We agree with the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), which has described the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement as offering “cold comfort” to the country’s older generation.
The biggest concerns currently facing millions of older people are the price of keeping warm, negligible returns on their savings and inadequate increases in their pensions. George Osborne has ignored all of these. Instead he announced that Britain’s poorest pensioners would get a belowinflation increase in the Pension Credit of just 3.9 per cent and no extra help with rising fuel bills.
Then he speaks of getting young people into work, and in the next breath says he will raise the state retirement age to 67. How will he tackle youth unemployment by forcing older workers to keep on working?
DIANE ANDREWES, Hon Secretary Eastleigh Southern Parishes Older People’s Forum.
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