Island short of money? Take it off the pensioners
Wednesday 5th August 2009, 2:01PM BST.
Guernsey’s old age pension should be cut to save money, a senior minister has said.
Deputy Carla McNulty Bauer believes the current £170 a week is too generous and needs to be reduced.
And it should be the States, not Social Security, which sets the rate.
Her comments have outraged pensioners, many of whom are in the lowest income bracket in the island.
The Commerce and Employment minister said: ‘A decision was made that pensions would be set at a generous rate, but that has to be something the island can afford. I would prefer the pension to be set at a lower rate, perhaps kept at an annual RPI increase only.’
She said that funding the pension pot should be kept at a more acceptable level.
‘Then we can be more competitive with other jurisdictions and not increase the burden on islanders and businesses to meet the payments to top up the fund.’
Up to a third of pensions were spent off-island, she said.
Social Security brought proposals to the States last week designed to ensure the pension pot was not emptied within 30 years.
Deputy McNulty Bauer said the States pension should be seen as a contribution, not a liveable wage for retirement.
- To read Guernsey Press stories in full click here for subscription details. Individual editions are now available online.
Campaigns
Voice For Victims
Voice for Victims is a campaign aimed at promoting the rights of those affected by child sexual abuse.
This is Guernsey
Guernsey Press
Quite right too, except that she hasn’t gone far enough.
We need to go further and abandon the State Pension entirely.
Mr P and myself are fed up with the considerable amount we pay into the thinly disguised ponzi scheme that is social security in Guernsey. If there were the option to opt out of the Pension part of the contribution then we’d take it like a shot – even if it meant losing what we have already paid in. The meagre payout after 40+ years is just not worth the opportunity cost over this period and given just how hard compound interest on cash and investments should work for you over this length of time I really don’t see any point in continuing this farce. No doubt someone will point out that ‘the poor’ (however you choose to define them) won’t be in a position to save for their future, but the retirement age is now likely to keep moving back until the pension is effectively abolished for the majority working now anyway.
We need to get our retirement money out of the inefficient ‘Civil’ Service’s hands and back into our pockets, property, business’s and investments. Social security payments are actually a major drain most people’s income and it stops them from making their own provisions! It makes no sense.
The whole system is completely unsustainable.
Report abuse
Maybe Mrs Mcnulty Bauer could try to live on the £170 @ week for a few months and see how she gets along, could this be another way to subsidise zero 10 !! its about time the states came clean and told us how much zero 10 has cost us
Report abuse
Words fail me. Is it April 1? CMB and her good friend BF have an uncanny knack of making my blood boil almost every time they open their smug mouths.
Please, please, let’s hope they both get what they deserve at the next election.
Report abuse
I would like to know whether some deputies think before they open their mouths??
There are plenty of places to look before we stiff the pensioners (no pun intended).
God forbid we take money from the wealthy/ the businesses that can afford it/ or societies spongers.
No, lets continually push to take it from the average worker and now that they seem to be complaining, lets go for the pensioners.
In the last 14 days the states have made me ashamed of this island.
Report abuse
Times have changed and many pensioners were unable to save for retirement in the past as money was tight and people often lived off the very minimum. They did not overspend or waste money on items that were not needed – mobiles, new cars, loans, lavish dining out, booze etc as it was just not possible! Rather than make the pensioners suffer by reducing their money when they have worked their whole lives for it – why not cut down benefits for the ‘non-workers’ who sponge benefits off the states left, right and centre! I know of many people who don’t work but live in 3 bedroomed states houses, drive new cars, have the most up to date mobile phones etc. etc. Why can’t the states stop wasting their money on some fully fit and healthy youngsters who just can’t be bothered to work! This would surely save a fortune and would stop them picking on the elderly! I am 23 years old by the way, raised in a states house that was fully paid for by my working parents and I am shocked by the lack of respect some people now have for the older generation – without many of them Guernsey would not be the lovely, safe place it is today!
Report abuse
After making an outrageous comment like that I think Deputy McNulty Bauer should be made to resign, she is obviously way out of touch with life. How can she possible make a statement saying “pensions should be seen as a contribution, not a liveable wage for retirement” the women is obviuosly of her trolley and should be renamed Mc”Nutty” Beaur.People work all their lives and make a contribution every week towards their pension what right does a women like that have to say they are being given too much. People like her should not be in the states, in fact it was probably some pensioners votes that got her there, that could well change in the future. Get her out.
