GOVERNMENT MISSES OPPORTUNITY TO INTRODUCE CITIZENS PENSION
Posted on Thursday, May 25 2006
Speaking on behalf of the SNP after the statement Stewart Hosie MP, theparty's Treasury spokesperson expressed his frustration with theannouncement. Whilst the limited moves to link pensions with earnings andimprove the pensions available to women were welcome, they did not go farenough and were merely tinkering at the edges of an over complex system.Commenting after the statement Mr Hosie said:"What is needed is a bold vision to take the state pension system into thetwenty first century, instead we have tinkering around the edges of anover complex system."There is a growing public consensus around the idea of a fair CitizensPension that would lift all pensioners out of poverty and provide a securefoundation for private savings towards retirement."The government had a golden opportunity to take that bold step byintroducing a citizen’s pension. Instead they prefer to retain the unfairmeans tested system so beloved of Gordon Brown."A Citizens Pension would be easily affordable from the current cost ofthe state pension and pension credit together with the reform of theunfair system of tax relief on private pensions, which offers littleincentive to those on low and modest wages.“According to this announcement, the pension age for both men and womenwill start rising from 2024. This means that men and women in Scotlandaged 47 and younger will have to work longer, and by 2044 the pension agewill have reached 78."Considering Scotland’s record of having the lowest life expectancy inWestern Europe and the Liberal-Labour Executive’s failure to tackle thehuge health inequalities in Scotland, the government and the ScottishExecutive have to take the lead in improving public health and lifeexpectancy alongside these plans to increase the pension ages.“The connected problems of health inequality and low average lifeexpectancy in many parts of Scotland need to be solved before such adramatic increase in pension age can be introduced.“We welcome the reduction in contributions that women will be required tomake in order to receive a full pension. However it will take until 2010for even 70% to get that pension.“The key flaw in these proposals is a highly subjective ‘affordabilitytest’ which leaves the final decision in the hands of Gordon Brown andoffers no certainty to Scotland’s pensioners.“In his statement John Hutton said: ‘[…] we will also be able to limit thespread of means testing.’ This indicates that means testing will continueto increase, albeit at a slower rate. This was the opportunity to end theindignity of means testing once and for all.”ENDS
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