Pensioners pay 11% of all 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.

Refugees welcome here - Liverpool demo

It is tragic that it has taken the sight of a a drowned toddler washed up on a beach to make some people - including this government - wake up. Our government's response might be too little and very late, but it's not too late, as the humanitarian crisis shows no sign of letting up. Whether the Tories have been motivated by compassion, or the political expediency of responding to overwhelming public opinion, is neither here nor there. The important point is they were forced to change direction.

There is a demonstration that refugees are welcome here in Liverpool at midday this Saturday 12 September by St Lukes 'bombed out' Church at the top of Bold Street and Renshaw Street. Facebook page for the event here.

There is also a petition to Government: "Accept more asylum seekers and increase support for refugee migrants in the UK. There is a global refugee crisis. The UK is not offering proportional asylum in comparison with European counterparts. We can't allow refugees who have risked their lives to escape horrendous conflict and violence to be left living in dire, unsafe and inhumane conditions in Europe. We must help." You can sign here.

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.