Don Foster, the MP for Bath, has welcomed news that 31,817 pensioners would earn at least an extra £790/year by the end of the next parliament under Lib Dem manifesto plans.
These changes, announced by Pensions Minister Steve Webb, mean the state pension will be worth at least £131-a-week by 2020, up from just £97.65 four years ago.
Thanks to the Liberal Democrats’ triple lock guarantee, the basic state pension has risen in each year of the last parliament by whichever is the higher of earnings, prices or 2.5%.
The triple lock was a key demand from the Liberal Democrats in Coalition negotiations.
This means the state pension is £440 higher per year in 2014-15 than if it had increased in line with earnings from the start of this Parliament, and £800 a year more in total.
Only the Liberal Democrats are committed to write this guarantee into law, giving pensioners more certainty that their pension will continue to rise in future.
Commenting Don Foster MP said: “The Lib Dems are delivering on yet another manifesto promise. But we will go further and guarantee in law that in each year pensions will rise by the highest of wages, prices or 2.5%. This is more good news for the pensioners of Bath”
Announcing the plan, Pensions Minister Steve Webb said: “A decent income in retirement for pensioners is central to the Liberal Democrat vision of a fair society.
“For decades, successive Labour and Conservative governments allowed the state pension to decline after Mrs. Thatcher broke the ‘earnings link’ in 1980.
“Our manifesto promise of a ‘triple lock’ has been implemented every year since 2010 and means that the state pension is already a higher share of the national average wage than at any time since the early 1990s.”
2 Comments
Andy Robertson-Fox
Thursday 3rd July, 2014 at 07:32It is interesting that Morgeo has drawn attention to the plight of the frozen pensioner under both the current regulations and under shortly Clause 20 of the new Pension Act.
For example, for those who retired four years ago and received GBP97.65 per week pension and are living in such countries as Canada, Australia and Thailand when, under these proposals, in 2020 those living in the UK, EEA countries or, for example, Macedonia, the Philippines and even the USA will each be getting around GBP 131.00 per weeek, will still be getting GBP97.65 per week.
In s?mple terms having contributed to the NI scheme on the same terms as everyone else when working the frozen pensioner is being systematically robbed by by the government each week. If these proposals are accepted then by 2020 the weekly robbery will be GBP33.65 per week….and increasing every year… evermore.
Of course, the MP for Bath is fully aware of this pol?cy which in 2007 the current pensions minister, Steve Webb, descr?bed as illogical, irrational and discrim?natory and vow??ng :-
“All State ret?rement pens?ons ?n payment to pens?oners l?v?ng outs?de the UK shall be subject to pens?on uprat?ng by the same percentage rate as ?s appl?ed to such pens?ons payable to persons l?v?ng ?n the UK”.
I say that the MP for Bath will be fully aware of th?s because on 18th July 2011 Mr. Don Foster signed Early Day Motion 1895 call?ng for the abol?t?on of the d?scr?m?natory frozen pension pol?cy.
No doubt when he speaks to his colleague he w?ll not only remember this but also be in a position to remind Mr Webb that he tabled a s?m?iar EDM in 2007.
Morgeo
Wednesday 2nd July, 2014 at 19:40Only the Liberal Democrats are committed to write this guarantee into
law, giving pensioners more certainty that their pension will continue
to rise in future.
This is a very bold statement Mr Foster and not entirely true is it ?.
This only applies to all of those pensioners who are currently treated honestly and fairly by this government.
Why do I say this ?
Because this only applies to about 96% of pensioners worldwide because
the government continue a long standing discriminative policy of denying
the other 4% of pensioners a future life with no pension increases ever
purely based on where they chose to live in retirement.
True !
And not only that, but this government in introducing the new Pensions Bill
have decided to continue this abhorrent and undemocratic discrimination
by writing this into the new bill by way of clause 20.
What this will mean is that future pensioners wishing to retire to some countries
will suffer the same lack of annual pension increases as those affected
now.
What a wonderful legacy this is Mr Foster.
Please feel free to ask your friend Steve Webb who will confirm what I have said.