Pride and Progress:
The Green Party’s Pledge to
Pensioners
2004 Euro-elections briefing
May 2004
Freya Barnes and Spencer Fitz-Gibbon
With thanks to:
Jean Lambert MEP, Green Party spokesperson on pensions, employment
& social affairs
Dr Molly Scott Cato, Green Party spokesperson on economics
Prof John Whitelegg, Leader of North West Green Party
Danny Bates, Green Party policy development coordinator
Brian Heatley, Green Party Policy Committee
Cllr Gina Dowding, Green Party cabinet member on Lancaster city
council
Green Party Regional Council
Contact Spencer Fitz-Gibbon, Green Party press office, 020 7561
0282
1.
Introduction p2
2.
The
problem facing pensioners in the UK p3
3.
The
Green Party pledge to pensioners p3
-
Guaranteeing
a decent pension p3
-
Scrapping
means testing p4
-
Ending
the £11 billion pensions scam p5
-
Fairer
council tax for pensioners p5
-
Making
sure pensioners get what they’re entitled to p5
-
Abolishing
fuel poverty and saving energy p6
-
Improving
the National Health Service p6
-
Improving
pensioners’ mobility p7
-
A
National Older Persons Commission p7
-
Protection
of local services p8
4.
Conclusion p8
1.
Introduction
1.1 A recent report from Age Concern states that throughout
the European Union:
People can easily live for 20 years after reaching pensionable age, and the proportion of older people in the population is increasing… Since the 1950s, life expectancy has increased by 8 to 10 years.
1.2 But with this great
achievement comes responsibility - one that those in power are often failing to
meet.
…age discrimination is a critical issue. Discrimination limits older people’s opportunities for employment, their access to goods and services, pensions and their ability to secure an adequate income later in life… Too many pensioners in the UK live in poverty.
Age Concern, 2003
1.3 The European Union is
developing a strategy which aims to adjust to this modern society where people
are living longer. It will set broad guidelines to help pensions become both
secure and sustainable – aiming to stamp out poverty and ensure equality. But
member states will still have responsibility for drawing up and implementing
their own pension policies. With the right attitude, the UK can yield the right
results - which is where the Green Party comes in.
1.4 The Green Party believes
that we should treat longer life as an opportunity, not a problem. Older people
have the wisdom, skills, experience and time to be of enormous benefit to our
society. Pensioners deserve a state pension sufficient to cover their basic
needs and enable them to live with pride and dignity. For Greens, a
Citizen’s Pension is a matter of a citizen’s rights.
1.5 Social protection must be
based on the principle of solidarity and risk-sharing, meaning disadvantaged
members of society are not left to fend for themselves. This right has to be
taken into account in all relevant polic areas, not least pension provision.
With the current trend focusing largely on private pensions, the EU objectives of
preventing poverty and providing access for everyone to secure pension
arrangements will never be fulfilled.
1.6 The UK must therefore
guarantee an adequate publicly funded Citizen’s Pension for every citizen -
private pensions must be the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. But under the current UK system this is not
the case.
2. The problem facing pensioners in
the UK
2.1 Here’s the problem as the Green Party sees it:
a.
Currently two-thirds of Britain’s 11 million pensioners live in poverty.
b. To get
a pension you still have to be subjected to means testing. In fact, the new
Pensions Credit will involve the biggest
extension of means testing since World War 2. It will bring half our
pensioners into means testing.
c. Pensions
Credit is even more complicated than the old system. The complication and the
means testing are so off-putting that between one-quarter and one-third of
pensioners are unlikely to claim the
full benefits they are entitled to, making a huge saving for the government
at the expense of pensioners.
d. State
pensioners are still effectively penalised
for having savings or private pensions, and the system still discriminates
against some women. The system also disadvantages those who have not been
wealthy enough to pay into a private pension scheme, keeping the poor even
poorer during retirement years.
2.2 Modern society is supposed to be about progress – but we don’t see much progress in the treatment of pensioners. In fact we’ve gone backwards. We used to see the state pension as a civic right. Now it seems we see it almost as a charitable handout. That’s not progress.
2.3 The Green
Party believes in progress – real
progress. So here is the Green Party’s commitment to pensioners – this is what
we stand for – this is our pledge of Real Progress for pensioners.
3. The Green Party pledge to pensioners
3.1 The link
between the level of the state pension and average earnings was broken by the
Tories in 1980. Since returning to power, Labour has done nothing to restore
it. This means pensioners are £30 a week worse off than they would have been.
That’s not progress.
