Give us a 45% pensions rise

CAMPAIGNERS angered by Labour’s "betrayal" of the elderly will today demand a rise of up to 45 per cent in the state pension.

Mr Darling has been accused of snatching 400million a year in stealth taxes from pensioners Mr Darling has been accused of snatching £400million a year in stealth taxes from pensioners

After enduring years of mounting financial hardship, pensioners now insist that a minimum rise of £40 a week in the basic state pension is  vital if two million elderly people are to be lifted out of poverty.

The proposed rise would represent a 45 per cent increase for a single pensioner and a 29 per cent increase for a pensioner couple.

The grassroots movement for justice in retirement is being launched to mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Britain’s state pension.

Protesters point out that today’s retired men and women receive a smaller share of national income than their forbears did nearly a century ago. They say Gordon Brown’s miserly means-tested retirement benefits have left millions in poverty.

Senior opposition MPs yesterday welcomed the campaign and accused Labour of betraying pensioners.

The Tories’ Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Chris Grayling said: “Despite all the promises to pensioners over the last 10 years, the Government’s own figures show that the poorest pensioners are actually getting poorer.”

Liberal Democrat pensions spokesman Danny Alexander said: “This is the right year to be raising this issue. The way pensioners’ income has fallen behind that of people in work is disgraceful.”

The 2008 Pension Centenary Campaign is launched today by the National Pensioners’ Convention, a leading pressure group.

It aims to add £40 to both the £87.30-a-week for single pensioners and the £139.60-a-week for pensioner couples.

Campaign spokesman Neil Duncan-Jordan said: “This money would lift two million pensioners over the poverty line.

“Millions of pensioners feel betrayed by successive governments, of both the main parties.

“They hoped the rot would stop in 1997 – but it didn’t.

“Now pensioners are worse off in relation to average earnings than those nearly 100 years ago.”

Today’s campaign launch is to mark the anniversary of Parliament’s passing of the Old Age Pensions Act in 1908.

The measure led to the introduction of Britain’s first state pension, paying everyone aged over 70 a benefit of five shillings a week. Analysis published by the National Pensioners’ Convention shows that the modest sum was the equivalent of around 25 per cent of average earnings for working people at the time.

In contrast, today’s weekly pension is only around 15 per cent of the average employed income.

Joe Harris, general secretary of the National Pensioners’ Convention, said: “We owe the original pension pioneers a great debt of gratitude for securing the first state pension, which sought to end the threat of the workhouse for millions of older people. But 100 years on and we still have more than two million pensioners living below the poverty line and many more struggle to make ends meet.

“We must use this centenary year to put pressure on the Government to raise the state pension, for all men and women, above the poverty level of £134 a week and restore its link to earnings as a matter of urgency.”

The new pensions campaign begins today with the launch of the website www.pension100.co.uk

The practice of linking annual rises in the state pension with increases in average earnings was abandoned by the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher in 1981. Labour has pledged to restore the link – but not until at least the year 2012.

Mr Duncan-Jordan said: “Another three million pensioners will have died by the time the pensions and earnings link is restored.”

The Government has also ruled out reforms to allow women to build up full pension rights.

This April, the state pension is due to rise by 3.9 per cent. The rise, announced in Chancellor Alistair Darling’s autumn mini-budget, was dismissed as insufficient by campaigners.

Mr Darling has also been accused of snatching £400million a year in stealth taxes from pensioners.

But a Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “In real terms, the basic state pension is worth around four times more today than the amount received in 1908.”

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