Lords say pensioners should lose extra benefits because they aren’t in poverty. Really?
According to a House of Lords committee, extra benefits for pensioners are no longer necessary because hardly any pensioners are in poverty any more.
But is that really true?
Poverty is a relative measure. In the UK, the poverty line is set at 60 per cent of average earnings – and average earnings have been plummeting because of Tory policies that funnel money to people who are already very rich.
So, for example, the proposal to remove the triple lock for State Pensions and instead uprate the State Pension in line with average earnings is in fact an attempt to plunge pensioners back into poverty.
And the claim that cash being spent on pensioner benefits would be better-used on helping young people is a false argument. There is plenty of money available to do both; all the government has to do is tax the super-rich a little more.
Pensioner benefits for over-75’s should be cut or axed to help restore fairness in the system between older and younger people, the House of Lords Committee on Intergenerational Fairness and Provision has said.
The Committee argues that social security payments and passported benefits are no longer required because the issue of pensioner poverty has been all but resolved.
Source: Cut pensioner benefits to improve fairness, says Lords committee
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Shared on carervoice
Like anyone sitting in the House of Lords would know anything about pensioner poverty, or any poverty.
Hmmm I wonder if we cut their 300 pounds a day would they like it the Pratt’s.
Whilst it’s absolutely true there does need to be a rebalancing, a making things fairer.
It needs to STOP starting with those who are going to end up hit in every direction and end up in the proverbial creek without a paddle .. and without so much as a raft made from the discarded, repurposed plastics choking the waters !!!!!!
A person sat on millions in assests is not going to need a “free” TV license, bus pass, measly couple of hundred quid to help with heating, little bit the triple lock ensures. But the average Joe without anything or a very modest nestegg of a few k, will. They are the ones who will be caught with every cut going.
When those making these suggestions, /things happen , give up their very very comfortable living standards and lifestyles, ditch access to their readies and survive not live, survive, for a good few years, as the rest of us do, then and only then may they be beginning to understand the impact of what they say and do !!
How about cutting the £300 per day that the Lords get just for turning up?
as it is i am confined to my home most days of the week. when i do go out i have to use taxis. the cost of which has gone up by £1.50 per journey. it cost me £6.80 when my daughter first moved a further 1.1 miles away from me (from 4.5 to 5.6) through no fault of her own (due to her landlady of 12 years giving her notice to quit and all she was told was the woman wanted to do the house up and sell it (at a bad time for sellers?) . she had done no repairs in that 12 years anyway. and she subsequently let the house to a working tenant. my daughter is my carer and relies on that allowance and income support for income. otherwise she couldnt help me at all. if they took my pension credit away i wouldnt even be able to afford to get to my drs/hospital/chiropodist appointments etc let alone get out of my own 4 walls into someone elses for company and there will others having many more problems than i am.
couldnt agree more with any of above comments.
This, from people who collect hundreds of pounds of taxpayers’ money a day. These unelected characters are despicable.
Not withstanding the many of us ‘disabled who are at or approaching ‘pensioner’ age who have spent the past Decade being made poorer by the month!
I used to think the Lords made a useful contribution to fine tuning the small print of some of the blue sky thinking from the lower house however remarks ref Pensions seem to reflect a new breed of Lords participants who are well out of touch with the real world ….. maybe to many Con men and women who cannot shake off the them ‘n us attitude.
DO WE NEED THEM ?
….Can I be a Lord please?
Yes I could go in have a snooze.. have a few drinks at one of the bars then a nice hearty meal (all subbed of course) then complain that the poor Pensioners are getting much to much money. . have another doze
Then go home… (and get paid for the day)
What sickens me is that we are now seeing LABOUR peers backing this.
They have called for only those who are in absolute poverty to retain benefits as outlined.
To me this sounds like ‘means testing’
Means Testing was something that the Labour Party fought against tooth and nail!! But lately there seems to be an attitude that this is okay because many things which benefit the ENTIRE population are seen as benefitting the middle classes MORE than the working class.
Labour MUST get back to it’s roots as fighting for workers, worker’s rights and preservation of dignity. It appears that this has been forgotten…
That’s the emergence of New Labour lords for you, I think.
Get rid of the lords chambers and save millions of pounds for good causes like the homeless’. Those cretins sitting and pontificating on matters that are worse than useless to the country should be eliminated from our politics!!!!
Get rid of these useless titled cretins and make them earn a real living by doing a real day’s work.
A damn shame. . we all know they’re all above the law .. .