And of course on 'Question Time' last week, the Tory blonde celebrity jungle MP mentioned plans for those 'rich/wealthy' pensioners to lose their state pensions altogether. When asked to define rich, she replied that any pensioner with a pensional income of £25k or above, would fall into the bracket...
Watch this space.
Sounds about right. The Government - both this one and previous - make me unspeakably angry with their totally incoherent and disjointed approach to pensions. Actually, anything to do with money. On the one hand they tell us we need to save more for the future, but at the same time their actions do nothing to encourage people. It's the same for the economy in the round - I am just waiting to be told that it's our fault that all these big high street names going into administration because we aren't spending enough. That our income is under constant seige and attack from a pernicious combination of high inflation, exorbitant taxes which are growing at a frightening rate and a political class who think our money is actually their money, all of which combine to reduce spending power seems to have slipped their attention.
So, in preparation for the future and the likely chance of the government screwing me over on the tax and pensions front, I am doing everything I can to actively avoid having to rely on taxable income streams in retirement. ISAs, for now until they move the goal posts, would seem to be the only realistic solution for the average man in the street as they are by and large understandable and importantly provide an income stream that doesn't appear on any tax returns and isn't considered for any other payments, benefits or credits.
All in all, I am deeply deeply concerned by the attitude of our political classes. Their definition of wealthy is so far off the mark that all it does is to demonstrate how out of touch they are. In fact, by Norris' own admission, if 25K is wealthy, then it makes their demands for a 32% payrise on top of their existing 65k basic look like theft. We might all laugh at the fruit loop survivalists you see preparing for the end of the world by hoarding tins of food and water, but frankly becoming a financial survivalist seems to be the only way to stop you ending up being taxed to death and totally reliant on crumbs from the state in your old age.
Or maybe a total subjugation of the population through financial dependency on the government is what the political classes are after.