This all sounds cosy, however it is the speed of onset that is so appalling. You can be within 5 years of retiring and someone comes along and changes all the rules. They then tell you, even though you have worked all of your life and saved for your retirement, that you are a scrounger because you now need benefits due to no longer being employable because of your age (ageism does exist and is rife), your private pension is now worth 3 farthings because the banks played roulette with it and the kindly government has moved your retirement date backwards and also grabbed all of you SERPS contributions for their own when you do retire. I wish I was an eastern european just entering the country with no money and having paid none into the system. I would be loaded!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don`t bring that name up!, "THE MILK SNATCHER", He will be remembered as "SHAMBOLIC" or words to that affect!. I think it would be more fitting the CON/DIM be called "..........The Fruit Cakes supported by Nuts!" lol.

You may be breach of copyright Mr Bearcat, you are not the only one with a TV set!

"No" was the response when I posed the same question to DWP in Newcastle. My wife qualified for state pension in 2008. She was short of a number of years' contributions because she'd followed my work to places she was not allowed/unable to work (Northern Ireland, Hong Kong, Germany, Canada) so therefore has a short fall in contributions with consequent abatement of pension. Had she been a few months older, she'd have fallen under new (current) rules and would therefore have had enough contributions for full pension. Likewise, had I retired 2 years later, her share of my pension on my death would have risen by 30%.

Ah, well, you win some, you lose some.

Whatever, don't accept the Govt line that, last year, pensioners received the biggest rise in history. What they got was the Govt 'contractual' rise to keep pace with the inflation index in use - it was not a rise in disposable income at all. Again, all the wittering about winter fuel allowance, bus passes and TV licences - it seems to me these were offered out at the time in lieu of appropriate rises in state pension. We're all being conned. Wealthy pensioners are unlikely to use buses, for crying out loud. But rthose pensioners who can't/don't drive, but who make use of the bus pass get out and about, spend their pension money and bits from their residue, probably improve their general health and well-being at the same time and thus will spend less time as a drain on health and social services whilst re-cycling their cash.

Finally, for those entering the debate about the 'baby boomers' having had it all - when we were buying our first house interst rates were ranged from 8.5% to almost 20%. Basic rate ncome tax was levied at 34%, inflation was double digit for a long time, unemployment was, proportionally, higfher than it is today, and house re-possessions were very much more frequent. Oh, and that free university? Only about 5% of the population went to university in the 60s.

Life is tough. Adjust your spending and aspirations to your needs. Consider cutting up your plastic, or leaving it at home when you go to work or shopping or socializing. You'll be surprised at how quickly your own fiscal deficit will fall.

the money and the banks are a huge scam, find out while you can on the alternative media and internet. We could all live for years on the war budget

Oh well.....lets just keep doing things the way are now then and keep losing money on this system so that your wife is not affected!!!