There has been a lot of talk of the coalition getting it wrong on pensions, since the budget. This, to me, seems to be because the media, in search of a fantastic headline, refuses to be didactic as opposed to outrageous. There is no ‘granny tax’. All there is is a proposal for a single, flat-rate, fair state pension. You are not too daft to understand and appreciate this, yet it is not worthy as an angle for a media story – despite being the single, fair truth of the matter.
This mean a few changes in the rules and current allowances, but this is only because the system previously was so complicated. It shouldn’t be complicated. It should be fair and the same for everyone, such that…
The Liberal Democrats have promised to increase the Basic State Pension by whichever is the highest – 2.5%, earnings or consumer prices – annually. Pensioners retiring today will get £15,000 extra during their expected retirement.
With the economic climate as it is, the pensioners of the future are not going to have such an easy time, having to work longer with less workplace pension to look forward to. The idea is that everyone who is to retire will have the equivalent of £140 a week from the state, and this is regardless of whether one has worked continuously throughout one’s life or not – although, increasingly, people do.
We have, for the first time, a different sort of government. One that is more open, because of the Liberal Democrats, one that has to talk through everything with itself (because we are in coalition) and one that has to deal with a financial situation very unlike that of, say, 1997. The Lib Dems have no friends in the media either, so it is no surprise that a simplification and rationalisation of a system, that is ongoing, is not being fairly reported. What is a greater shame is that, as Lib Dems, believing in communication as we do, we want it to be.