Hi Ned,
I meant that it didn't have to be funded by market performance, sorry.
Vin Rouge,
The State will stop buying its own Gilt in Feb/March 10 and that'll be the interesting time. No one believes Darling's forecast for 3.5% growth to 2011 and with inflation and interest rates set to rise, you watch medium index linked values go up in Spring. After Latvia and Ireland, we have the highest deficit in the EU as a share of GDP and our yield on Gilt is pretty close now, to those Italian 'Treasuries' that we all used to smirk at. Almost 30% of our National debt is ownded by foreigners who still seek solace in our AAA rating. If we lose that, they'll simply sell up cheap and park their cash instead in Turkey, Brazil, or India. I read before Xmas, that Chile FFS
, has already undercut British debt yields on some maturities.
Last year, Watson Wyatt guesstimated the Public Sector pension
deficit at almost £1 trillion.. where is that going to come from? If not us, then our children. I read that the deficit of a small quango was £112 millions, all on its own. With regards to the military pension, lets remember what it was for. It was supposed to provide funds for those who returned from fighting to have a roof over their heads. The military pension was not intended to allow us all to retire at 40 or 55 in shelf stacking or sunny golk filled comfort and if we are getting down to the nitty gritty, that what we all want it for. Yes, I have a pension and I am ready to be bombarded for hypocrisy
, but I certainly didn't join up for the pension. I joined up for the job and the craic. I also made provision for my own financial future and not enough people currently are, and thats a big part of the problem.
The military pension HAS to change, thats the bottom line. It is all unsustainable, it might make for unpalatable reading but I suspect that those who say they will walk if things change, will be invited to walk and see for themselves if the grass elsewhere really is greener. I read that Tandridge District Council staff were all entitled to a 2.8% pay rise in April 2010 as part of a two-year pay deal agreed before the recession began. They decided to forego that rise, completely. On the wider scale, if the military decides that it is exempt from the day to day realities of the good people of Tanbridge who it stepped forward to protect, then the shift in perception will change. Such is the fickle double edged sword nature of becoming a fashionable cause.
I am not suggesting that we cut and run or absolve ourselves from responsibility for those who step forward to protect us. It might be that the war pension improves so that money is targeted where it is MOST needed, but surely, the extra allowances we give troops have to go some way towards the troops taking on a greater sense of responsibility for their own futures as well? The challenge is one of education and culture as much as anything. All we are doing by treating our pension as a sacred cow is hiding our heads in the sand and passing the buck to our children and grandchildren. Its such a difficult issue - but I think the final solution involves people, everyone, at some stage in the future (perhaps not us) biting a financial bullet. If matters continue for very much longer, then we are f
ked. Trouble is, none of us wants it to be us.