Why should I bother……. I still have years to go……..don’t I?
As a 37 year old with two very young children and working in the private sector retirement should be amongst the last things on my mind, or should it?
If I worked in certain Government departments, such as the RGP, I would only have another 18 years to go before I retired at 55 with my tax free gratuity payment of twice my annual wage and a tax free pension of two thirds of my salary, so for example if I retired on £30,000 per year I would get a £60,000 tax free payment and a £20,000 tax free pension. As things stand today I cannot see myself retiring in 18 years’ time, nor in 30 years from now. So why should I be discriminated against in this way and why should I have the doom and gloom prospect of “dying with my boots on”?
In any society I can think of it is the private sector who keeps the public sector running, yet in Gibraltar workers in Government actually earn more (average wage p.a.) than those in the private sector (according to official figures often highlighted by the Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce and the GFSB). Yet we are expected to look after ourselves into old age, even though tax incentives for private pension schemes were done away with. This is not only unfair but it is unreasonable and immoral.
The association was set up by individuals who, in their majority, are either retired, about to retire or who cannot afford to retire. Can we really call ourselves a modern and caring society when we have people working well into their 70’s because they cannot afford to retire on just over £500 per month (for a married couple). Put it this way, would you and your partner (husband/wife) be able to pay your rent, rates, electricity, water, telephone and food bills on just over £500 per month for the two of you? What about clothes shopping or an odd treat such as a new pair of shoes?
Just think, how long since you left school or did your GCSE’s? How old are your kids or how long ago since you undertook your driving test or last had to show your ID to enter a bar? My point…time flies does it not? Well before you know it another 10, 15 or 20 years will have gone by and where will you be? If your one of the lucky ones with a public pension then probably on a cruise or just generally enjoying life, but what about the rest of us; yes yes barring the Euromillions that we are all going to win one of these days!
I have assimilated that I will have to work well into my old age, like members of my family have done before me and some are still doing, but one question still persists; is it fair and just? Whilst most of us “spring chickens” might think that retirement is years away….well it is….but time does not stand still and we have to call on the powers that be to make things fairer. As for what the public workers have achieved, congratulations to them, but now it is our turn to stand up and be counted. Whether you simply sign the petition or volunteer of your time things need to change not only because the current system is unjust but because it is our right, we have the right to retire and enjoy a dignified existence well into our old age; and the Euromillions I hear you ask? Well one right that we cannot be denied is the right to dream J