Green Party pledge: We would restore
the link between pensions and average earnings or inflation, whichever is the
higher. As incomes rise, tax revenue rises, so the Citizen’s Pension should
rise. That would be Real Progress.
Everyone of pensionable age should be
entitled to the basic Citizen’s Pension unconditionally, without means testing,
and with no penalty for those who have paid less National Insurance. That’s Real Progress.
3.2 Currently
women retire at 60 - although state pension age for women is rising to 65 -
while men are expected to keep
working to 65. The Green Party wants people to be able to choose early
retirement, or to keep working beyond pensionable age if they so choose. So, as
well as an unconditional Citizen’s Pension, we would introduce a Citizens’
Income scheme which would make it easier for people to choose early retirement.
Green Party pledge: Everyone would be paid a Citizen’s Income as of right – an unconditional weekly payment to cover basic living costs. People who choose voluntary work or who currently go unpaid for domestic labour could live on their Citizen’s Income. People who choose part-time work, allowing them to spend more time with their children, or studying, would find Citizens’ Income a useful top-up. Higher earners who didn’t need Citizen’s Income would simply pay more tax to balance it out. But anyone wanting to retire before pensionable age would have their basic Citizen’s Income to live on.
3.3 The basic
state pension is currently so low that a Minimum Income Guarantee is needed to
bring it up to a decent level. Why so much bureaucracy? Why not just have a
decent level of state pension?
3.4 Currently the
government gives tax relief on private pension plans, costing the treasury more
than £13 billion a year. Private pensions are a matter of choice. The state
pension is a matter of equity. The majority of private pension holders would
agree with this. This tax relief should be stopped and reinvested to raise the
level of the Citizen’s Pension.
Green Party pledge: We would stop the
tax relief on private pension plans and, as an immediate measure, plough that
£13 billion a year into the Citizen’s Pension – to make sure the money goes
where it’s most needed. Our proposals would mean a 30% increase in the basic
state pension. That’s Real Progress.
3.5 Means testing
is extremely unpopular. Filling in endless forms is a bureaucratic nightmare
and a lot of people find it intimidating or humiliating. Means testing is not
progress.
Green
Party pledge: We would end pensioners’ means testing once and for all. A
Citizen’s Pension must be seen as a citizen’s right due to all members of society.
That would be Real Progress.
3.6 The government
is proposing to give pensioners a £30,000 lump sum at age 70 if they stay in
work. Of course the Green Party supports pensioners’ right to carry on working
if they want to. But this latest plan is a fraud:
a.
Under this scheme, all the time you’re still
working you’re not drawing your pension but you are paying tax.
b.
For pensioners it means gambling on your
longevity. For the government it’s a certain money-spinner – and not just
because a proportion of pensioners will die before they get their lump sum.
c.
If all pensioners put off retiring to claim
that lump sum, and didn’t claim their pension for those five years but did
carry on paying tax, the government would be £11 billion better off. Pensioners
as a group would have gone without £11 billion. This scheme means cheating
Britain’s senior citizens out of as much £11 billion. That’s not progress.
Green Party pledge: We would
safeguard the right of pensioners to work beyond pensionable age if they choose
to – without denying them their Citizen’s Pension. That would be Real Progress.
Fairer council tax for
pensioners
3.7 Many
pensioners pay large amounts of council tax. Often this is because their house
has increased in value, while the pensioner has remained on relatively low
income. Many pensioners then face the choice of either buying less food and
switching off the fire to be able to afford their council tax, or being forced
to sell their home. Forcing people out of their home or forcing them to go cold
or hungry is not progress.
Green Party pledge: We would urge
every local authority to peg pensioners’ council tax to the rate of inflation -
not to increase it in line with general increases in an unfair tax.
3.8 Due to means
testing and the complexity of the system, millions of pensioners don’t claim
the full benefits they’re entitled to.
Green
Party pledge: We want every local authority to set up a Benefits Rights Unit to
work with pensioners and pensioners groups, with Citizens Advice Bureaux and
government agencies, to aim for as close to 100% take-up of pensioners’
benefits as we can get.
Abolishing fuel poverty and
saving energy
3.9 Many
pensioners live in homes that need too much energy to keep them warm. Recently
parliament considered a Home Energy Conservation Bill that would have cut our
energy demands by 30% within 10 years. The Bill would have ended fuel poverty
once and for all. It was such a good idea that 400 MPs of all parties supported
it. But the government squashed it. So Britain has made very little progress on
energy conservation.
