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Seniors
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OPINION
Pensions - the Reality
by Ken Lacey of Weston Super Mare Senior Citizens Forum
It is not surprising that when an MP gets to Westminster he, or she, loses touch with reality.
With a salary for a back bencher of ?60,000 plus ?120,000 expenses I would imagine life does take on a different dimension, particularly if they haven?t been too successful in private life.
Add to that a pension pot of ?140,000 after five years? service ? if you are there for twenty years your pension pot swells to ?670,000. The Prime Minister, of course, receives an ?85,000 pension the day he leaves office.
I don?t have a problem with that. However, I do have a problem with the fact that they consider that we, the pensioners, are THE PROBLEM because we are living too long and, therefore, it is extremely difficult to give us an adequate pension to cover the essential ever increasing necessities of life. This is the most outrageous statement I have ever heard, they are actually blaming us for their own inadequacies and incompetence.
The next generation of pensioners are going to be even angrier than we are, unless, of course, you?re in the Public Sector where we, the taxpayer, guarantee your final salary pension ? and that includes our MPs.
So - What should be done?
Abolish Pension Credits Pension Credits create more costly administration.
Increase State Pension to ?105 per week linked with national earnings.
Abolish means testing Administration too costly and too complicated for many to understand, hence there is a low take up.
Abolish Council Tax ~ in its present form it is unfair taxation and should be replaced with ability to pay based on income.
What the Political Parties are offering?
Labour ~ Nothing but a vague promise of a citizens pension.
Conservative ~ Restore earnings link and increase pension by ?7 a week.
Liberal Democrats ~ ?25 per week for over 75s and a Local Income Tax to replace council tax.
The Turner Report, which has been studying pensions for the past two years, has come out with the reasons for the pensions crisis but his solution to the problem won?t be published until AFTER the Election.
The ?reality? is that our pensions are totally inadequate to meet today?s massive increases in council tax and cost of living increases.
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