Pensioners are now £52.50 a week worse off

Today’s pensioners are now at least £52.50 a week worse off as a direct result of the Conservative government’s decision to scrap the link between the basic state pension and average earnings in 1980, and the subsequent Labour government’s refusal to reverse the policy, according to the latest parliamentary information.

The evidence was supplied in a written parliamentary answer to Paul Flynn MP in January, and reveals that the state pension for a single pensioner lost £33 under the Conservative government’s period in office, and a further £19.50 under Labour. As a result, the basic state pension is now £84.25 a week compared to the £136.75 is would have been had the link not been broken.

For a couple, the loss of the link with earnings is even worse, with the state pension now worth just £134.75 a week compared to the £219.10 it would have been.

National Pensioners’ Convention general secretary, Joe Harris, said: ‘It’s clear that today’s pensioners have been robbed of a decent state pension by successive governments. By scrapping the link with earnings, pensioners now have a state pension that is so low it has to be supplemented by means-tests benefits. The recent Pensions Commission report completely failed to address this point....What older people need is an immediate increase in pension to £114.05 a week, and a restoration of that much-needed link to earnings’.