Doubts grow over ‘totemic’ cash pledge to pensioners | Money | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/ ... ock-doubts

I've no idea how well off pensioners are in real terms, so I wouldn't like to jump to conclusions there. But losing billions hasn't bothered governments in decades when it comes to taxing companies and BS projects, so why should the pensioners get it in the neck over them?

Well the thing about pensioners is that they tend to vote so political parties are very wary of doing things that will piss them off. It's the main reason that the old have done relatively well compared to say students.
By far the single biggest tranch of welfare spending is on pensions and pensioner benefits but you'll have noticed they've been virtually untouched by austerity.

In the end though you're going to piss off the people who aren't pensioners (and who are, in the end, paying for it all) to the point where they DO vote, simply because it's reached their 'ceiling of irritation'. And then you've suddenly got major problem. Most working people haven't had a pay rise for the best part of a decade, while pensions have risen by roughly 3% every year over that time. At some point that is going to reach the point of being unsustainable, both in political terms and in simple fiscal terms - there comes point where we as a nation simply can't justify giving pensioners a pay rise while cutting/freezing the budget of virtually every other public service, including some those same pensioners rely on. You have to wonder (for example) if pensioners can make a connection between getting a 3% rise in their pension but their day centre having to shut one day a week, or the health visitor only seeing them half as often...

Oh, absolutely. The problem of course is, as recent events have shown, the politicians don't seem to be willing to anticipate and deal with upcoming problems until it's far too late.

And so this morning I heard two news story literally one after the other

1) The triple lock will be maintained until further notice
2) Maintenance grants to students from poor backgrounds will be scrapped and replaced with extended student loans.

Planning for the future...

12+ billion for overseas aid, 80+ billion for HS2 and 200+ billion for trident.
if the country can afford that it can afford to pay the pensioners and fund the students ...

I wouldn't disagree, in fact we still have among the lowest state pensions in Europe so I don't think our pensioners are particularly well off. But the contrast was interesting...