THE GOOD DIE YOUNG
Sue Cooper (Your View 25.5.05) is guilty of gross over-reaction. She is sickened that the government is paying benefits to a family with 3 unmarried teenage mothers. While the morality of the family may be questioned, it is certainly not Tony Blair's fault the girls became pregnant, and any government of any political shade would pay those same benefits rather than have them begging in the street.
She also accuses the Labour governmet of discriminating against the middle classes because Adair Turner suggested the possibility of professional people retiring later than working class. This was merely an unofficial idea put forward by an independant man who has been charged with coming up with new suggestions for pensions. It is not, and probably never will be government policy, or even part of his final recommendation. It is however, demographically true that professional people live longer on average than the working classes for varied reasons. The figures can be verified in 'Social Trends' published by HMSO.
In 2002 I became disabled and unable to work as a result of a stroke. As an aside, the stroke was caused by a birth defect that almost certainly originated from the fact that I was born in The Black Country (West Bromwich) at a time when pollutions was so bad that if you fell into the canal you didn\'t drown, you dissolved! No chance of suing for that though. Anyway, I became disabled and the United States government very kindly gave me a small monthly Disablity Pension based on my USA contributions.
The next time I visited England, I stopped by the local National Insurance office. Bless their hearts, they pulled up my National Insurane records within seconds. Yes, you contributed for 22 years. Yes, the contributions are all there. You want disability income? Sorry mate, you don\'t live in the UK, you are not entitled to anything.
At that point the clerk leaned over and whispered \"Are you still a British citizen? Yes! That\'s your problem! I suggest you tear up your British passport and arrive as an illegal immigrant, then I could give you all the benefits you want!\"
Many years ago the British goverment trained me to drop nuclear weapons (honestly, I was a Bomber Command navigator!) Maybe they should not upset me too much!
I have some sympathty with your views, , but I think you sound a little bitter.
Old Age pensions are payable after a lifetime of making yourself available to your country and its employers, so quite rightly, if you then choose to spend it abroad, fine.
Disability is a rather different matter It is not in fact National Insurance, althougn called that, it is a national assurance scheme. When you paid your stamp, you were paying the health costs and welfare benefits of people AT THAT TIME. You were not putting capital aside to be repaid to you in the event of need . This makes all the difference
Also the population of Britain is under 60 million, but there are another 20 million living (not just working) abroad. To pay them all the various welfare benefits they may be in line for would literally bankrupt the country.
As a proportion, Americans tend to live in America, and only work abroad. There is a difference
Last point. I became disabled myself, and was given the full disability pension (not dependent on how many years I had paid in) plus my rent is paid for me, my Council Tax is only nominal, and I receive a free car every 3 years, plus free repairs, tax and insurance. All I pay for is gas.
As a result, I find thius country generous to a fault, from my own point of view.
Incidentally the stories of immigrants reciving big welfare benefits is a fallacy. They receive precisely £38 per week to live on, plus accomodation that is condemned as unfit for British people. Fact.
Seriously, I wouldlove to know more about your move to America. I am sure it is a fascinating story , and would love to know more
Regards
Dave