Can I have this deal?

[fivemack]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7813791.stm: "But for every £500 they have saved over [£6000], the authorities assume they earn £1 per week in "tariff income" and reduce the benefit payments accordingly."

£1/week/£500 is 10.9%, a significantly better deal than Madoff!

Changing that figure to 25p would seem a nice boost to poor pensioners in next year's budget; I think that a truly honorable government should also commit to providing an investment which pays the "tariff income", at least on sums up to that on which the tariff income equals the State pension, and that would provide the right incentive to keep the assumed rate of tariff income sensible.

Comments

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

That's roughly what I'm suggesting in the final paragraph, but yes, you could even apply it to people who already own a house outright. You still have a fight on your hands with private landlords, though, who will object to having their assets taken away because their tenants have become unemployed. (Funny how the problem with changing the system is always that the people who are on top at present don't want it to change.) And you've got to apply it to rental property as well as owner-occupied, or you're simply tweaking the unfairness rather than doing anything to actually correct it.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Ah yes; I see that would be a problem.

Perhaps you could ensure that you were paying fair market value for the house or something. Private landlords are very annoying.