The Financial Plight of Pensioners

Dear Sir

It should come as no surprise for to learn that the UK has the lowest state pension in Europe. Irish pensioners, immediately above us, receive at least £7 more each week.

For many years the state pension increased each year keeping pace with the national average wage. Since 1982 it has grown solely in accordance with the rate of inflation. This has led to 25 years without a meaningful increase in state pension, which in turn means that pensioners’ standard of living has failed to improve noticeably over the past quarter of a century.

Following the Laeken European summit in 2001 the Commission reported that pensioners receiving less than 60% of the National Average Wage were at risk of living in poverty. The UK government signed a commitment ensuring that older people are not placed at risk of poverty and can enjoy a decent standard of living.
With the exception of the UK, all other countries are adhering to this undertaking, while the UK pension remains, as it stood in 2001, at 13.7% of the national average wage.

It is a popular view that pensioners are a burden on society, but a global study by HSBC and Oxford University shows that in the UK they contribute £59 billion to the economy each year - £5.5 billion in tax, £4.2 billion in voluntary work and upwards of £50 billion in family care.
The study emphasises the enormous contribution made by pensioners by giving so freely of their talents , time and care. This is not only for their country, their loved ones and for those in need of care, but for a society that relies increasingly on the voluntary sector to assist in the delivery of a host of essential services.

It is a fact that 1.4 million pensioners are known to be living in poverty. Many receive an income that excludes them from seeking financial help from the state.
UK pensioners are subject to means tests unlike their European counterparts. This is a demeaning system of determining entitlement in this age of enlightenment and human rights.
They are in that grey zone where bureaucracy fails to acknowledge they exist, where people are stripped of their dignity and well-being and are left to quietly pass away.All the while our politicians continue to boast that our Welfare State is the envy of the world.

On behalf of the Wyre Pensioners’ forum I ask you to call on the Government and all politicians to urgently recognise the needs and value of pensioners. This would ensure that promises made in 2001 are implemented without delay so that by 2011 – ten years after the promise was made – the State Pension will have reached 60% of the National Average Wage.

Yours Sincerely.