Report abuse
is this person for real, me thinks there should be an intelligence test before anyone is allowed to stand for the states, please all remember this person at the next elections
Report abuse
Can you tell me which planet this woman is living on because its not this one.
Report abuse
Deputy Carla McNulty Bauer who exactly are you working for? Definatly not the Guernsey folk eh.
Below are some recent Quotes from her or her department.
The minimum wage is not intended to reflect a A LIVING WAGE.
£170 a week is too generous and needs to be reduced.
States pension should be seen as a contribution, not a liveable wage for retirement.
So Carla if you read this would you kindly publish your earnings, then we can observe you practice what you preach,and an explaination on how people should live on a non-livable wage and a non-livable pension,because its got me baffled.
Im also baffled why Guernsey always gets compared to the UK when we have nothing in common bar a language
Report abuse
Well what next, legalise euthanasia and make it compulsory at 68 years of age. The you can give our wise Politicians a huge increase in salary so they can go on jollies, and make life so difficult that only they are able to afford to live on Guernsey.
Work till your 67 years old, which increasing the amount of contributions paid in and reducing the pension paid out.
Its older generation that put this island on a safe and steady course, now they are trying to pull the rug from under them. In winter, who will keep the elderly fed, who will keep them warm?
One day elected by those you are (freezing out)Politician McNulty,you will be old. God help you.
Report abuse
You should be ashamed of yourself Deputy Carla McNulty Bauer!
Have you trued living off £170 per week, or would you care to give it a go? People contribute towards their pensions all their lives by way of Social Security contributions and for a large majority of those people it IS their only income in old age, because they have struggled to bring up families and not scrounge off the States.
It does not matter one jot where that money is eventually spent for goodness sake. Are you seriously suggesting that pensioners should also be forced to stay on your little rock if they are able to move somewhere with a more reasonable cost of living and a better lifestyle.
Get real Deputy. Perhaps the first way to make cuts would be to take a decrease in your salary, as you do not appear to be the sort of politician who is working for the interests of ordinary people. Better still, perhaps you should give up the day job altogether.
Report abuse
That Carla should remember a few things before she squawks any more;
Firstly and a very important 1st; is the fact that those pensioners of today worked, and damned hard at that to make Guernsey, so she could live there,
If she thinks £175 is too much let her try it; no gifts no nothing, no rent to pay nothing extra,
I bet than before the week was out she would crawling for help.
However she had had her say, now it’s the turn of the Islanders especially Pensioners,
she has no right being a deputy.
Report abuse
As far as I am concerned, pensions have been earned by the people getting them throughout their working lives, they are NOT a gift by the state. I voted for the deputy making this comment, – I am unlikely to vote for her again.
Report abuse
Deputy Carla obviously lacks what it takes to be a representative of the people. but she is showing promise as a commedienne.
Report abuse
What a stupid comment from this woman.
The £170 per week is probably about the same, or a little less than the additional sum deputies get for membership of a committee.
Of course, deputies also have their basic rate of pay in addition to any allowances.
Clearly this woman isn’t aware or doesn’t care about the various surveys showing poverty in Guernsey.
Report abuse
Take it off the pensioners? Is she mad?
Report abuse
The States of Guernsey have made the island a rich person’s island run for rich people by rich people. I have thought for many years that Carla McNulty Bauer, as a proponent of the above, was ‘bad news’ for Guernsey with little regard for the lower paid. It is therefore no surprise that she anounces her thoroughly disgraceful proposal that the States pension payment be reduced. I suggest that she concentrate on the finance industry (which is here merely for the island’s TAX HAVEN status) and look there for any financial shortfall in the pension coffers. This industry should be making life easier for Guernsey people and instead the islander is repeatedly being asked to make sacrifices to support it.
Carla McNulty Bauer patronisingly speaks of the pension as being a ‘contribution’ to a living wage. Have the people not paid all there life for the pension as required? Her suggestions are just about the last straw in an island in which cost of living is already high and rising! A more shameful suggestion as her’s would be hard to find.
Report abuse
Another example of a politians mouth opening before the brain kicks in, this is a really stupid person who I hope ends up very poor in her old age. As the old saying goes “Your get what you give” hers is a very selfish and nasty attitude and an insult to the senior citizens of the Channel Isles, any chance of voting her out of her job?
