The U.K. is one of the few places in the world that has final salary pensions.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
If Britain is to have a stable, affordable pension system, people need to work longer, but we will reward their hard work with a decent state pension that will enable them to enjoy quality of life in their retirement.
In some cases, managers and employees have secured pensions beyond their original base salary. It is wrong, the people doing it know it's wrong, and we have to put an end to it.
Because of lower life expectancy in Scotland - something that we are working hard to improve - the average woman will get £11,000 less in pension payments than counterparts in the rest of the U.K., even though she will pay exactly the same in contributions.
An independent Scotland could afford pensions full stop - after all, it is our taxes and national insurance contributions that fund them now.
Most private-sector folks don't get a pension.
A pension is nothing more than deferred compensation.
There are tons of examples of U.K. and European mistakes. A classic one is pensions. That's obviously not an America-specific thing. The British and European economies are suffering under the weight of what is to come. The next great Ponzi scheme after Madoff is probably pensions.
We can't be paying pensions to the next generation of federal workers when hardly anyone in the private sector gets them.
That's one reason India is an attractive proposition for retiring. Servants are much more reasonable than in England. It's not exploitation so long as you pay a proper salary.
If you go to the U.S., you've got a huge market, cheap energy, good skills, and pensions are a sensible cost.