Tom Berney is chairman of the Scottish Older People's Assembly
WITH more elections approaching, it is surprising how little the parties seem to want to appeal to older people – bearing in mind that there are around a million people over 60 in Scotland.
So far there is an indication that the Conservatives intend to cut pensions by abolishing the triple lock which guarantees the state pension rises annually by either 2.5 per cent, with inflation, or with average earnings, whichever is highest. Theresa May and Philip Hammond have both failed to deny it when pressed. Ruth Davidson, naturally, is just in stuck-record mode, gabbling “Referendum, referendum...”.
Not that the triple lock is all that great. The fact is that in the last five years it has been more generous than the pre-2010 method on only one occasion. For example, this year even someone with a full national insurance record will only get an extra £3 a week while millions of women on lower pensions will get just £1.80, but at least it does provide some level of stability.
That is important as most pensioners are on fixed, lifetime incomes with no prospect of promotions or wage increases to hope for. Some will have a work pension, or a private pension fund, but the bank crash and Gordon Brown’s raid on pensions showed that they can never be a substitute for an adequate state pension.
People are entitled to the security of knowing well in advance how they can budget for their retirement. Around half a million women born in the 1950s have been denied that and have seen their pension age jump by as much as six years with little warning. Baroness Altmann’s response is a blasé: “Wherever you draw a line ... some people are going to be on the wrong side of it.”
Universal benefits are meant to mitigate the impact of the meagre British pension, but we can recall Johann Lamont’s description of them as “Something for nothing”. That provoked us to seek an assurance from the then Scottish Minister for Pensioners, Alex Neil. He assured us with a “watch my lips” that the bus pass was sacrosanct. So we were dismayed to learn that the Scottish Government is now about to consult on “developing options to safeguard its sustainability” – government speak for spending less money on it.
We believe cuts in the availability of the bus pass would be counterproductive to the Government’s other initiatives for older people. Getting out helps to keep the older population healthy. It is good for social cohesion and benefits the environment, keeping many bus services running throughout the day and encouraging people to use public transport,.
These elections are being hyped up as being about Brexit, but that is mostly diversionary window dressing. What we are doing is electing local councillors and deciding who will represent us at Westminster. My advice to older people is to ask the candidates for assurances on their support, at the least, for the triple lock on pensions and that they will defend concessionary fares. Then ask councillors for commitments on issues like the cost of funerals, provision of public toilets, standards and costs in care homes, and preventative health measures.
These are the kind of issues on which these elections should be getting fought. Let’s hold them to it.
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