Lesley
Report abuse
what a cheek they pay in all there lives with stamps and when it comes to getting there pension this happens lates face it you pay stamps when you leave school at say 15 or 18 till your 65 how many years is that? and if the average age you live is 70 how long are you getting your pension for???
Report abuse
Also she should remember she was elected by the people -for the people:
Her duty as deputy was to help ALLK people, not njust the rich;
As she is failing in her duty as Deputy she should be dismissed immediately.
Report abuse
Sorry about the spelling, was so angry.
Come on all you people who are fair-minded; pensioners gave their all for our Island_
are they now to be treated as a burden after a lifetime of doing ‘THEIR BIT’
Report abuse
Quote :-
“States pension should be seen as a contribution, not a liveable wage for retirement.”
Excuse me then, does this stupid woman expect 90 year olds to get a job to supplement the pension they have earned by years of hard work?
As a Deputy would she be happy to have her ( no doubt generous ) wages cut on a whim by the people who voted her in? They voted her in last time and no doubt in was for the LAST time.
Report abuse
Interesting all these posts saying the same thing.
“Carla you are the weakest link, goodbye”
Wait a minute, perhaps she has given up her substantial earnings from the States and only collects £170 a week?
I don’t think so.
Report abuse
TMR, the financial services industry IS making life easier for Guernsey people – without it the Island’s economy would be in a far worse state. What else would you replace it with – the growing industry is on its knees, and there’s no way that the islands overpriced and tired-looking hotels could be filled with tourists alone?
Whilst I agree that £170/week is not a lot to live on with prices being how they are these days, I would be interested to know what percentage of the island’s pensioners have no other income or assets whatsoever that can supplement the state pension. Most of the OAPs that I know of have fairly substantial savings and a big old (mortgage free) house that could be downsized to free up some equity if necessary.
Report abuse
This is totally outrageous. Maybe Deputy Carla McNulty Bauer, would like to try it for a few months and see how she gets by??. Why? (when people now of a pensionable age, who believed many years ago that the States pension would see them through), penalise them any more? Does Deputy Carla McNulty Bauer, not listen to media? or open her utility bills?
Report abuse
“What number today?”
“All on Black 13, sir”
“Spin that wheel!”
“We lost, sir”
“Ah well, what’s my fee”
Report abuse
How about taking back the dole money and other payments from the idle and feckless individuals who do not want to work yet manage to screw assitance from the States to fund their smoking habits and top of the range mobile phones while living in States houses and flats with their rent subsidised or paid in full.
Penalise the parasites who bleed the coffers dry not the people who have worked hard all their lives and paid their dues.
Report abuse
just to add to my post earlier (2nd post)lets not forget a lot of the pensioners targetted are actually the youth of the occupation when times were so hard money was useless food was the currency, then following the war a time of economic low when the country had spent all its money on the war effort and was in a real state, jobs were scarse and wages were low, how do you expect these people to have saved for today when a portion of their lives were anything but normal but what do we know obviously Mrs C knows better
Report abuse
I note CMB’s website contains a section on her views. Within that it states: “Make adequate provision for our ageing population”.
Clearly most people would not interpret this as someone supportive of cutting pensions.
This women has clearly misrepresented herself to the electorate – who should respond appropriately.
Report abuse
surely deputy Carla’s comments are those of someone not standing at the next election. She will probably join the throng of ex deputies who have messed things up and then leave the island for pastures new. It is so easy for former deputies and current deputies to call for cuts in pensions and the raising of the retirement age when they only work part time and have lots of leisure time for themselves already. Not everyone earns the kind of money a minister gets in Guernsey.People like Deputy Mcnulty Baur are steadily creating a divided society.Deputy Parkinson was right!
Report abuse
Maybe CMB is right. Lower the basic pension for everybody and pay a supplementary pension to those who require it. That way the richer people of the Island who do not require the States pension will receive less than those that do require it and the funding shortfall will be solved.
Report abuse
Carla McNulty Bauer seems to have only lived in Guernsey since 1996, and now she wants to cut pension payments to people that have paid social security towards their retirement for all of their working lives.
