North: Plea over fair pension for all
The British government today faced fresh demands in the North for a pension which all citizens would be eligible for and could afford to live on.
The call was made as Help the Aged hosted a seminar at Stormont involving representatives from the British government, pension groups as well as private, public and voluntary organisations.
Mervyn Kohler, head of public affairs at Help the Aged, argued: “A citizen’s pension is the only option currently on the table that would ensure that no older person is subjected to the indignity of poverty in later life.
“Help the Aged supports the concept of a citizen’s pension set at a level that allows pensioners to enjoy a decent quality of life as opposed to subsistence.
“A citizen’s pension based on residency and not contributions would remedy the complexity and unfairness of the current system and help reduce the shocking numbers of pensioners living in poverty.
“For this to happen the British government needs to demonstrate strong leadership by making some radical changes.”
Help the Aged’s seminar is taking place as the British government awaits the Pension Commission’s report on the crisis.
In September Adair Turner, chairman of the Pensions Commission, told the TUC’s annual congress in Brighton there would be no easy choices when he makes his eagerly awaited recommendations later this year.
Campaigners believe if present policies continue, pensions could become substantially smaller compared to average earnings.
By 2050, average pensioners could receive about 30% less relative to average earnings than they do at the moment.
Help the Aged have called for a citizen’s pension which would award people a pension which meets their needs by virtue of residency rather than National Insurance contributions.
The charity believes this would protect people with broken work records such as women who have had children, carers and disabled people and also those who have not been able to build sufficient entitlement like the low-paid self-employed.
However in August former Work and Pensions Secretary David Blunkett ruled out the idea, fearing it would lead to an influx of pensioners from Europe.
He told a meeting in Sheffield: “We can’t give people a pension automatically. I think people really would blow at that.
“We would have the reverse of the Costa del Sol. Instead of everybody going to Spain in retirement, they would all come to Britain.”
Mr Kohler noted the Pension’s Commission’s final report was due to be published on November 30.
He said: “We hope that the Commission’s report and the subsequent (British) government response will take the bold steps needed to tackle the pension problem and provide real benefits for pensioners today as well as pensioners tomorrow.”
The participants in today’s seminar included social security expert Professor Eileen Evason as well as Assembly members Fred Cobain and Billy Bell of the Ulster Unionists, Sinn Féin’s Francie Molloy, former DUP Social Development Minister Nigel Dodds, Alliance’s Sean Neeson and Mary Bradley of the SDLP.
