“An estimated 95,000 people have been overpaid a total of £126m over 30 years as a result of errors in public sector pensions, the Cabinet Office has said.”
“Retired civil servants, NHS workers, teachers, judicial and armed services personnel were given too much money. The government said the money need not be repaid, as this would not be cost-effective, but many face pension cuts.
The overpayments, averaging about £1,300 per person in total, began in 1978 and were caused by an “incorrect indexation” of pensions. If evenly spread over the 30 years it would equal overpayments of about £3.70 a month each.”
It’s not a huge amount to be overpaid, so my view is don’t bother. However, the Have your say section on the BBC news website ( I really have to stop going there) has given more “outraged people” a chance to froth at the mouth.
Take this fellow for instance:
“Those who feed from the public trough always seem to think they are entitled to more and more. They`ve been overpaid from MY taxes. Why shouldn`t they pay a portion of it back?”
So what you are saying is because of no fault of their own, they should pay back a small amount because you’ve been paying tax? Has it occured to you that these people have also paid their own taxes? I wonder if this fellow would be so incensed if the shoe was on the other foot and it was him that should pay the amount back.
This is an instance of the current generation showing resentment for paying tax into a system that will also benefit the older generation, even though the older generation have also contributed to it themselves. Well you are going to have to get used to it, since retired people will begin to outnumber the taxpayers in the country within the next ten years and the birthrate is dropping, we could solve a lot of this problem by increased immigration, bringing more workers in to pay taxes, but you’d probably be incensed by having more “Johnny foreigners” come to these shores.
The selfish, mean minded people which now inhabit this Island is the reason why I think that the UK is going down. These people just can’t see past themselves.
I’m 15 and all around me the world is screwing up. The last time I came here I was giving my opinions on the World will end next Wednesday forum as Eliot The Kid, now I’m giving my opinion on tax problems. Simply, when I’m 19, this world is going to be so damn confusing for me I’ll end up homeless I’m sure. Also, why don’t they teach this stuff in school, rather than that useless crap we learn in PSE days where we get taught stuff we’ve been taught 3 times or so.