My Father is 72 and is still working full time so that he can afford to pay rent, and even then he struggles financially…yet this clueless person wants to cut the pension payment substantially. Quoting the payments in the UK is totally irrelevant, as in most areas the cost of living is much lower, but more importantly the UK has a completely different benefits system.
Even more amazing is that they have voted to raise the contribution cap for high earners, who will in future be paying much more for much less.
I very much hope that this idiotic person loses her seat before she does too much harm.
Report abuse
wouldnt it be good for other members of the states to comment on this topic, if only to put o.a.p minds at rest that this persons views are not wide spread. reading all the posting, she should do the right thing and resign, get a job, and earn her money
Report abuse
I quote from her manifesto of last year:
“Our Social Wellbeing
A caring society, looking after the most vulnerable. Helping those in need to help themselves
Health
-Make adequate provision for our ageing population”
Well those views lasted a long time didn’t they!
Report abuse
What a great idea, create more hardship, and less money circulating in the Local economy. Back to the drawing board Carla.
Report abuse
This is a disgrace to those who have lived here for many years, like Nick I think money should be taken from those that do not bother to work. I also think why would McNutty do this to her parents? But I forgot, they most probably live in the UK, where she is from!
I’ve emailed my thoughts to her, I hope you have too!
carlamcnultybauer@cwgsy.net
Report abuse
Well said Mitch.
Why oh why can the States not see what is right in front of their eyes i.e a whole buch of lazy scroungers who are allowed to choose not to work and therefore not pay a stamp but have rent free homes and all the latest technology. Would any Stats member care to comment on why they deem this prefectly acceptable yet it’s OK to let pensioners suffer?
CMB is so out of touch with the real world, she obviously won’t have any financial worries when she reches pension age. Why else would she make such a ludicrous suggestion? Give her £170 a week to live on plus a rented property and she’ll soon realise that this dismal offering will not even cover the rent never mind what else is needed just to survive.
I have never heard anything so stupid as what this woman is spouting.
Report abuse
What a vicious thing to say. Using a powerful governmental position to attack the hard up pensioners. Reminds me of the cold-hearted, narrow-minded Tory Governments of the 80s and 90s on the Mainland.
Quite possibly indicative of somebody who will not be standing for re-election in 2012, thankfully.
The key question is how many of the other deputies agree with her? I would imagine that a fair few of the male millionaires in there probably agree with her, that’s for sure. If you ever wonder why more progress hasn’t been achieved on the corporate anti-poverty scheme, or on other worthy social projects in Guernsey, this is the attitude, the hard right, uncaring, tunnel vision attitude, that explains it all.
Report abuse
The entire benefits system on Guernsey is ridiculous. Some benefits are handed out willy-nilly without any kind of means testing. For example my wife and I were flabbergasted to learn that we will receive over £2000 from the States because we have had our first child. We are also getting over £14 per week in family allowance.
Don’t misunderstand me – we’re very grateful for the money (some which will go into a trust fund for our daughter or get some baby stuff) but we don’t actually need it and wouldn’t have a problem if they didn’t pay it in order to allocate the money to more needy people. It is benefits such as this that should be means tested to cut costs before depriving our pensioners.
Report abuse
I realise this will not be a popular view, but I don’t think £170 a week sounds too bad. Banks generally write mortgages only until retirement, so the £170 presumably goes on food, heating, clothing and so on (buses, doctors, prescriptions etc free to OAPs). Perhaps this is something that should be looked at…
At least this is one politician who isn’t afraid to “stick her head above the parapet” – perhaps with a few more doing so the States would be better able to make decisions based on long-term strategic objectives rather than short-term personal motives often based on voter popularity?
Report abuse
Having read about what McNutty Bauer said about pensions I think she should resign. She is a disgrace to the hard up pensioners in Guernsey. How dare she, she obviously has enought money not to worry about her old age. Please no-one vote for her in the next election. Can you imagine trying to live on £170 per week and pay all your bills and with every conceivable house rates that have risen hundreds percent this year alone. She is so out of touch with the real world and as for comparing us to the UK well what a stupid thing to say. Go back to the UK I say where when you become a pensioner yourself you get a lot more help, free central heating boilers,free nursing care, rooms built on to your house if needed, DVLA car and many more benefits too numerous to mention here. My own mother is better off now on the pension that she ever was. Here we get the basic low pension and nothing else. I still cannot believe her comments, she should hide her head in shame. I will never vote for her that’s for sure.
