EmilyA Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 You could only get an 80% mortgage in 1971 too as I recall. You could also only get two and a half times your salary and we had savings and help from Mum and Dad for the deposit (we did this for our children too). You had to go through a painful process of going as a supplicant to the mortgage company and waiting to be approved as there were only a limited number available each month. Wives salaries did not count. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pommier Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I think it's young people who are being hit hardest. Mortgage rates were high years ago (I well remember 15.5%) but house prices were so much lower and mortgages weren't hard to obtain. At least those of us who bought houses years ago have either a decent amount of cash, or lots of value in property, plus good pensions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 [quote user="EmilyA"]You could only get an 80% mortgage in 1971 too as I recall. You could also only get two and a half times your salary and we had savings and help from Mum and Dad for the deposit (we did this for our children too). You had to go through a painful process of going as a supplicant to the mortgage company and waiting to be approved as there were only a limited number available each month. Wives salaries did not count.[/quote]We first bought in 1972 - and yes, it was very difficult to get a mortgage, particularly on an older property. Wives salaries would be taken into account, but not by a lot (and in those days too, a wife could not take a hire purchase agreement without the permission of her husband). We bought a house which needed doing up, so cost lost than yours, but it was still a struggle, as you say, nothing much new - I stuck at a new bed, and a new cooker, the rest was second hand or we did without.What I think is wrong about this change is that some, the poorest pensioners, only on a state pension, will get pension credit and many benefits come from that, so they will be at least "looked after". It is those who are not very wealthy, but who fall above the minimums because we have saved hard and made something of our lives who may well suffer.Incidentally, whilst indeed most of us of retirement age (ie men over 65 and in my generation women over 60) might well have not had to pay for our higher education, it is not at all true to say that we have had jobs for life. I have lost count of the number of jobs both my husband and I have had to look for after redundancy - and more than one time. Yes, it's hard for the young, (I have two nephews and a niece) but they have opportunities we did not have (to live and work abroad as one small example.) And perhaps they are more courageous in what they will do ......In the land of the new Jerusalem it seems to me that the perks for being retired are free bus travel, a winter fuel allowance and pension credit if needed. Not much else now, and less if you live abroad and left at the wrong time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyA Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I also think the media have a very London and South-East centric view of these wealthy "baby-boomers". Are the people who were steelworkers and miners "sitting on a fortune in property with gold-plated pensions". I think not. There was an article recently about a journalist with a well-off friend who had "free rail travel". He didn't even seem to know that it was not the case outside London. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Would the Granny tax moaners reported in the press include those public servants who took early retirement in their fifties with large lump sums, enhanced, indexed pensions, and who went on to be recruited by the organization from which they had just been removed at high part-time rates? If so, then they have had more than their fair share of the pot and should put a bit back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Wooly, those with big pensions don't really benefit from this decreased tax as there is an income limit on age related allowances and the tax code will be adjusted and increases how much tax will be paid. Here are the figures. http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoddy Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I feel most sorry for those young people just starting their adult life. How on earth they are supposed to get married, buy a house and start a family I just don't know. One of the consequences is that women are having their babies much later in life.I guess that many of them are unable to invest in a pension.That said, I really don't get the feeling that we are all 'in this together'.Hoddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted March 29, 2012 Author Share Posted March 29, 2012 Emily - We have free bus travel but as far as I know we can only get reduced rail travel, not free, and this is nationwide not just in London.I'd be interested to know if there is a way to get free rail travel..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 A friend of mine who lives in London has free tube and bus travel, and I'm not sure if she gets free rail travel into London, if she does it only works within M25 London. I'll have to ask, as for someone who gets free tube and bus, she uses the train quite often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoddy Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 In theory in this county you can travel free at off peak times. There is just one drawback; there are no buses.Hoddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted March 29, 2012 Author Share Posted March 29, 2012 We're lucky, three busses an hour from the end of the road here, and trains to Paddington every 10 mins from the train station. I use a senior railcard and pre book to reduce the cost as much as possible.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 ] The only way I know to get free rail travel is to have worked on the railway all your life . Then as part of the retirement package a set number of days per year are given for free travel to the worker and spouse . . 1st or 2nd class will depend on the grade reached by the time retirement age arrives . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 [quote user="Hoddy"]In theory in this county you can travel free at off peak times. There is just one drawback; there are no buses. Hoddy[/quote]Even in my french village I had the good fortune to have a few buses each day. Here I have a bus every ten minutes all day and every half hour from 20h, à deux pas from my front door. Last ones leave around 23h30 to a main town or gets me back by that time, frankly I don't need anything more. No bus pass yet and not free until after 9h30, but then a mere 20p, but hey, I'm not an early riser so it wouldn't bother me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 When in England I don't use my bus pass very much; if I'm going in to town, I'm usually going to buy a number of things, so the car is uasually the solution. But I do use it at times. I also apreciate my senior rail card; I took the Easyjet fkight to Gatwick recently, and it was good to have the reduction in price.In France, all our local buses are one price - €1.50 single, which is subsidised from taxes. Even the train to the coast is subsidised - it costs €1, I think! It must all help to keep traffic off very over-used motorways! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patf Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 How do you get the reduction in price from Easyjet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 [quote user="gardengirl "]In France, all our local buses are one price - €1.50 single, which is subsidised from taxes. Even the train to the coast is subsidised - it costs €1, I think! It must all help to keep traffic off very over-used motorways![/quote]As far as I know round here there is one bus, maybe once or twice (to get you back) a day. I have yet to see it actually moving. And to get to a train station you would have to change at least once. Thus we all use cars, as there is no option, especially since the one place the bus goes to is the one place I try to avoid at all costs!That's the difference between rural and urban, be it in France or the UK, where again there are few buses as has already been said on this post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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