Too little, too late

14/05/2008

After reading Mike O’Brien’s article, you could be forgiven for thinking that the issue of pensions has been resolved. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Whilst last year’s Pension Bill contained some helpful measures for future generations, it failed to offer any benefits to millions of existing pensioners who are struggling with rising fuel bills, council tax and the cost of living.

 

The one-off promises that we hear in the Budget, that are then taken away next time, are no way to tackle the serious problem of hardship that pensioners face.

 

The latest official figures show that 62% of pensioner couples have an annual income of £10,000 or less; half of all single pensioners are getting by on just £6,000.

 

Those who suffer most are the millions of older women; more than 80% of which do not get a full state pension. Many were unable to pay sufficient national insurance contributions during their working lives because of time spent raising children, working in low paid part-time jobs or paying the “married woman’s” stamp.

 

As a result, they are now amongst the poorest members of our society. 
It is shocking that two out of three of those on means-tested benefits are women.

 

At the heart of this problem is the low level of the basic state pension. At just £90.70 a week for a single pensioner and £145.05 for a couple, it is way below the official poverty level and widely regarded as the least adequate pension in Europe.

 

Most significant is the government’s refusal to raise the pension substantially and restore its link with average earnings. A rather vague promise that something might happen between 2012 and 2015 will be too little, too late. It is estimated that three million of today’s pensioners will no longer be around by the time that anything improves.

 

But rather than address this, ministers have relied on a massive programme of means-testing to target extra funds at the poorest pensioners. The problem is that the poorest pensioners are the 1.8 million that do not claim benefits because they find them complicated and intrusive.

 

After 100 years of the state pension it is nothing short of a national scandal that at least 1 in 5 older people still live in poverty, whilst millions more are struggling to keep their heads above water. What makes the situation worse is that the money exists to make things better.

 

When we meet ministers, they always claim that they can’t afford to do the things we ask. Yet the national insurance fund – paid into by today’s employers and employees – has a surplus balance of £46bn. 

 

This is money that should be used to pay pensions and other contributory benefits, but the government is spending this money on other things. This must not be allowed to continue.

 

The National Pensioners Convention is calling on the government to raise the basic state pension to at least £134 a week for all pensioners, and to increase it every year in line with wages. This would start to give all older people some proper recognition for the contributions they have made, and continue to make, to our society.

 

But if we want to make this happen, we’ll need to get organised. Just like the original pioneers who secured the first state pension in 1908, pressure needs to be applied to provide all men and women, both now and in the future, with real financial security in retirement.

 

On 22 October 2008, we will be staging a national lobby of Parliament to make it clear that after all this time, paying a decent state pension to everyone is the very least the country could do.

(www.npcuk.org; tel: 020-7553-6510)