Report abuse
Ok Jon put your money where your mouth is and try and live on £170 aa week, as I put in an earlier post what planet is she living on I think you must be on the same one, not all Pensioners own there property so rent has to come into the equation
Report abuse
Here goes….Prepare to be flamed!
Almost £9k per year as a State Pension…I wonder how many pensioners contributed that much in their SI deductions each year when they were working?
Sounds like a generous allocation to me and, as stated, it’s supposed to supplement your savings and your own plans for retirement not represent your only income.
How many of the idle rich (the terminal unemployed) will get this full allocation if they reach retirement age without ever working?
Report abuse
I have to say I am in two minds about this one. I can completely understand the anger such comments have caused – I don’t understand why we would look to reduce the pension for old people first, when there are plenty of other schemes that could be ‘rationalised’. Although I would add that £9K is substantially more generous than the UK terms, the cost of living on the whole is greater in the UK for OAP.
Why? VAT, Council Tax (can be over £2Kpa), Tax on pensionable savings above threshold limit, pensions are substantially lower, tax on interest received gross on savings, etc etc. However, Guernsey is not the UK! So lets cut that out and acknowledge we have our own unique system. If we need to raise finance to plug our ‘black hole’, rather than pick on OAP lets do something revolutionary!
RAISE TAXES. Is being a low taxation jurisdiction the be all and end all? If we all paid extra tax and businesses where taxed progressively, surely we would be in a better position to pay for things? Ahhhh we would lose most of the businesses we really needed (i.e. the finance industry) if we raised taxes….oh well. Cut the pensions.
Report abuse
I am afraid whether we like it or not Deputy McNulty Bauer has a point – unfortunately insensitively expressed – but pensions cannot defy financial gravity and demographics – the fact is interest rates are next to nil, stock markets fragile and the financial future very uncertain – especially in Guernsey – and we have a population that will be mainly retired by the time many of us will finally get to 67 – the fact is the pot will simply evaporate – I agree I would not want to try and survive on the States Pension – however if the pot runs dry that will not help anyone – I would suggest a low basic pension for all but with top ups for GENUINE cases – those who can demonstrate they worked hard or had very good reason for not being able to work – not the scroungers of today who will become the hard luck cases in 40 years’ time – also there should be the ability to largely “contract out” of the States scheme into personal arrangements – for what most of us are paying we could have a very tidy sum by the time we retire – or for the States to offer the ability to voluntarily boost your pension by AVC’s – because other than civil servants many people will retire in penury – especially having been used to high salaries in their working life and the States should be making strident efforts to encourage all to have proper pensions – many people move jobs so quickly they never accrue any pot with their employer – otherwise there will be major time bomb in 20/30 years’ time – in truth many of the pensioners of today are taking out far more than they ever put in to the States scheme and we must accept the States can never provide more than a basic subsistence level pension.
Report abuse
When will our politicians realise that the average working person is sick to the back teeth of being taken for every penny to support zero-ten and the finance industry?
All they seem to do nowadays is look for more ways to take money off those who can least afford it!
Report abuse
If the Public Services Dept abandoned this absurd £93.5 MILLION incinerator there would be no need for mean-mindedness over State pensions.
If it really is critical to minimize the island rubbish – the PSD have been offered far better eco-friendly alternative engineering for savings exceeding £30M but see fit to ignore this from a company established in the business of waste minimization for more than 35 years.The offer was made outside the OJEC tendering process – covered by full guarantees.
Final point – don’t forget the annual operating and maintenance cost for an incinerator with labour and loss of capital interest added will run well above £3 Million yearly – mitigated minimally from the sale of CHP to local interests ( that’s if there is enough rubbish to burn to raise steam for the turbine!!)
Report abuse
I am interested in the comment that 1/3rd of pensions are spent off-island.
Q1 – how do we know this?
Q2 – why should this be allowed? I know that we cannot restrict the way in which pensioners spend their money but is it not an indication that too much is being paid?
or is it that 1/3rd of pensioners claiming the pension no longer actually live here but are still entitled to claim?
Report abuse
………And, oh – I believe this illustrious lady Deputy voted for this infernal, Suez incinerator !! I do not see her name on the list of Deputy objectors to this folly………….
