The Channel 4 programme - Rich and On Benefits - presented by 67 year old Michael Buerk reported how British pensioners are surviving the squeeze on welfare largely unscathed.
There's obviously a constituency where this message plays well - those Gen X and Gen Y conditioned by the New Labour bribes to want everything now.
But it misinforms and misleads. And it does diservice to the segment of society which over 40 years has gone without so as to look after itself when times got tough. And by the way, that cohort built a better world for all those who followed.
Successive governments, but particularly that bastard Brown, have subverted our investment in tomorrow by quietly taxing our savings, then taxing our income, then driving up energy costs and driving down investment returns. The only pensioners feeling good these days are the ones with public sector pensions.
Buerk focused on a small number of pensioners and pointed to the £250 (per household) winter fuel allowance, free bus passes and free prescriptions. Just quite how he thinks that compares with all the benefits claimed by the rest of the population wasn't clear, because he chose not to talk about all those on Job Seekers Allowance, Disability Benefit, Housing Benefit, Child Benefit, Child Care Allowance, Income Tax Credits.
That would have contradicted his message of course.
The truth is the State Pension in the UK is by far the lowest in the developed world and only supplemented by other benefits after means testing.
Retirement plans and life endowment schemes we've invested in for 40 years are delivering fractions of what was planned, as a result of Brown's policies.
The single biggest cost for pensioners is energy, which takes a much bigger share of income than for any other group, and that's increasing at more than 10% each year. Another direct result of Brown's policies. For most pensioners energy costs 25% of their total income. Households receiving other benefits are accorded special social pricing, but that doesn't apply to pensioners of course.
The truth is there are some pensioners who are rich and receiving benefits, but only in a tiny amount. Whereas there are millions of pensioners going without food and heating, marginalised by public services, and now being told they're parasites responsible for younger generations getting less than they want.
Meanwhile those same pensioners are still paying taxes to fund all the other benefits paid out by our warped welfare system. Their income is still subject to income tax. Everything they buy (except food) includes Value Added Tax. They also pay Fuel Duty and Road Tax for their cars.
And that's after 40 years of paying for the younger generations.
There's obviously a constituency where this message plays well - those Gen X and Gen Y conditioned by the New Labour bribes to want everything now.
But it misinforms and misleads. And it does diservice to the segment of society which over 40 years has gone without so as to look after itself when times got tough. And by the way, that cohort built a better world for all those who followed.
Successive governments, but particularly that bastard Brown, have subverted our investment in tomorrow by quietly taxing our savings, then taxing our income, then driving up energy costs and driving down investment returns. The only pensioners feeling good these days are the ones with public sector pensions.
Buerk focused on a small number of pensioners and pointed to the £250 (per household) winter fuel allowance, free bus passes and free prescriptions. Just quite how he thinks that compares with all the benefits claimed by the rest of the population wasn't clear, because he chose not to talk about all those on Job Seekers Allowance, Disability Benefit, Housing Benefit, Child Benefit, Child Care Allowance, Income Tax Credits.
That would have contradicted his message of course.
The truth is the State Pension in the UK is by far the lowest in the developed world and only supplemented by other benefits after means testing.
Retirement plans and life endowment schemes we've invested in for 40 years are delivering fractions of what was planned, as a result of Brown's policies.
The single biggest cost for pensioners is energy, which takes a much bigger share of income than for any other group, and that's increasing at more than 10% each year. Another direct result of Brown's policies. For most pensioners energy costs 25% of their total income. Households receiving other benefits are accorded special social pricing, but that doesn't apply to pensioners of course.
The truth is there are some pensioners who are rich and receiving benefits, but only in a tiny amount. Whereas there are millions of pensioners going without food and heating, marginalised by public services, and now being told they're parasites responsible for younger generations getting less than they want.
Meanwhile those same pensioners are still paying taxes to fund all the other benefits paid out by our warped welfare system. Their income is still subject to income tax. Everything they buy (except food) includes Value Added Tax. They also pay Fuel Duty and Road Tax for their cars.
And that's after 40 years of paying for the younger generations.
