When I stepped back from full-time work earlier this year, I vowed to enter the next phase of my life with grace.
Still, semi-retirement has been a struggle – an issue I wrote about a month ago – as I’ve struggled with finding the right work-life balance.
The wrestling continues, judging by the fact that my partner has now decided to call me Victor Meldrew, after the grumpy character from the classic 1990s BBC sitcom One Foot In The Grave. My tendency to groan has gone up about six times since I’ve been ‘semi-retired’.
She’s right to give me the Victor Meldrew label. For example, a week ago I was apoplectic after CrossCountry Trains canceled the service that was supposed to take me to the Hawthorns, home of West Bromwich Albion Football Club, to watch my team play (beat) Burnley. When Leonie called to ask how the train journey was going, I was sitting in my garden furiously watering my dahlias.
I growled into the phone like an excited bear, causing the neighbors to look at me in fear.
“Bloody CrossCountry Trains, they’re hopeless,” I shouted. ‘They don’t care about customers. Owned by private equity.”
Leonie quietly ended the conversation. I immediately called back to apologize. It was only later revealed that the train cancellation was not an isolated incident, but the result of a power failure at CrossCountry’s control center in Birmingham.
My partner has now decided to name me Victor Meldrew after the grumpy character from the classic 1990s BBC sitcom One Foot In The Grave, writes Jeff Prestridge
Yet this meltdown from Victor Meldrew was not the same as the one two days later, after I read the latest research from the left-wing (and labor-loving) Institute for Public Policy Research entitled “Taxing Times” – an apt title considering we have been saddled with the highest taxes since the 1940s.
This time I spat blood. “I don’t believe it,” I roared.
The inquiry, timed to advance Labor thinking Budget in just under two months, starts off well with author Ben Ansell describing the country’s tax system as not fit for purpose and full of ‘a lot of complexity’.
Few readers will disagree with the good professor on this point.
But read on, as I did for almost 30 pages, and my character went into full Victor Meldrew mode.
Why? That’s because Ansell believes that the path to a ‘better’ tax system lies in taxing the elderly until the pips beep.
One of his recommendations is to impose National Insurance (NI) contributions on those of us who have reached state pension age but want to continue working for a variety of reasons (financial necessity, love of work, or – like me – a mix of the two).
Currently, oldies like me are (rightly) exempt from NI once our state pension kicks in.
Author Ben Ansell recommends imposing national insurance contributions on those who have reached state pension age but want to continue working
There’s more. Ansell says council tax and stamp duty on the purchase of houses should be abolished – and replaced by a wealth tax that increases in proportion to the value of the houses. Ansell is also calling for taxes on capital gains from the sale of second homes and shares to be increased, in line with income taxes.
He explains his position by saying that the tax system has “increasingly shifted responsibility to younger workers, while protecting many of those who have benefited most from decades of rising property and assets.”
Of course, we must ensure that young people can find valuable jobs and eventually save enough to become homeowners. But that won’t happen by taxing the elderly.
It will come from a government that pursues policies that stimulate economic growth. That means manufacturers have access to cheaper energy; high streets not plagued by crippling business rates; and Labor has the courage and humility to reverse both the NI and regulatory assault on employers.
If Labor does this, UK plc will prosper again and employment will rise, giving the government more room to cut taxes for young people – especially if this is accompanied by serious action to tackle the skyrocketing benefits bill.
Just as importantly, it negates the need for Labor to resort to the age measures that Professor Ansell recommends.
For the record, Professor, ‘pensioners’ like me have paid our NI contributions and deserve the state pension our contributions were intended for.
Encouraging us to pay more NI after receiving our state pension is simply out of the question – ‘I can’t believe it,’ says Ansell.
I trust Chancellor John Healey feels the same way about the Budget on October 28.
