From your article can I infer that the next Conservative government will reverse Brown’s annual £5bn raid on pension funds?

That said thank you for raising this issue again.

If you work in the public sector you can expect a guaranteed pension, to which you make no contribution, indexed linked for life. For every £1 private indivduals save for their own pension we have a liability of £1 for public sector workers. Yet we are capped on what we can save while the PM has a pension pot worth £3million for ruining the public finances!

I would cap all public sector pensions at £60k per annum – the equivalent of what I am allowed to save into a pension fund from my own income.

PS There will be no change because MP’s have the same system and the Tories have refused to engage over public finances for fear of the cry of “cuts”!

Reply: Not so. The MP Pension scheme requires contributions from members, and is currently considering how to cut benefits to cut the costs. The Conservatives have made clear that the deficit has to be brought down by reducing wasteful and undesirable spending.

Means testing and very poor contributory benefits e.g. JSA £60 pw for 6 months is rather poor insurance on VFM compared with the premium NI at 12%. Particularly when vacancies are low and will take a while to recover.

Labour truly have forgotten its social insurance for the working man and replaced it with a dependancy trap.

No tax refunds against prior tax paid in previous years for individuals, when income hits zero. What good is a tax free allowance when you have no income from nowhere. This can happen if you are depleting savings.

It seems only companies & banks get that treatment.

This contrasts of course with the tax free benefits MP’s bestow upon themselves. Some waiting for their 80 day holiday and regular cheques with parachutes attached.

MP’s salary needs to linked to average earnings or benefits and pensions linked to long term economy GDP.

In the 1930′s Autism was unheard of, in 1918 it was 1 in 1500. today it’s one in 166.

They, our ruling elites are making us dependant on them, this is why our economy and country are being gutted, they do not want us as individuals or as a nation to be independant of their New world Order.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT-OKs09oaU

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kennedy+autism+mercury&search_type=&aq=f

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcrfaWzREVM

The problem is not the care offered in Nursing Homes, If you do due dilligence before you choose, as there are good ones that exist.

The problem is who, and how do we pay for them.

Should those who have spent all of their money enjoying life to the full on a day – day basis, get the same benefits of care at no cost to them, as those who have made an attempt, some at considerable financial sacrifice, to be a little more cautious.

There is no doubt that there does come a time, when it is impossible to give someone proper care in their own Home, and as such a Nursing Home is a sensible option for many reasons.

Clearly we need an adult debate about who pays and how much. It would be nice if we could have a proper cross Party grown up discussion and agreement on this subject for once.

The problem now is that the General Public do not trust Politicians to be honest any more, and to stick by the rules agreed, as the rules have a habit of changing, always it seems for the worse. Just look at Pension provision for a start, or the post code lottery on health treatment, drugs, and now Education.

So even if we were to agree an amount of payment this year, for full care in our lifetime, it is most likely that this would change in a few years when more money would be requested, or the care originally agreed to would be limited.

This is not a subject for Party thoughts, which incidentally neither should Education, the Police or the NHS be, as all of these should be above Political games.

Will anyone in charge be brave enough to listen and take sensible action, that is the real question.

I speak as a person who has a 95 year old mother who is in desperate health resident, in to date, an excellent Private Nursing Home.

Localized care in homes managed by Social Services was the cheapest and best care available.

It’s another cheap government con-trick that needs to be booted into touch ASAP. I strongly suggest to everyone that you should make your own provisions for your dotage, and not rely on the British government, which has been demonstrated to have less compassion for the elderly than it does for flea-ridden foxes. After all, it was M. Thatcher’s lot who removed the indexation of state pensions to earnings, so be it Labour or Tory next June, we ageing folk with some savings put by will still be stuffed either way, I suspect. Or can you reassure me otherwise, John?

I hate to admit it, but I believe the government has got this issue right. They are not blundering in with an ill-considered conclusion to be forced on the Commons but are opening a debate about whether, and if so how, specific charges should be levied to pay for such care.

Of course governments of both parties should have been building a reserve fund for the last 60 years through the National Insurance scheme, but they didn’t and we are where we are. This issue is both important and expensive, it is better for it to be out in the open and discussed. Someone has to pay for it, the issues are who and how?