Report abuse
John, as a student I receive my grant from the States, which is equal to about £200 a week, and I live off this, paying for rent, beer, food, beer, bills, beer and text books.
It is, to be fair, a pretty meagre existence and basically unsustainable which is why so many students end up with horrendous amounts of debt at the end of their course.
Given my experience, I was shocked to learn that pensioners are on so little!! Especially in Guernsey where the cost of living and beer is so high. £170 ISN’T a living wage. Let’s make being a deputy a voluntary job, find some way of taxing the tens of thousands of offshore companies we have here and try and invest the proceeds in education, healthcare and the elderly.
Report abuse
This is another deputy when she stood for election said that she would listen to the people, and fight for them. This is the deputy of St Sampsons who wanted the island go green and recycle more. She knew how the people of her parish felt about the Mass Waste Incinerator. yet she still voted it in. She listened to the people complain about taxes, 010, rip off landlords, increased cost of living, pensions, and this is her answer. Did she mislead the people of St Sampsons to get their vote? or has she had a brain transplant as part of becoming a deputy?
Report abuse
All these silly people who quote here and there about how much pensioners put into the kitty:
My father worked from 7 o’clock in the morning till 6 in the evening for the princely sum of £2.10. of that £1 pound in rent.
Saturday afternoon was free from 1.o’clock so instead of resting he went out and dug gardens for people at another pittance, but to him a fortune that fortune was 10 shillings for an afternoons work
In those days one couldn’t contribute much because there was nothing over to contribute.
People Like that deputy make me sick hearing their stupid talk, go away leave our Island you are not a welcome person in the Island;
I don’t like saying it, but I do hope some divine source will visit you and make you see sense and to apologise to the pensioners.
Report abuse
Year’s ago in the “Good Ole Days” of The States of Guernsey, The Deputies “My Grandad included” worked in their own spare time..while running their own businesses, all for the love of their island… not taking a wage.. or even claiming expenses either etc.
No Black Hole in those days.. and near on 100% attendance at meetings too…
We pay £30k each for this fiasco !
Report abuse
RE TL.
THE POSSIBLE REASON 2/3 OF PENSIONS SPENT OFF ISLAND, O.A.P. CANNOT AFFORD TO PAY THE VERY HIGH RENTS, AND HAVE TO LEAVE THE PLACE THEY LOVE, AND FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO HAVE A DECENT STANDARD OF LIVING.IF THE PERSON WHO MADE THESE STUPID COMMENTS, AND OTHERS LIKE HER, WENT BACK FROM WHERE THEY CAME FROM,THEY WOULDNT BE DRAINING THE PUBLIC PURSE, AND JUST TO CLARIFY, I AM NOT ANTI NON-LOCAL,JUST ANTI-IDIOT
Report abuse
Just another out of touch Deputy who should be kicked into touch at the next election.
Report abuse
So Carla thinks £171 per week is too much. I take it from that ,the next pay review for States Deputies all will be in favour of a reduction below that, they will demand less , lets say £150 per week. £7800 per annum instead of about £30000 + attendance payments if on commitees.
Report abuse
Pete – I think she is actually an in touch Deputy that understands you can’t pay much to pensioners when there are more people retired than working.
Report abuse
Bella
I’m not convinced the Guernsey old age diaspora is entirely down to the high cost of living in Guernsey.
Of my parents age there are a lot of pensioners that have a reasonable income off their own investments, inheritance, topped up by work/private pensions.
It’s very unlikely that pensioners whose only income is the State Pension are living happily in another country.
There is far more evidence of younger families/people are leaving to find work elsewhere in cheaper and sunnier climes or students are not returning due to either expanded horizons or high cost of living.
Report abuse
STILL NO COMMENT FROM ANY OTHER STATES MEMBERS !!
Report abuse
Eric
I think some of those saying that the older ones have only paid a little in to the pot are forgetting jsut how much that would add up to over say a 50 year working life. With the power of compound interest you would find it would still be a rather large pot at the end of it. So in effect they have paid in probably a lot more than they would get out. It`s THEIR money in the first place and are entitled to it.
Report abuse
You cannot compare the amount pensioners paid in with what they receive now as the value of money has decreased hugely – £1 40 years ago had a far greater real value than £1 today.
Report abuse
You should be ashamed of yourself, resign and do us all a favour, then go back where you came from.
