The Old Age Pension Act (OAP), 1908, was an altruistic reward for good paupers. It was intended to give dignity to their final years but it wasn’t an entitlement. There were eligibility rules to be met before receiving the OAP. The age eligibility was set at 70 years old when life expectancy was about 50.1 The OAP has transitioned into bribery. Successive governments have endorsed the Triple Lock, 2012, which escalates regardless of the economic situation of the country. OAPs are bribed because they are the only reliable group of voters left in Britain.
OAP as altruism
The 1908 OAP Act endorsed the concept of the deserving poor. Qualifying paupers were paupers because of circumstances not through moral failings.
…..for example, if they had avoided working when able, made themselves poor in order to qualify, had been imprisoned or convicted under the Inebriates Act.2
Failing any of these clauses debarred you from an OAP.
Women lived longer than men in 1908 and were the majority of pensioners. The OAP was set at a low level to placate parliamentary opposition.3 In 1908 workhouses were an ever-present in Britain and the less-eligibility4 criteria was ferociously enforced. Paupers entered workhouses to avoid starving to death. Lloyd-George pivoted the concept of pauperism to such an extent that parliament voted to provide an enhanced standard of living for the very old. This was political altruism. None of those receiving the 1908 OAP were voters and everybody who paid for it were voters. They were voting for the redistribution of wealth because it was the right thing to do.
Since 1908 the OAP has gone through many iterations and is now generous.
OAP as an electoral bribe
Politicians favour those who vote. Convincing voters of their undying love is very important. David Cameron audaciously harnessed the OAP vote. He guaranteed large and continuous increases in the OAP. He captured their vote with the Triple Lock. It was irresponsible, uncosted and reckless. This was entirely irrelevant to him. He wanted to make sure he was in power, permanently.
The Triple Lock This guarantees that the state pension goes up each year in line with either inflation, wage increases or 2.5% – whichever is the highest.5 (my emphasis)
For OAPs, the ‘Triple Lock’ is a quasi-gold mine and a nightmare for governments. Every OAP budget increase isn’t negotiable. Alterations to increases are political suicide because it has ceased to be a benefit and is now an entitlement.
The OAP increased from £107.45 in 2012 to £227.10 in 2025. This is a 111.3% increase.6 General inflation was 45.1% in the same period,7 which underpins the notion that OAPs in Britain are privileged.8 If Child Benefit had increased in line with the OAP their 2025 figure would be £42.9 pw. Or, £16.85 pw more than the current figure. OAPs vote and are richly rewarded.
Conclusion
If you want the benefit system to work for you, make sure you build a visible political constituency.
Notes
1 How has life expectancy changed over time? – Office for National Statistics In 2025 this implies an OAP at 100 years old given that life expectancy is about 80.
3 The 1908 Old-Age Pension Act | Odeboyz’s Blog
4 Workhouses and the Poor from 1834 | Odeboyz’s Blog
5 What is the triple lock and how much is the state pension worth? – BBC News The Chancellor, George Osborne was, of course, aware of the recklessness of the Triple Lock but was trapped by the politics. See Unpicking the triple lock: Why George Osborne’s pensions promise is facing the chop | Money News | Sky News
6 Benefit rates 2012 – including biggest ever cash increase to the basic State Pension as it rises to £107.45 in 2012/13 – GOV.UK see also Benefit and pension rates 2025 to 2026 – GOV.UK
7 Inflation calculator | Bank of England
8 Child benefit in 2012 was £20.30. In 2025 it is £26.05 (for eldest child). This is an increase of 28.3% over 12 years and below general inflation. Is Child Benefit Going Up in 2025? | Weekly Rates Rise to £26.05 and £17.25 from April
“…one of her family’s two pet rabbits couldn’t stand properly….The vet said that he thought she should stay in overnight, and it would cost £900, or we could take her home, and it would be £200…It didn’t feel like much of a choice….we kept her alive for another week, at a cost of more than £1200. I find it hard to understand how it could have cost that much.”
Meowch Rupert Neale The Guardian Saturday magazine p 19 6th April 2024
Debris in the kitchen/living room must be removed. Not doing so is sub-optimal.
To business. Offering a cup of coffee1 is standard unless they’re hard-core and want tea. But you will spring a surprise. There will be wonderful plates of snacks, which reek of love and tenderness.
Zeitgeist Crackers
All over the country people are painting St. George crosses on roundabouts and hanging flags from lamp-posts. Join in. Show that you too are a patriot.
A zeitgeist cracker is a patriotic cracker. Cheap, quick, and impressive
Ingredients
A handful of raspberries
Cream cheese
Crackers
Technique
Mash the raspberries gently – maintaining the texture
Smear cream cheese onto the cracker…Not too thickly because that makes it messy to eat
Use a knife to draw a cross
Carefully follow the lines with your raspberry mix
Voila! A St George cracker
An over-achieving Slacker
This might be because you want to borrow (ha-ha) money or have a residual fear of them
Ingredients
A banana
A handful of blueberries
Crackers
Technique
Mash up the blueberries and banana keeping them firm enough to go on a cracker
Serve onto crackers
Outcome
Massive parental pride and delight in ‘how-you’ve-changed’ from the slob you once were.
