Save money elsewhere, don’t take from the old, says deputy
Monday 24th September 2012, 8:30AM BST.
‘Deputy Mary Lowe has suggested a £65 payment for each half day of every official minuted meeting attended’
PENSIONS are a matter of ‘life or death’ for some older people, said Mary Lowe, who does not want to see pensioners become victims of States savings.
The Social Security Department has proposed that the old age pension rises by 3.6% – 0.5% above the cost of living.
But the Treasury and Resources Department has warned that the States cannot continue to keep putting pensions up at a time when it needs to save money.
Deputy Lowe, pictured, a former Social Security member, disagreed and said she was disappointed at Treasury’s stance.
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ah yes, this lady….
‘A few years ago, competition was intense to attend a CPA conference in Fiji. Deputy Mary Lowe was selected and insisted on flying to the tropical paradise on the other side of the world in business class. When a member of the public queried this, she got the classic reply, ‘I wasn’t going to put my health at risk by travelling economy’.
If there was a mission statement for all these useless t**ls, it would be ‘because saying the right thing is more important than doing it’.
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Well said Scarlett.
Deputies need to start practicing what they preach.
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Did she really say that about travelling economy?….was it in the press?
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direct quote from the press, never denied by the lady herself as far as I’m aware.
It makes me want to throw up, they are SUCH a bunch of hypocrites.
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Well I never!!..what a thing to say
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She did travel business class and she paid the difference herself.
So the above comments are totally uncalled for, but are probably typical of the people who wrote them.
Get your facts before engaging pen.
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Sam … whether she paid it herself or not wasn’t what really concerned me, it’s the implication that to travel with the general public is bad for her health!.
But anyway it’s good to know, that whoever sits in business class on an aeroplane enjoying their bubbly, will still get the same recycled air as the guy who just “farted” in economy.
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Go tell it to the Press, Sam, they wrote it.
It’s her interesting view of the ‘cattle class’ that most of we mere mortals can only afford I find very telling, as is her eagerness to jump on every bandwagon there is going, as long as it’s a popular one…
on the positive side, she always has an alternate career as a party planner.
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We all know times are hard so why not increase it to the cost of inflation for now, rather the .5% over?.
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Was Mary Lowe speaking from an old age pension recipient’s perspective?
If she isn’t there already then she surely can’t have long to go, and will no doubt need as much income as possible in order to enable her to avoid having to travel “cattle class” and mix with the plebs.
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Cut the Deputies pay and let them live on pensioners wage. Deputies any takers ?????(NO)
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Cue Rep Lowe’s obnoxious habit of cascading a load of emails to all and sundry, better still, she could resign as a token protest and save us the cost of her ill earned salary.
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Stiletto
Not before the Christmas party.It’s set to be a real doozy this year
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Wouldn’t it be helpful if Deputies gave some indication from where the savings were to come from. The magical land of ‘somewhere else’ is just not good enough!
Maybe they could look use some common sense and look closely at a couple of Income Tax breaks available to some, as the current system is certainly not fair to all: •Property Owners relief for let properties. Times are tight so why are we giving tax breaks to folk who (mostly) have more than their fair share of Guernsey property? They will be sitting on capital gains, which will never be taxed, so why give tax breaks on home inprovements…astounding this was not done away with years ago.
•Mortgage relief. Again something we can no longer subsidise. Those in the position to afford to buy a house should not pay less tax than those who can’t. Rents are often higher than mortgages yet home owners also get the added benefit of paying less tax. Not really a level playing field eh!. This was a ‘nice to have’ when we had pots of tax income coming in but not now, when we need to increase Guernsey income to pay for neccessities.
•Not Income Tax related but certainly pension related, States of Guernsey employee schemes should be closed to new members and a more sustainable defined contribution offering implemented. The private sector don’t get these gold plated schemes anymore so why should the SOG employees be any different?
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Make some interesting points about tax, perhaps there are some what they call low hanging fruit there about releif for rented properties. I would not change the tax for home owners directly occupying but rented is different as that may be done for personal gain and could assume the indivual was in a better position to pay more tax, but that may inpact the rental market by seeing rents increase as a direct fall out as owners seek to regain their financial position.
I feel there should be a control on rental prices maybe by banding all rental properties that fall within a certain size/condition so that prices are reasonable for all on the local market. Looking in the paper the prices can be scarey for a months rent.
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well said scarlett,, she did travel buisness class, and her husband travelled with her, they made a holiday out of it, so she told me when i e/mailed her,
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I hope she had fun, not having to travel with the rabble in cattle class….
that’d be rabble like us, the voters, that are apparently bad for her health.
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well done mary.
i left school at 14 and has payed ins all my working life,i have not had a day out of work and at 65 i feel i have earned my pension.
if the states need to save money start with cutting child allowance after the 2nd child,
that should help people plan more carefully.
also cut the amount of states deputies.
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Well said Milly a post relevant to the subject of the thread unlike most of the others which are mearly axe grindings.
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Good for Mary Lowe after all she is speaking for the old age pensioners of guernsey .
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Speaking for the old age pensioners of Guernsey ? I think she may have gone the extra mile and joined them !
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Absolutly right Barry, the pensioners need someone in the States to support their case. For years pensions were falling behind, it’s only in recent years that they have caught up. Any reductions are going to put those at the bottom end into serious financial trouble.
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Yes Peter thanks you are so right , There is one saving I can mention one parent mothers that have not paid hardly any thing into the fund and should be out to work . If you think of a bird it makes its nest
before it has baby s good way to get on the housing list ? Some of these old age pensioners have paid 40 years in Contributions there the ones that need it .
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What, if anything is Rep Lowe doing in the House now, apart from climbing on every opportunity to hear the sound of her own voice; Come to that, what contributions are her cohorts Trott and Perrot making? All three are ‘earning’ States pensions, for what? All three were very taken aback finding themselves without support from the various committees/departments. Trott and Perrot decided to elect themselves as independent scrutineers, Lowe bleated on about political knowledge and committment counting for nothing. I would like to see saleries for all Reps without responsibility be reduced accordingly and therefore their pension pots.
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Stiletto,
States members now have to fund their own pensions. They have had to since the their last pay review, where payments into the pension fund were cancelled, but the equivilant payment went into their pay. So the choice as to what they do is now theirs.
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Stiletto,
you need counselling!
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Stiletto
Some Very good points, I voted for Mr Perrot, but we haven’t heard a peep from him since …..“are you with us Mr Perrot??… if so knock 3 times on the table”
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MarkB
He made what i thought was a very good speech yesterday and I have heard him speak on a couple of occasions.
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