Resources, Information & Opinions

Triple-lock on state pensions

Alan Logue

There has been renewed publicity paid just recently to the future of the triple-lock on state pensions.

This is the committment made some time ago that annual increases will be whichever is the greatest of :-  the rate of inflation, the change in the Consumer Prices Index, and 2.5%.   Both the Conservatives and Labour have said they will discontinue the triple-lock in the near future, whereas the SNP have made it clear that, in an independent Scotland, an SNP Government would maintain it indefinitely.  Pensioners in Scotland do not really need any more reason than this for voting SNP and for Independence, but just in case more incentive is required, what about protecting your free ‘bus passes, because if we elect another Tory Government at Westminster that is hell-bent on more austerity measures, you can be sure retired people’s bus passes will be in the firing line next !

 

Tory pensions bombshell

Alan Logue

Angus Robertson asked PM May a simple question to guarantee the pensions triple lock. She failed to. Pensioners should fear Tory pensions bombshell.

Calling the election has delayed the Government’s plans to push back the state pension age and abandon the triple lock, due to be announced on 5 May. As things stand, May might sound an attractive proposition to middle-aged Brits, but her proposal to target pensioners’ benefits – or, as I prefer to call them, their rights – will drastically affect every voter under the age of 45 too.

Governments can review the pension age every five years, and the former Director of the CBI, John Cridland, recently published a report proposing that the age be raised to 68 from 2037, seven years earlier than planned. He wants to get rid of the “triple lock”, which protects the value of pensions against the rising cost of living, and make pensions relate to earnings instead – means-testing by another name.

One in five Scottish pensioners struggling to pay bills

Alan Logue

ONE in five over-65s in Scotland is struggling to make ends meet – despite an estimated £292 million in Pension Credit and Housing Benefit going unclaimed each year.

The latest research for Age Scotland revealed that more than 200,000 Scottish pensioners are struggling financially, with 158,000 elderly people now living below the poverty line.

Now the charity is urging older people to get in touch to find out if they’re entitled to some extra financial support.

Scotland’s Old Age Pensioners – Driven to Poverty – Sacrificed on the Alter of Bankers Greed and an Uncaring Government

Alan Logue

Frightening information for anyone wishing to stay in the Union!

Where You Die Before Being Old Enough to Collect Your Pension?

Alan Logue 1 Comment

From The National, 28 Feb 2017

THE state pension age may rise above life expectancy for men in more than 160 Scottish communities unless the system changes, MPs warn. n a new report, the Commons Work and Pensions Committee says claimants would have to be 70.5 years old by 2060 if the current rate of annual increases is sustained. This would exceed the average male life expectancy in more than 160 parts of Scotland and almost 30 in England.

Committee chairman Frank Field said the “triple lock“ which guarantees the state pension rises by average earnings, the consumer price index, or 2.5 per cent, whichever is the highest must be scrapped to avoid people working to death.

He said: With the triple lock in place, the only way state pension expenditure can be made sustainable is to keep raising the state pension age. This has the effect of excluding ever more people from the state pension altogether. He said those affected would be disproportionately from more deprived areas and manual occupations.

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