Note 1 Cooking for Slackers: Barista Coffee | Odeboyz’s Blog
Jim is reporting back to a mass meeting. “Brothers! I think you will want to approve the outcome, which was the result of many hours of gruelling discussions.”
First. The management have agreed an 8% pay rise with three months back pay.
(Wild cheering)
Second. The management have agreed that paternity pay will extend to ten weeks.
(Wild cheering from younger men, booing from some older men)
Third. And I think everyone will like this one.
( Shouts of “Get on with it.” “Stop being a tease”.)
If I can proceed I’ll take questions after I’ve completed my report.
Third. The management has agreed to reduce the working week to Wednesdays
(The meeting erupts with wild applause)
Thank you Brothers for your attention. Now. Could I take a show of hands indicating approval to the proposals.
(Wild cheering and men standing on tables waving their hands in the air)
Thank you Brothers. So that’s approved. Any questions?
Voice from the back. Is that every bloody Wednesday?
Why are we taxing working people more than billionaires? Tax wealth, not work. Gary Stephenson author of The Trading Game (2024)
Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is paid on houses that are usually called buy-to-let.1 When sold, they are subject to CGT on capital profits. An owner-occupied home isn’t taxed. Selling owner-occupied houses usually generates windfall profits (see below). Capital generated from owner-occupied houses is privileged and very substantial amounts of untaxed capital creates a ‘cascade of wealth’.2
Britain’s owner-occupied housing is substantial. Nationally, its part of the wealth of the nation amounts to £8.7 trillion.3 Owner-occupied housing is two-thirds of Britain’s £12.2tr wealth.4 Successive governments ignore home-owners’ tax privileges. This reflects the biases of parliamentarians and, importantly, their voters.
People move house about every ten years5 and this is the guide period for this blog.
General inflation rose 38.4% between 2015 and 2025,6 with wage inflation outstripping that with a 43% increase.
London’s house price inflation 2015-25 was 99%7 comfortably exceeding general and wage inflation. London’s home-owners, on average enjoyed capital gains of about 56%. (Occasional short periods of negative inflation are blips.8)
Case Studies
Didsbury, Manchester Property sold in 2015 for £310,000 and for sale at £595,000 in 2025.9 This is a 92% increase in value. In cash terms it’s £285,000 over the decade, which is £2,375 per month tax free. The windfall profit is 49%.
Ocean Village, Southampton Property sold in 2013 for £395,000 and for sale at £600,000 in 2025.10 This represents a 52% increase in value. In cash terms that’s £205,000 over 12 years which is £1,420 per month tax free. The windfall profit is 9%.
Edinburgh Property sold in 2015 for £400,000 and re-sold in 2024 for £755,000.11 This represents a 88.7% increase in value. In cash terms it’s £355,000 over nine years which is £3,290 per month tax free. The windfall profit is 45.7%.
Windfall profits taxed at 18% CGT
Not applying CGT means that home-owners are privileged. It amounts to a massive untaxed injection of capital into a specific group of people via untaxed windfall gains. A gigantic distortion of this sort encourages property flipping where ‘owner-occupied’ houses become a business. Houses are bought and sold to take advantage of the opportunity for a tax-free income.12
The case study sampled three houses across Britain which avoids the turbo-charged London housing market. However, “….the number of UK residential transactions in June 2025 is 93,530…”13 Those 93,530 CGT house sales could provide a multi-billion pounds revenue stream per month. This would be sharp improvement on enforcing poverty by salami-slicing the welfare budget.
Addendum: Windfall Taxes
“A windfall tax is a tax levied by governments against certain industries when economic conditions allow those industries to experience significantly above-average profits. Windfall taxes are primarily levied on companies in the targeted industry that have benefited the most from the economic windfall, most often commodity-based businesses….The primary objective of windfall taxes is to appropriate a portion of these extraordinary profits, which are perceived to exceed normal returns, for the public good.”(my emphasis)14
Notes
1 Guide to Landlord Capital Gains Tax | CGT Relief | Xero UK
2 Why the cascade of wealth has dried up | The Independent | The Independent
4 National balance sheet estimates for the UK – Office for National Statistics
5 Savills Blog | How long are people staying in the same home?
6 Inflation calculator | Bank of England
7 London: monthly house prices index 2015-2025| Statista
8 UK House Price Index – Office for National Statistics
9 4 bedroom terraced house for sale in Trafalgar Place, Palatine Road, Didsbury, M20
10 3 bedroom house for sale in Calshot Court, Ocean Village, SO14
12 House flipping : Learn how to property flip in the UK | Finder UK
13 UK monthly property transactions commentary – GOV.UK 14 Windfall Tax: Definition, Purposes, and Examples
“Because you are students, so naturally to you I’m not what you call an academic, and no way at all could you call me an intellectual. Which is why I feel so at home here tonight.” *The Oxford (University) Union is an elite debating society
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