 Andrew Harrop‚ Head of Public Policy at Age Concern and Help the Aged .. .. says.. ..  04/12/09
“While we recognise the need for spending constraint‚ the Chancellor must ensure that pensioners do not pay the price for the recession. He should use the Pre-Budget Report to reject calls to cut entitlements for older people and ensure that the spending axe does not fall on the services they rely on.”
“If older people had adequate incomes‚ there would be less need for age-based entitlements but with more than two million pensioners living in poverty‚ we are a long way from this point. Cutting these entitlements or means-testing them may appear superficially attractive but in reality would unfairly penalise many of the poorest pensioners.”
“It is shameful that in one of the richest countries in the world‚ one in five pensioners continue to live in poverty. The Pre-Budget Report offers the Government a golden opportunity to give older people in Britain a fairer deal by committing to restore the link between the Basic State Pension and earnings by 2012. Pensioners have waited three decades for this – they should not have to wait any longer."
Andrew Harrop said: “An end to the working lives of men in their 50s now will not only condemn them to an uncomfortable retirement‚ but will also deprive the recovering economy of their skills and experience‚ just when they are most needed. The Government must take action in the Pre-Budget Report to avoid creating a lost generation of older workers.”
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