Pension rise: 'too little, too late to cope with pensioner inflation"

14/10/2008

Britain’s biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) has called on the government to immediately raise the basic state pension to ease the current financial pressures faced by millions of older people.

The call follows today’s announcement that the state pension, based on the September Retail Price Index figure, is likely to rise by 5% next April, giving an increase of just £4.55 a week.
 
Joe Harris, NPC general secretary said: “At a time like this, pensioners will be disgusted that bankers are being offered up to £500bn, whilst they will get less than a £5 increase in their pension next year.

Around 2.5m pensioners are already living below the official poverty line and every week more and more of them face rising food and fuel prices. Pensioner inflation is double the official figures because older people spend a higher proportion of their income on those items with the fastest rising prices. Pensioners can’t wait until next April for a higher pension; they need to see a substantial increase now to help them cope with the current financial crisis.

”Mervyn Kohler, Special Adviser for Help the Aged, says: “The increase in the full Basic State Pension for next year, based on today’s new inflation rate, is going to be much too little, much too late for millions of pensioners.  Although five per cent is large by the standards of recent years, it totally fails to reflect the dramatic increases pensioners are facing in food and fuel.
 
“Research released last week showed that in reality, our oldest and poorest pensioners face an inflation rate of around nine per cent, far higher than the general rate of inflation.  With inflation sky-rocketing and the increase in the Basic State Pension not coming into effect for another six months, many older people will be forced to cut back on essential items to get through the winter.
 
“Measly increases in the pension over the last few years have caused a crisis situation - 2.5 million pensioners already live in poverty. The Government needs to implement a crisis response, and provide our poorest pensioners with more cash help now.”