Bad news for grannies
Be ready to work until you are nearly 80, young people
warned
Today's young people should prepare themselves for a very, very
long working life.
While older people can retire at the age of 65 nowadays, in the
future we will all be working until we are in our seventies.
And babies born today will probably still be slogging away when
they are in their eighties!
That's if they ever manage to get a job in the first place.
Youth unemployment in Scotland is at a record high, with more than
100,000 young people out of work.
The government has announced plans to keep raising the age at
which people can start getting a state pension because we are all
living longer.
In Scotland, the number of people aged 65 and over is set to go
up by half a million in the next 23 years.
Leaders say the country won't be able to afford for all these
older people to stop working and start receiving a pension when
they hit 65, so they are going to have to keep working for
longer.
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Bad news for grannies
Anger at new 'granny tax' as critics call spending plans
'millionaire's Budget'
Five million pensioners in the UK, including 500,000 Scots, will
lose more than £300 a year after yesterday's Budget.
Over-65s with an income of between £10,000 and £24,000 will
eventually have to shell out the same rates as all other
taxpayers.
Income for people this age could come from things such as
private pensions, or earnings from work or savings.
Until now, many older people were let off paying the same amount
as younger taxpayers, under a rule aiming to help pensioners that
was introduced in 1925 by Winston Churchill.
From next year, the amount a pensioner can receive before paying
tax will be frozen at £10,500 a year for over-65s and £10,660 a
year for over-75s.
The limit used to rise every year to keep up with inflation, so
that the real value of the amount remained the same.
"What George Osborne has done is absolutely disgraceful," said
Nell McFadden, aged 84, from Gourock.
"I think he is stealing from pensioners and I am absolutely
disgusted."
But Mr Osborne said that no pensioners will be losing cash, and
that the state pension is going to go up by more than £5 a
week.
Meanwhile, around 300,000 of the UK's top earners will pay less
tax under the new rules.
People who are paid £150,000 and over each year are charged 50p
in tax for every pound they earn. But from next year, that will be
reduced to 45p.
The chancellor George Osborne defended the tax cut saying that
the extra 5p didn't raise much money for the government and just
encouraged tax avoidance, thus harming the economy.
He claimed that the rich would pay five times more tax as a
result of all the measures he announced yesterday, including an
increase in the amount payable for the sale of a house worth over
£2 million.
But the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Johann Lamont, said
the Budget was "riddled with unfairness" which marked the end of
the claim "we're all in this together."
She said: "Scots will be furious to see a gang of cabinet
millionaires giving tax cuts to millionaires."
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