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TTT...Old age pension is probably the hottest potato that any Government, of any political hue, has to handle. Any decision made now won't take effect for many years hence. That is why Labour and the Tories have not argued very much about the problem, both realising that something needs to be done.
To be fair to dave, his administration appears to carrying on with changes that Labour started. The age that the OAP kicks in has been put back and the anomaly about women getting a lesser pension than men has also been addressed. Women that have not worked for periods because they have been bringing up children, or looking after aged parents are now being treated much more fairly.
But this report from the Centre for Policy Studies seems to suggest that decreasing NICs are a problem for the future, and one of the reasons for this is low wage increases. We are now getting to be a low wage economy, with more people in low-paid, short-hours jobs, thus not paying enough NICs.
And people are living considerably longer than they were just a generation ago, with better health care and less smoking being the most important causes.
I think we should all be worried about this situation, because it will only get worse if we ignore the consequences.