THERE should be no rises in the state pension age in Scotland while life expectancy here is lower than the rest of the UK and Europe, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The First Minister – who was Scottish Health Secretary under her predecessor Alex Salmond – said while she is doing all she can to increase the life expectancy in Scotland, Scots should not have to lose out if changes are implemented in the near future.
She said pensioners in this country have “contributed hugely to society” and are therefore entitled to a “fair deal in return”.
Sturgeon also called for the retention of the “triple lock” on pensions which is currently in place, and argued for a single-tier pension of at least £160 to help people out of the means-tested benefit system.
The triple-lock pension system guarantees that pensions will rise at the rate of inflation or average wages or 2.5 per cent, whichever is the higher.
The First Minister said: “SNP MPs will push Westminster to retain the triple lock on pensions – meaning our older people benefit from real increases on their pensions at a time when so many people are struggling with the cost of living.
“The SNP will continue to make the case for a single-tier pension rate of at least £160 a week to ensure pensioners are no longer subjected to the scourge of means-tested benefits. The Tory-Lib Dem government’s plan to further increase the state pension age is a worry to people across the UK who are planning for their future, but the failure to take Scotland’s specific circumstances into account is particularly unfair.
“Our comparatively low life expectancy rate is an issue which I will do everything in my power to change but in the meantime it would be completely unacceptable for people in Scotland who have paid in to a state pension all of their lives to lose out,” she said.
Campaigning in East Dunbartonshire, the First Minister repeated calls for no further spending cuts, saying there should be a focus on investment in infrastructure, public services and decent treatment of pensioners.
During a visit to a care home, she said: “I think people right across Scotland, regardless of what age group or part of society they’re in, are concerned about the prospect, if the Westminster parties are left to their own devices, of a further £30 billion of cuts over the next couple of years.”
Scottish Labour also set out pension plans yesterday, saying they too support a triple lock on pensions to ensure they rise with inflation, as well as promising to freeze gas and energy prices till 2017.
Gregg McClymont, the Labour candidate for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East, said the SNP are hiding a “Barnett bombshell” from pensioners.
The Labour candidate said: “The SNP want only Scottish taxes to support Scottish spending – that would end the UK shared pension. To pretend otherwise is simply dishonest.
“A UK Labour Government will guarantee the Barnett formula, the UK-wide deal which means higher public spending in Scotland, and which protects Scotland’s higher-per-head pension benefits. A Labour Government is committed to the triple lock on state pensions.”
Jim Murphy was also campaigning in East Renfrewshire, where he officially launched the Scottish branch of Labour’s election campaign.
Murphy promised to end zero-hour contracts and the need for the use of food banksas well as repeating the party’s line that “only Labour can beat the Tories”.
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