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What Pension Advice Would You Give?

I have recently been discussing pensions with people from their early 20s up to 65 years of age. Several fascinating points emerge, with the first one being how little trust most people have in the whole pensions industry, and in the likely state pensions scheme they will face.

In spite of all the worries about house prices, and the numerous articles one reads about double-dips in the housing market, the great majority of people see property as the only reliable way to save for later life. They look at their own experiences, those of friends and family, and see rising house prices as a reality, whereas pension funds seem to shrink by the year. Some of the rudest comments come from people with pension plans from previous jobs, where they see themselves paying an annual fee for someone to manage a fund which falls in value each year.

Most people seem to expect that they will actually work past the state retirement date. Perhaps not the same work they did when young, but actually few people seem to expect a classic kind of retirement - golf, cruises, expensive dental work gleaming in the setting sun kind of thing. How this is going to happen without some sort of plan defeats me, as it will be tough enough to get the young into employment in the next few years.

But for me, the killer question was to the older people, asking whether they would recommend starting a pension to their own children or grandchildren. The answer was a virtual 100% ‘No’ to that question. Oscar would love to hear from its members whether they would give the same answer.

afternoon tea

Trish Scholey, 68 from West Yorkshire, has been chosen as the first winner of the OscarUK.co.uk Heroes campaign, which aims to find and support the UK’s most heroic over 50s every month. The specialist online concession service for the over 50s highlighted Trish, who lost her daughter Julie to diabetes 23 years ago, has since devoted herself to fundraising and campaigning for the awareness of the disease, as May’s OscarUK Hero.

Trish lives in an old Victorian house in the village of East Keswick, halfway between Leeds and Harrogate. She regularly opens her garden for fundraising events over the summer months, holding afternoon tea and open garden events with the support of the local Methodist Church and Village Hall, to raise money and awareness for Diabetes UK, with last year’s efforts raising £642.

Trish said: “I’m honoured to be highlighted as an Oscar Hero for May, I love fundraising in my daughters’ memory and really want to raise awareness of the risks of diabetes. I’d like to thank OscarUK for choosing me and the support that they’ll bring to my events over the summer.”

This year, Trish hopes for continued success in her fundraising efforts, praying for sunny weather over the coming months, in particular, for this year’s afternoon tea on 27th June.

Speaking about Trish’s efforts, Peter Simpson, Chairman of OscarUK said: “Trish seemed an obvious candidate, the unexpected loss of her daughter Julie at the age of 22 meant that Trish is determined to raise awareness of the symptoms of diabetes to prevent such loss happening to families in the future.

“The OscarUK Heroes campaign aims to search far and wide for passionate individuals who regularly take part in charity fundraising, with the aim to help increase awareness of their charity and raise as much money as possible. OscarUK are happy to support Trish in her fundraising and we hope to increase donations to such a worthy cause.”

To support diabetes research and Trish’s efforts, donate online now at: www.diabetes.org.uk/get_involved/donate . If you’re Over-50 or know someone who is over 50 and is pushing himself or herself to the limit in the name of charity then please get in touch by emailing oscar@hatchcommunications.co.uk .

guests at last years afternoon tea

New Politics?

Listening to John Humphries trying to interview Teresa May this morning, I was struck by how tough a coalition government is going to be for journalists in the UK. Humphries kept plugging the line ‘ You promised you were going to do this, and now you are changing your mind’ when obviously that is the nature of coalition politics - you have to keep on making compromises. Journalists will have to learn to question what is actually happening, rather than to play this frankly rather tedious game of ‘You said A and you’re doing X’.

More challenging for all of us is to accept that when we vote for a party, we are actually giving the leadership a permit to negotiate, rather than obliging them to follow a specific set of policies. A Dutch relative said to me last week that it was remarkable that we had a government within 5 days of an election - they are used to 5 weeks being more like the delay. So, for a first shot at it, our politicians did a pretty good job.

It does make me wonder whether we should really be radical in transforming the way elections run. Here is the Oscar plan for British politics, lets see if it sounds interesting to our members - some of whom were, like me, born during a coalition government, so perhaps we are in front of the pack.

Firstly, if you are choosing the management of a business, you would select the people who look to be most competent, and then charge them with carrying out the best policies for the good of the business. So perhaps we should separate off the individuals from the policies in the election - after all, during the last week it has become clear that we can get Clegg to carry out Conservative policies, and Cameron to carry out Liberal ones. They seem to be doing this happily, they certainly look happier than Brown did while carrying out his own policies.

We could then have an X Factor style of leadership contest, as has become the popular way of doing things, and have another election where we sort out the policies we all prefer. We could run policy choices on a referendum basis, maybe one big referendum every year, or carry them out when specific problems arise. Maybe the choice of leader could be a full vote of all the qualified voters as at present, and then the policy votes would have to be carried out by people who knew something about the subject, or cared about it, rather than were whipped up into a frenzy by the press.

This would also help with the challenge of a fixed 5 year parliament. The issues towards the end of that period are bound to be different from those at the start, and as things are we just let the government get on with things without reference to the voters. With the Oscar plan, we would have a consistent leadership but with responsive policies.

