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Respect policies Pensions
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All materials published and promoted by L Smith, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU
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Pensions are under attack. Millions of present pensioners live in poverty, with the value of the state pension falling year by year.
By 2006 pensioners were £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.
And this government seems determined to pitch many more into poverty in the future.
On the basis of bogus scare stories about the threat from people living longer (a fact which should be celebrated), workers are being told that their pension rights are to be taken away.
In 2006 the government unveiled plans to raise the pension age to 66 and eventually to 68. Half a century ago it was possible to retire at 65. Now, despite all the extra wealth created, it is apparently unrealistic.
The policy of increasing the pension age will hit workers hardest: they have seen only small rises in life expectancy and die much earlier than the rich.
Meanwhile the majority of final salary schemes in the private sector have been closed to new entrants and recruits to the public sector must work for an extra five years before receiving their pension.
Big business has been allowed to raid pension funds, take contribution holidays, and refuse to compensate pensioners and current employees in the event of bankruptcy.
Respect rejects the argument that the ageing population means that decent pension provisions are no longer affordable. Big corporations in Britain and elsewhere are seeking to boost their profits at the expense of pensioners by grabbing the deferred
wages that pensions represent.
Respect will give full support to those trade unions that are acting to defend pension rights.
RESPECT CALLS FOR:
> The immediate restoration of the link between the state pension and average earnings backdated to its original abolition by the Tories.
> Annual increases in the state pension in line with wages or prices – whichever is the greater.
> Total opposition to any increases in the state pension age. We want a reduction in the state pension age to 60 for men and women. Abolition of the discriminatory contribution rules which mean that 87 percent of present women pensioners do not receive a full state pension in their own right.
> Bring free provision of services into line with those already available to pensioners in Scotland, Wales and the Irish Republic.
> End attacks on occupational pension scheme; final-salary schemes for all employees.
> Statutory occupational pension schemes covering all employees in both the public and private sector with compulsory contributions by employers plus full liability by employers in the event of bankruptcy.
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