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A few Pension Facts...

• In 1975 legislation was introduced which decreed that annual retirement pension increases should be uprated in line with earnings or prices, whichever was the greater'.
  
• In 1980 the decision was reversed and legislation was introduced to uprate annual pension increases in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI).
  
• As a result of this break with earnings a single pensioner is now losing more than £30 per week.

• Nobody expects the complete loss to be restored. But pensioner organisations are asking for a substantial across the board increase to bridge some of the gap. The also ask that future increases must be geared to earnings if pensioners are not to fall further behind the income of the general population.
  
• 1996 the Labour Manifesto stated that 'pensioners should share in the rising prosperity of the country' and this was reiterated by the Prime Minister many times. 
  In May 2001 Tony Blair said: "We owe a huge debt to our older generation. It's their efforts which built the prosperity and freedoms we all now enjoy"  
  
  
• The only way in which pensioners can share fairly in the rising prosperity is to link pension increases with earnings which are the real measure of improvements in the standard of living.
  
• Cost of living (RPI) increases are based on the previous Septembers inflation figure, but do not come into effect until the following April (6 months later) by which time inflation has invariably risen further.
  
• On the government's own admission and the statement of the Government's Actuary, the restoration of the link with earnings, because of very large NI Fund surpluses, could easily be afforded at least until the year 2007
  
• Thereafter, a very small increase In National Insurance contributions (employees and
  employers) could easily cope with the modest increase in NI contributions.
  
• The government's Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) rose to £92.50 in April 2001- in future it will be linked to increases in earnings, So why not state pensions ?
  
• Average male earnings (Nov 2000) were £422 Per week. People in Poverty, as defined by the European Union, are those in receipt of less than half of average male earnings.
  How many Pensioners get £211 per week or more ?
  
• TWO thirds Of all pensioners do not have enough "income" to pay income tax.
  
• Had pension always been geared to price increases, today's pension, based on the original 1908 figure, would be £13 per week. Governments have always had to uprate pensions from time to time, so why not make it a basic requirement that pensions are uprated in line with earnings ?
  
• "Targeting* the poorest pensioners (the present government's policy) is not acceptable. The majority of today's pensioners are 'poor.' by today's standard. Means testing (i.e. Prying into ones affairs) is degrading and extremely costly - It is also highly inefficient.
  
• On its own admission the government estimates that between 500,000 and 600,000 pensioners who are entitled to the means tested Minimum Income Guarantee do not claim. This is because they see it as a stigma, don't want charity, don't want officials prying into their affairs, also can't understand or complete the forms.
  
• It costs over five times as much per head to administer MIG as the straightforward universal costs to pay to everyone. The more efficient income tax system could claw back from those who don't It need it.