The full UK State Pension is now worth around £12,548 a year. That's less than half the earnings of someone working full-time on the National Minimum Wage, despite many pensioners paying taxes and National Insurance for 40, 50 or even 60 years.
Yet every time the Treasury needs money, the same voices appear demanding the Triple Lock be scrapped.
Why?
State pension spending is forecast at around £154 billion this year, but that supports over 13 million pensioners, many of whom rely on it as their primary income. Meanwhile, billions continue to disappear into failed projects, government waste, bureaucracy, consultants, quangos and policies that deliver little value to ordinary taxpayers.
The Triple Lock isn't some gold-plated luxury. It exists because politicians allowed the State Pension to fall behind for decades. Even today, a full State Pension is barely above the poverty line and is nowhere near a typical working wage.
If politicians want to save money, start with waste, inefficiency and failed spending programmes.
Leave pensioners alone.
They worked, they paid in, they built this country and they deserve dignity in retirement, not another raid on their income.
@itsme_urstruly@Elizabe25842951 That’s me 🌸 I’m head gardener at a retreat & spend every working day having a lovely time amongst the flowers & bees 🐝
Wait, so we were told to take shorter showers, turn off the tap while brushing our teeth, and conserve water at every opportunity… but data centers can show up and use millions of gallons like it’s nothing?
FOR MILLIONS OF PEOPLE NHS DENTISTRY HAS SIMPLY CEASED TO EXIST
On Monday 15 June a debate will take place in the House of Commons on the shocking state of NHS Dentistry.
Nearly 14 million adults are now unable to access NHS dentistry in England - FOURTEEN MILLION! Just think about that.
People in agony are pulling out their own teeth - this isn’t just Victorian, IT’S MEDIEVAL.
We cannot allow this shocking and shameful situation to continue.
CONTACT YOUR MP NOW using this handy link provided by @TheBDA and ask them to attend this important debate. Tell them to demand that ministers provide a plan to save NHS dentistry and offer the resources to back it up!
THIS IS NOW MAKE OR BREAK FOR NHS DENTISTRY - if urgent action is not taken by the government NHS Dentistry risks becoming little more than an emergency service.
Truer words never said. 👏👏👏
Privatisation of the water industry has been a fraud, the greatest act of criminality ever perpetrated against the people of England and Wales.
There are still people who get excited to show you a cool rock they found, a strangely shaped cloud, a tiny frog, a pretty leaf, or a sky full of stars. That’s the kind of energy I want around me for the rest of my life.
"Sewage companies failed to report 126 serious spills last year. Worst offender was Anglian Water, with 23 undisclosed emergency dumps of raw waste."
WHAT, water companies lying to the regulator to cover their own asses? Surely not?!
And the @EnvAgency does what exactly?
https://t.co/8ZGkT3NaLj
"Welcome to sewage-on-sea: Britain's most fashionable tourist hotspot Whitstable is being despoiled by floods of effluent pouring into the ocean, just as the taps in homes and businesses run dry."
People in Whitstable and Kent really do get it from both ends, your sewage is dumped on to local beaches and your tap water gets cut off simply because the water company can't keep your supply running. Bloody hell.
Brilliant state of the nation piece by David Jones, @DailyMail
https://t.co/0sHmAWYWMv
The Somerset Farmhouse of 1 North Street, Williton were approached by a "food influencer" that wanted to charge them £2,000 for a review.
They put out a video of Sally eating a sausage roll instead 😆.
Lets make Sally and the Somerset Farmhouse famous for free.
"Welsh Water faces £44.7m 'enforcement package' for sewage failings."
The most abhorrent part in all of all of this is that Ofwat has just admitted that since 1994 when the sewage treatment regulations were introduced Welsh Water, like every other sewage company in the UK have been breaking the law.
That's 37 years of illegal activity, 37 years of incompetence, 37 years of failure, 37 years of the gross, violent, decimation of our rivers and beaches.
Where's the justice for them, where's the justice for bill players, where's the accountability, why aren't Ofwat's board now being prosecuted for misconduct in public office?
https://t.co/gn0tyg66Ti
In Finland school meals are free for all children until the age of 16.
In Japan, only qualified nutritionists are allowed to prepare and serve school meals.
Meanwhile in the UK, we’re arguing about whether kids deserve to be fed at all.
FREE school meals for all children!
The idea that in recent days whole towns and villages were blatantly, deliberately cut off from the public water supply because water companies haven't invested in enough equipment to treat and supply water is utter madness.
Apparently the reason people are struggling financially in the UK is because they have subscriptions and buy the occasional coffee.
Not because rent has doubled.
Not because food prices have gone through the roof.
Not because bills keep increasing every year.
No.
It's the £3.50 latte and subscriptions right?
I could stop buying coffee tomorrow.
I could cancel every subscription I own.
I could never order a takeaway again.
And I'd still be almost out of money 2 weeks after payday.
The problem isn't the coffee and subscriptions. It's the fact the cost of living isn't keeping up with wages.
@prieurdp The back of your car is shorter than the front thus making it easier to get the back end into a space than it is to swing the longer front end in, if you haven’t got 30 seconds to wait for a car to park then there is something wrong with you.