Daughter of an 85year old
Report abuse
Mal B Smith:
“St Sampsons deputy” since when?
You might want to check your own facts before criticising others.
Report abuse
Paul Le P
But their £1.40 that they paid in wouldn`t be £1.00 today? it may have increased to £5.00 depending how far you go back. But to be honest i`m not really sure of your point.
Report abuse
Instead of taking money from the people who have worked hard all their lives and, I’m sure, just want to enjoy their lives now that they’re free from work, why doesn’t the states STOP handing out money to young people who can’t be bothered to work.
By no means am i suggesting that all people on states benefit are capable of work and shouldn’t be claiming, but I’m sure most of the young mums and dads could find a job and get themseves some respect.
Social security/the states need to get their priorities in order. They’ll happily hand out free money to those who say it’s too hard to work when you have children and childcare is too expensive. And yes, it is hard and it is expensive. But I know of at least four people(around my age) who have babies, work full time and pay for childcare. But the states won’t help them!
STOP handing out free cash and START helping those who have and do work hard for their money.
Report abuse
i think its wrong to take money off oap they need that money, y not stop all school leaver’s and get the young kids to work as they get more then wat me an my parnter gets an he had an op an is back to work next month but i heard kids sayin the get over 250 aweek we get 200 to feeds our kids an ourself its just wrong
Report abuse
Thatcher stiffed the UK pensioners in the 80s and frankly it was the beginning of the UK rot. The greedy rich destroy all decency in a society if they are not restrained by public opinion.
Report abuse
Deputy McNulty Bauer should be thoroughly ashamed of herself. She no doubt is wealthy in her own right and could easily give up her States pay – but i bet she wouldn’t do the job for nothing like local politicians used to. I pay nearly a third of my salary to tax and insurance: it is hardly greedy to expect a decent pension. What about all the people ‘on the sick’ – many of whom are not sick but just not able to do the job they previously did like heavy manual work. They should be made to do other jobs and even offered retraining. Youngsters should not get anything – they can get off their lazy derriers and work – we are paying them to lounge around watching tv all day and go out at night. It is appalling.
She will not be getting my vote next time around – she has had her chance and failed.
The OAP’s have made Guernsey what it is – many of them lived through the occupation and have worked all their lives. One of my relatives relies on the States pension now as he lost his company pension when Guernsey Gas was taken over and all the staff were fleeced – yes, it was a few years ago and probably wouldn’t happen now but in those days the employees trusted their employers and lost a lot of money – making a few people rich.
Guernsey is becoming a rich mans play thing – no wonder so many people retire elsewhere!
Report abuse
This is the first time I’ve ever commented on this site as I don’t usually have the time. I’d like to say that the deputies comment is a very valid one! There’s a black hole and money should come from a variety of sources. Some of the vitriolic postings either show a lack of any thought or just plain ignorance (oh and for what it’s worth education is the one area I think we should be very careful cutting back on!). All areas of expenditure should be examined and restricting pensions to RPI seems reasonable to me. OAP’s often bemoan modern society (they are not without a point)and say that everyone used to pull together when times got tough, well things are getting tougher so get pulling. The RPI + strategy is unsustainable in the current climate. As a cynic bear though I’d say the strategy is likely to continue, benefit levels will rise, the states will continue to ignore their promise to cut costs and the burdern of raising cash will fall on those 30/40 yr old somethings who’ll no better than to rely on a states pension.
Report abuse
That Bauer Firm amongst other things make Skates,
so why doesn’t she put some on and Skate out of it
Report abuse
Pensioners are not the ones who should be picked on. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many from as young as 14 and have made contributions which now entitle them to a fair pension.
I see in today’s Press yet another ‘single’ mother on benefits having her States House rent paid for her who has had the latest partner living with her whilst claiming at least £3,000 to which she is not genuinely entitled. She said she has financial difficulties. Really? How come she’s got all the latest gadgets, designer clothes and is constantly out on the Town?
She claimed to be depressed and ashamed at her actions but this is what these girls always say. People turn on the crocodile tears or tell a sob story and keep getting away with claiming these benefits.
There was a very good letter in the Press a day or two ago which questioned what training the Social Security staff have in dealing with these people who can tell a good story. I’d like to know the answer to that as too many scroungers are out there this afternoon spending money which they collected this morning. That’s money they don’t work for but us tax payers do.
Report abuse