Bristol Greens make an Older People's Pledge
Written by Pete Goodwin Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Green parliamentary candidates in Bristol welcomed the launch of the Green Party's Older People's Pledge (note 1), a set of key national policies designed to make Britain a better place in which to grow old.
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"After a lifetime of hard work and contributing to society, pensioners deserve better than having to scrape by on an inadequate state pension. It's only fair that the basic state pension should be enough to live on - that is why Greens would make sure that all pensioners receive a non-means-tested £170 per week (note 2), as well as free social care for all who need it, as is currently offered in Scotland."
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"In addition to raising pensioners above the poverty line, the Greens are pledging to end the default retirement age, so that people have the freedom to go on working and contributing to society if they wish to, free from discrimination on the basis of age."
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Charlie Bolton, the Greens' city councillor who has been working to speed up the council's home insulation programme, is to challenge Dawn Primarolo for the Bristol South seat. He commented
" as part of the Greens' policy of free insulation for every home in Britain, pensioners would benefit from warmer homes and be less reliant on winter fuel payments."
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NOTES
1. Click here to read the Green Party's Older People's Pledge (pdf)
2. £170 per week - how it would be paid for:
There are roughly 12 million pensioners living in the UK and a further 1 million living abroad. Paying a single rate of £170 per week, and a couples rate of £300 per week, will cost £110bn per year. The current basic state pension, plus certain other specific pensioner benefits like Pensions Credits paid to those of pension age (which would become redundant if the basic pension rate was raised to the level we propose) costs £70bn. For the remaining £40 billion, we would abolish tax relief on pension contributions (£20 billion), and the national insurance rebate on employer and employee contributions to private pension schemes (£19 billion). The final £1 billion will come from increased income tax receipts from pensioners.
3. In 2009-10, the full basic State Pension is £95.25 a week. For a married couple who both qualify, it is £190.50 a week. From April 6 2010, these figures will rise by 2.5%.
4. The figure of £170 per week is calculated as the minimum required to keep the basic state pension above the official poverty line, according to the National Pensioners' Convention, in their Pensioners' Manifesto, which calls for a range of measures to improve conditions for older people.
CONTACT
Green Party national press office - 020 7561 0282
Ricky Knight 07986 941 026
Glenn Vowles 0117 971 7023
Charlie Bolton (work) 0117 353 4580