Well, I like it. What do you think?

Older workforce more valued in future

Britain’s older workers look set to hold the aces in the workplace of 2020, with graduates being forced to raise their game to achieve the jobs they want in an increasingly competitive employment environment.
According to Friends Provident in its latest Visions of Britain 2020 report, conducted with the Future Foundation, the ‘grey workforce’ will grow significantly, with an extra two million people aged 55 and above in the workplace (7.16 million people compared with 5.14 million today).

And a lack of talent and skills shortages in the workforce will ensure that these older workers are more valued in the future than today. In addition, the recession has vividly demonstrated the value of experience, and the research predicts employers will place more of a premium on those with years under their belts.
The report also shows that an extra 2.5 million graduates will be forced to resort to more enterprising and innovative approaches to finding work in the businesses of 2020, as the job markets becomes more competitive.

Calling all budding editors

We are looking for enthusiastic volunteers who would be willing to give up some valuable time and help us to make Oscar more interactive. We hope to introduce a forum where Oscar members can debate burning issues and share thoughts - as well as keeping each other informed about the more localised offers or events happening. If you would be interested in helping please contact us.

ELECTION 2010

Looking at the manifesto pledges for the main parties, it is pretty difficult to decide which party has the interests of older people at its heart. There ought to be a sense of shame at how many pensioners live in poverty, but you really struggle to see this.

It does feel as though the less likely a party is to gain power, the better its promises to older people. The Greens suggest raising the state pension to £170 for a single person, £300 for a couple. This goes way ahead of UKIP at £130 for the single pension, the rather bland Conservative promise of ‘Take the tough decisions needed to ensure all pensioners receive a decent state pension’, while Labour are more reliant on manipulating tax and benefits rules to pass on more money to the age group. Fixing the state pension to average earnings is a feature of both Labour and Conservative manifestos, and the Lib Dem. The Lib Dems have the idea of raising tax thresholds to £10,000, which would mean an effective increase in income for a large number of pensioners, although not all.

So, if you want to be really selfish, vote Green. If you want to see thousands more civil servants calculating and miscalculating your pension and tax, vote Labour. If you are expecting a thumping great private pension, the Conservatives have a trick or two which will help, so vote Tory. UKIP want us to stop paying pensions for Austrians and Greeks, which seems unarguable. And Lib Dems might take you out of income tax altogether.

There is a bit of a theme running through some of the promises. Seeing the state pension as a right rather than based on contributions seems to emerge from several points in these manifestos, as does being more flexible about retirement age and the obligation to purchase an annuity, which all do seem fair.

Yet really there is no party which takes it as a basic principle that older people should not live in poverty. The UK ranks as the worst country in the EU for state benefits for the elderly, but looks better if you add in private pensions. People who retired in the last 10 years or so on private pensions have mostly been lucky with the economic conditions, and good luck to them.

Help for the over-50s is not just about pensions. If you have a supportive family, then life may be fine, but we live in a culture where people are isolated from each other, both in towns and in rural areas. Older people should be demanding better transport links (we don’t all want to travel between London and a few big cities), a return of later learning options (pretty much wiped out over the last few years), help for smaller communities (Post Offices, pubs and shops). It is right to worry about health care, home help, and similar issues, but a bit of help to enjoy ourselves might save a fortune in health care.

Try asking your local candidates about a few of these real concerns, after all they desperately need our votes – and more of our age group are likely to vote than amongst the young.

My policies – tax on tattoos, on people who raise their tone at the end of sentences, and people who say ‘Can I get a coffee?’ rather than ‘Could I have a coffee?’ Those would fund an awful lot of pensions.

Calling All you Heroes

OscarUK supports the rights and interests of the over 50s, and we know that a lot of our members are inspirational to others.

We’re proud of our members and want to shout about it! So we’re setting you a challenge to become Oscar Heroes in your regional press.

CALLING ALL OVER 50 FUNDRAISERS!

Are you taking part in the Three Peaks Challenge for the first time at 60 or organising an event in aid of a worthy cause?

We know lots of you get involved with fundraising activity for local and national charities. Maybe it’s for a cause particularly close to your heart and you need help encouraging people to donate?

Or perhaps you simply like to get involved with fun activities and do your bit for a good cause? Either way, we can help publicise your efforts if they are exciting or unusual.

SEARCH FOR OUR HEROES

OscarUK is launching a search for Britain’s over 50 fundraisers to highlight the fantastic initiatives our members are taking part in.

To recognise your efforts, we are calling on anyone over 50 taking part in charity initiatives to tell us their story. At the end of each month we will pick our ‘Oscar Hero of the Month’ and help them to raise awareness of their charity stories through the site and in the local media, so that you can continue to raise as much money as possible!

To get involved, all you have to do is get in touch and tell us your story, including the following information:
· Name
· Age
· Occupation
· Where you live
· Phone number
· Email address
· Details of your charity initiative

If you have an event to tell us about or you know someone over 50 who fits the bill, simply email oscar@hatchcommunications.co.uk with your story.

While we can’t guarantee we can support every single story we receive, be assured we’ll consider each enquiry and do our best to select the top stories of our heroes.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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