.
Hi Robin!
ReplyDeleteIt was the Labour Party that destroyed our country. Our new government is made up of the Conservatives and the Lib Dems (these want to take anyone with less than £10,000 income right out of the tax bracket and I agree with that). Both of these parties have always been opposed to each other but hopefully they will work together to make this country better. It's about time we were governed by a mixed bag, that should mean that no-one gets everything all their own way.