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Liberal/Democrat Policy |
We have received the following message
from Matthew Taylor MP (Lib/Dem)
I agree that pensioners who earned their pensions by paying national
insurance contributions ought to have the value of that pension
maintained in line with inflation, and would support such a change.
Whilst pensioners living in the EU and a few other countries that have
reciprocal agreements with the UK receive the uprating, about 450,000
people, mostly in countries like Canada, Australia and South Africa,
have "frozen" pensions. These pensions decrease in value, especially
when inflation is high, pushing many pensioners onto poverty incomes.
This should not be acceptable to anyone who believes in tackling poverty
among the elderly.
The cost of uprating such 'frozen' pensions is estimated by the
Government to be around £400 million. This would be a significant
financial commitment for the Government to make, and would have to be
balanced with other important priorities in the Social Security budget.
However, the Liberal Democrats believe that uprating these pensions is a
just and fair objective, and we tabled amendments to the Welfare Reform
and Pensions Act 1999 which would have uprated frozen pensions. However,
they were rejected by the Government and not passed into law.
Tabling amendments to primary legislation is the main tool that
opposition parties can use to attempt to change the law in this area,
and when there is next a pensions bill before Parliament, we will
certainly hope to table similar amendments.
Best wishes,
Matthew Taylor MP