OLD AGE PENSIONS
Michael Thompson of LINK AGE takes all us pensioners to task for our apathy. He has proven over the years to be a capable and committed lobbyist for his cause, and I respect and admire his dedication, but disagree with his aims, and think he has a bee in his bonnet over this.
The lack of response to your letters Mr. Thompson is not apathy, indeed pensioners are the least apathetic section of our society. I am a pensioner, as are most of my friends, and I have made a point of asking their opinions on this matter. Most of them consider that overall, pensioners are not too badly treated. Of course, we would all like more, tell me who doesn't, but in comparison to many people on a low wage, we do OK, indeed I am now better off now than when I was working, at least in terms of disposable income.
Mr. Thompson argues that as the 4th richest economy in the world, Britain should be able to afford £250 per week pension, without means testing. In fact, we were for a time the 4th. largest, not richest, economy, and there is a great difference between the two. We are not even the 4th richest economy in Europe, never mind the world.
State pension was never designed to keep us in the manner we may have become accustomed to, but to provide us with a basic income that would keep the wolf from the door, and that is what it does, indeed, American senior citizens would envy us greatly. Many pensioners, including myself, live in homes that are perhaps bigger than our real needs, but were acquired when we were at our earning peak. Of course, there is a desire to hang on to them, but it means that we sometimes live beyond our income, and thus have to dip into our capital to defray living expenses such as council tax, or at least accept means tested benefits, and I think that is eminently fair.
Not just in this country, but throughout the western world, the inreasing proportion of pensioners to working people is putting an ever greater burden of taxation on those working people, and that is an inescapable fact of life, thus the aims of LINK AGE will remain an unrealistic pipe dream. Tell me one section of society that is not demanding more and more, but no section of society can be excused from taxation, be it the Queen or pensioners.
