I read Sandra Chapman last Saturday with interest (‘Can we trust our Westminster politicians to support pensioners?’ Nov 26). I agree our generation did not have it easy. We too had quite a struggle in the 1970s and 80s. Interest rates on mortgages were at sky high rates and I had to get a second job driving a taxi part time to supplement our income while my wife stayed at home to bring up our young children.
We got no help from the state other than family allowance, which was a godsend towards the end of each month. We used to give a friendly local grocer a cheque in the last week of the month, which he agreed not to cash for a few days until our pay was in the bank.
I worked in a relatively low position in the civil service then and the pay was not really enough to buy and maintain a semi detached house in Belfast. Over the years I was promoted and ended up in a middle ranking post and retired in 2015 after 42 years service, while my wife worked as a typist in the service for over 30 years. We are really glad now that we receive the c/service and state pensions and consider ourselves fortunate.
However, public service pensions are not free and many occupations such as the police, fire service and health service pay a considerable portion of their salaries which vary according to the scheme, as now does the civil service. We all pay for our generous pensions and mostly work at least 40 years to claim them.
We also paid tax and national insurance like everybody else, to support the pensioners and benefit recipients of that time and now should be supported in turn. It is a reasonable generational expectation, and we should not to be attacked and belittled by unthinking loudmouths on social media and elsewhere.
Frank McClintock, Belfast BT4
