At a time when Savings are being eroded by low interest rates, and pressure groups are describing the financial situation of our elderly at its worst its been in “decades”, the government have been pilling further pressure on the elderly rather than assisting them.
Britain’s Pensioners are viewed as easy targets by the government, and successive governments, and it does seem that pensioners are being punished for saving wisely and prospering from the property boom.
Dot Gibson, the General Secretary of The National Pensioners Convention, had this to say:
“There is a myth that pensioners have been excluded from austerity measures in the past but this is just not true. Pensioners have not been cosseted or protected by any measures. They are being hit hard.”
Even before the budget, pensioners were struggling with various different financial circumstances. It is a fact that rising inflation hit’s the elderly harder than most duly because they are on fixed incomes and they can never hold hope that their income will catch up with rising prices. Also doesn’t help that pensioners spend most of their income on the main drivers of inflation; Food, gas and electric.
The government seemed to ignore what experts have been saying and have done very little to assist the elderly, if anything at all. Financial experts have said that since January 2008 the cost of living for the over 55s has increased 5 per cent faster than the official inflation rate. What this means in real terms is, the average person over the age of 55 is £907 a year worse off. And since last September, the cost of living in later life has increased further by an extra £30 each month.
While this is going on, the current climate of low interest rates, it is meaning savings are being eroded in real terms as inflation out paces earnings in most bank accounts.
Many held vain hopes that Mr Osborne’s first full Budget would bring some relief to the elderly, however this is far from the truth. In fact, following the budget, we are to see Winter Fuel Allowance payments cut. Disgustingly and obviously deliberately to avoid scrutiny, this policy to cut Winter Fuel Allowance was only mentioned in Small print and not announced in Parliament.
With the empty claims that we are all in this together from the Lib-CON coalition, among so many other questions for various cuts in other sectors, a question we must ask is; Why is it there is gonna be £100 taken off Winter Fuel Allowance for the oldest members of our society at a time when fuel bills are rising and winter deaths amongst older people are a national scandal? Yet the Government still finds billions of pounds to send to nations like Pakistan in “foreign aid”. Yet the government can find houses and give thousands in benefits to asylum seekers and immigrants, who have never worked a day of their life and have not paid a penny in taxes, yet pensioners who have, are being punished.
The National Front firmly believe in Charity beginning at home and looking after our elderly. We campaign for better treatment of our elderly, and would put in place policies that would insure that Pensioners are well looked after.
