THE GUARDIAN – LETTERS: Readers respond to suggestions that the Conservatives are considering plans to water down the scheme designed to enhance the state pension
Your report (Treasury officials mull one-off break from pensions triple lock, 12 September) says: “Any change to the way the state pension is calculated would be controversial because the Conservatives pledged in their last election manifesto to abide by the [triple-lock] formula.”
“Controversial” is an understatement. As recently as last month, Rishi Sunak confirmed, without any caveats and in full knowledge of the likely increase, that the triple lock would apply from next year (Sunak pledges to keep to pension triple lock despite signs of extra £10bn cost, 16 August). He even insisted he was comfortable with pensioners receiving the full annual uplift and brushed aside concerns about affordability.
If the government now backtracks on this unequivocal commitment, what does that say about Sunak’s credibility and promise to govern with “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level”? Read more letters on the triple lock here » | Mike Pender, Cardiff | Monday, September 18, 2023
Democracy is an illusion! It’s become a political system fostered by the élite, for the élite, in order to fool the people that they have a stake in the system. In actual fact, they have virtually none. The whole political system in the modern era, despite having noble beginnings, is now used to benefit the few at the expense of the many. – Mark Alexander, June 29, 2018
Showing posts with label state pensions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label state pensions. Show all posts
September 19, 2023
March 08, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Pensioners are to receive a flat-rate universal retirement payment of £140 a week that will end the injustice of working mothers being penalised for taking a break to raise children, under reforms to be signalled by Iain Duncan Smith today.
The Work and Pensions Secretary will pledge to sweep away a host of complex rules and "fundamentally simplify" the basic state pension.
Insiders said Mr Duncan's Smith's intervention represents the start of a Coalition drive to replace the existing state pension regime with a "single tier" retirement payment.
Official estimates suggest that many women who take time out from work for family reasons are left up to £40 a week worse off by rules that base pension payments on National Insurance contributions.
Charities said a universal pension would "reduce fear for those approaching retirement."
In a speech to charity leaders and pension experts, Mr Duncan Smith will condemn the pension system as a bureaucratic mess that leaves many people confused and puts young people off saving. >>> James Kirkup, Political Correspondent | Monday, March 07, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Pension changes Q&A: who will win and lose? – News that the Government plans to introduce a universal state pension have been welcomed by many. It will replace the current hotchpotch of basic state pension, earnings-related “top-up” payments, plus additional means-tested benefits. >>> Emma Simon | Monday, March 07, 2011
Labels:
pension reform,
state pensions,
UK
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