Green
Party pledge: We would pass a Home Energy Conservation Act to achieve 30%
energy savings within 10 years. We would prioritise pensioners and low income
households. This would abolish fuel poverty, cut pollution, help tackle climate
change and create local jobs. We would provide free loft and wall cavity
insulation for everyone over 60, keeping pensioners warm and safe in their
homes during the winter months. Real Progress.
Improving the National Health
Service
3.10 Pensioners
are amongst those who feel the shortcomings of the National Health Service
mostly keenly. Clearly we need to cut hospital waiting lists. Successive
governments spend more on health without making much headway in improving the
NHS. How can we make progress?
3.11 Part of the
problem is that the NHS spends one-fifth of its budget dealing with illness
that needn’t have arisen in the first place. Poverty causes a lot of illness; so Green Party policies of wealth
redistribution would reduce NHS spending.
Stress causes a lot of
illness – often thanks to overwork or prolonged unemployment. Green Party
policies of improving our work-life balance would reduce NHS spending. Pollution causes a lot of illness. In
fact government figures show that between 12,000 and 24,000 people in the UK
are killed every year by air pollution, and thousands more are hospitalised.
Again, Green Party policies of reducing pollution would cut NHS spending.
Green
Party pledge: Green policies could cut current NHS costs by up to 20% - leaving
more money to spend on improving the
health service. That would allow Real
Progress in funding services.
Also
we must end age discrimination in health care: our approach must be one of
setting medical criteria, not age criteria.
We want to make sure that people get the treatment they need when they
need it. We would even introduce a supplement to cover the costs of residential
care, should this become necessary.
Improving pensioners’ mobility
3.12 Many pensioners rely for their mobility on public transport. Public transport in Britain has deteriorated thanks partly to privatisation and deregulation and partly to chronic under-funding by successive Labour and Tory governments.
Green
Party pledge: We would scrap the £30 billion plan to build more roads and put
that £30 billion into better and cheaper public transport, traffic calming,
better transport provision for disabled people and pedestrians, and other Green
transport initiatives.
We would re-regulate the buses to
make them more reliable. We would improve journey times through widespread bus
priority measures. We would ensure that bus companies can’t just shut down
important bus services on the grounds that those routes are less profitable
than the more popular routes.
And we would introduce a free Local
Plus Travel Scheme for all pensioners. Every pensioner should have a pass that
entitles them to travel free on all local public transport services and from
their home to the nearest major town or city. We want all pensioners in Britain
to have that travel pass. That would be
Real Progress.
3.13 Age
discrimination is a huge problem. Lots of pensioners feel that politicians
don’t listen to them. To help solve that problem we need to raise the profile
of pensioners and pensioners’ concerns within government.
Green
Party pledge: we support the call for a National Older Persons Commission advocated
by the National Pensioners Convention.
Protection of local services
3.14 Many
people, not least pensioners, want to preserve local post offices, local
provision of shops, and access to local hospitals. This is basic Green Party
policy. Similarly we campaign to keep public toilets open as an important
aspect of public services, and for pensioners to keep the right to use a
pension book, as an important matter of providing services in a manner
convenient to service users rather than bureaucrats.
Green
Party pledge: Greens will always campaign to protect the local services needed
by the community. Green Party economic policies would naturally favour
human-scale, local community provision of services over distant, centralised
provision.
4. Conclusion
4.1 Green Party polices are about making services and the community more “family friendly.” That means friendly for people of all ages, not just youth and not just children but older people as well. It means integrating services for them - not putting people on one side as they grow older. Greens want a society which values experience, wisdom and the value of community and compassion. We need all levels of government, from the European Parliament and Commission to local councils, to consider older people in all policy areas. The Green Party wants pride and dignity for old age pensioners.
4.2 The Green
Party is making steady progress in getting its views across. When it comes to
election time, we always say to voters: It’s
best to vote for what you really want. And if everyone who likes Green
policies votes Green, the party will make even faster progress.
4.3 There are
dozens of Greens in the European Parliament including some from Britain, and
this year we’re confident that more British Greens will be elected to the
European Parliament.
4.4 There are also
significant numbers of Greens in the Scottish Parliament and on the London
Assembly, and Green Party councillors are becoming more influential in most
regions. Wherever we can promote a fairer deal for pensioners, Greens will do
so.
4.5 When the Green
vote goes up, the other parties start paying attention. So every Green vote
tells the other parties that these are
the policies you want and puts pressure on them to follow our lead.
4.6 So our message
to pensioners and to the whole electorate this year is this: if you want
progress, Real Progress, vote Green.