Pensioners pay 11% of UK income tax

It's been estimated that the average pensioner pays £3,285 each in income tax every year, giving a total of £17.5 billion a year, which represents a surprising 11% of all the income tax collected in the UK. To make things worse, there's a very real risk that many of them are paying far more income tax than they should.

Financial journalist Sarah Coles suggests five ways of cutting pensioners' income tax bills - click here.

Bad pension news for 1000s of women

Terrible news for women set to hit state pension age in the first few years after April 2016: there's a serious risk you won't be entitled to the pension you're expecting. The new state pension introduced at that point was touted as a 'flat rate pension' which was expected to deliver £151.25 to all new pensioners. However, only a small minority of them will get the full pension in the first years of operation - including exceptionally few women. In fact, in the first year of operation only 37% of those retiring meet the requirements.

Click here for more details.

The PCS Samba Band

The PCS Samba Band will be playing at the "YES to Workers Rights, NO to Austerity" march on the Conservative Party conference on Sunday 4th October in Manchester. If you are interested in joining the band they are holding a rehearsal on:

Sunday 27 September 2015.
1pm to 4pm.
Greenfish, 45 to 50 Oldham Street, Manchester city centre (near Piccadilly Gardens).

All equipment will be provided and the tuition and rehearsal is free.

PCS members, members of other unions and anti-cuts organisations are all welcome (but will be marching under the PCS name and colours).

For more information please contact: Dave Vincent on 0161 240 5129 or email dgvincent@hotmail.co.uk

Young versus old - what really causes wealth inequality?

The popular notion that wealthy baby boomers are hoarding the country’s wealth in retirement, at the expense of younger generations, is wrong, according to a new report from the TUC. It acknowledges that today’s young people will be poorer than their parents, but says the answer is not to cut pensioner benefits.

The report into wealth inequality attacks the "myths that all pensioners are rich and that reducing older people’s benefits would be a solution to young people’s problems", and warns that "growing wealth inequalities across generations" are the real problem.

Impoverishing one sector of society as a way of helping another is not a contribution to social justice, and ignores the fact that wealth is moving upwards away from both young people, workers and pensioners alike. 

You can see the report here, and an article about it in The Independent here.