LETTER: It’s taxing being a pensioner

PAPERS nationally, television and radio are reporting how wealthy pensioners have become.

This misleading image of old age wealth is the half-truth story, media and government seem to talk up as a true and factual story. Some pensioners do have a good income and are fit enough to carry on working well into old age. The majority of pensioners who did hard and strenuous jobs are totally knackered.

The idea of industry was to work people like animals sometimes in atrocious conditions. Some never got to collect a pension but paid enough in so that them that had cushy, pencil pushing jobs now get the cream.

On Valentine’s Day Postman Pat left me a HM. letter (Her Majesty). She has been writing to me for over 60 plus years now usually about how much tax I’ve sent her. This one though was a good news, bad news letter as it told me I was to receive a pay rise on my pension (good news). The bad news was I’ll be paying some of it myself as my tax will increase alongside water, council tax, gas, electric Uncle Tom Cobley and all. I’ve paid more tax than some of these multinationals have paid.

Their excuse is their profits are made in some other country, in the other country they tell ‘em they make it here. I can understand the royals not paying a lot of tax, they need every penny with a family that big. Every time they have a photo took it’s only a few days until they take another one as the family’s increased.

Richard Billips, East Avenue, Rawmarsh

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