Is U.K.Economy about to go into "Melt Down" ?

Clunk · Is U.K.Economy about to go into "Melt Down" ?

This was asked on another forum, and the results, as an active thread, were interesting.
So I am going to ask it here.

Is U.K.Economy about to go into "Melt Down" ?

Local lass

yep it is
house price,fuel,living is getting far to expensive and the cost is rising to fast .
yet wages have a much slower increase .
more people are on the bread line now.

Chepfer

I don't think it's in meltdown, it'scertainly in slowdown though and we've all secretly known it was was going to happen for the past few years !.

Clunk

Well consider this.
In 2011, the post WWII baby boom is due to retire.
This means that the current 5:1 ratio of Workers to Pensioners will increase to 3:1.
Some people with pensions have already had to have a cut in the pension, or a lower interest increase.
How will this effect the future?

Chepfer

Thats so true Clunk.

The UK has an ageing population. This is the result of declines in the mortality rate and in past fertility rates. This has led to a declining proportion of the population aged under 16 and an increasing proportion aged 65 and over. [b]
Ref: www.statistics.gov.uk

I have always thought that the reason the government don't mind all these immigrant coming in to the U.K, is so that they can help fund the tax system and the ageing population. Seems to be backfiring though, as the immigrants are using the system in other ways .... ie benefits and grants, too there absolute maximum !

Clunk

My Mother works at the Jobcentre doing Jobseekers claims for Dorset.
She reckons 70% of them are Immigrants.

GTB

To my mind there is a huge imbalance in the economy at the moment which isn't going to be solved over night.

There has been a lot of cases where banks have given 100+% mortgages on properties which, because they are more affordable this way lead on to higher prices on houses to meet demand. This means that first time buyers can no longer afford to get on the property ladder. Now that the banks have had their knuckles rapped they are pulling the rug on a lot of new mortgages which means that very soon people will be having negative equity mortgages like the good old days back in 1988.

Public sector pensions is another issue that will have to be sorted out in the next five years because as a whole this country cannot afford to keep paying them at current trends. How come somebody in the police force can retire from work after 30 years service and receive a full pension plus a golden handshake?? This means that somebody who is just over the age of 50 can retire on an index linked pension (sometimes 3/4 salary) for the rest of their life whilst the private sector carry on working until they are 65 and don't have anywhere near the amount of pension fund available. There was a statistic in the Telegraph last week saying that each household in Britain pays on average £1000 per annum towards public sector pensions.