From the young to the old
The Parliamentary recess has given me a chance to reflect on which groups in society are being, and will continue to be, some of the worst affected by the Conservative/LibDem coalition government's brutal cuts. One of those groups is old people.
There are 42,700 pensioners in Enfield. That's a huge group of people to hit out at.
When the Conservative/LibDem Government voted to increase VAT to 20%, they refused to back Labour's amendments protecting pensioners from the hike that will be implemented in January. This means that pensioners will have to pay increased VAT months before they see any increase in the Basic State Pension. In both 2011 and 2012, pension rises will fall considerably behind VAT price increases. In 2013, the situation is expected to get even worse for pensioners. Older peoples' charity Age UK has warned that this will "put thousands of older peoples' lives at risk." This amounts only to a betrayal of our local pensioners by the Tory/LibDem Government. Our retired community has paid in for a life-time and is now being hit hard in the pocket.
You can say what you like about where you think the Labour Government went wrong or what you think it didn't do enough of, or did too much of, ad infinitum, but, one thing you can't deny is that the Labour Party took extensive measures to improve the lives of pensioners. Not only was the basic state pension boosted and saw year on year increases, but pensioners benefited from the winter fuel allowance, cold weather payments, Christmas bonuses, free eye tests, television licences, swimming ... the list goes on. If a few more people had thought about their grandparents and parents, or even thought far enough ahead to their own time as a pensioner, then maybe they wouldn't have been so quick to dismiss what the Labour Party had achieved. As the saying goes, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."
There are 42,700 pensioners in Enfield. That's a huge group of people to hit out at.
When the Conservative/LibDem Government voted to increase VAT to 20%, they refused to back Labour's amendments protecting pensioners from the hike that will be implemented in January. This means that pensioners will have to pay increased VAT months before they see any increase in the Basic State Pension. In both 2011 and 2012, pension rises will fall considerably behind VAT price increases. In 2013, the situation is expected to get even worse for pensioners. Older peoples' charity Age UK has warned that this will "put thousands of older peoples' lives at risk." This amounts only to a betrayal of our local pensioners by the Tory/LibDem Government. Our retired community has paid in for a life-time and is now being hit hard in the pocket.
You can say what you like about where you think the Labour Government went wrong or what you think it didn't do enough of, or did too much of, ad infinitum, but, one thing you can't deny is that the Labour Party took extensive measures to improve the lives of pensioners. Not only was the basic state pension boosted and saw year on year increases, but pensioners benefited from the winter fuel allowance, cold weather payments, Christmas bonuses, free eye tests, television licences, swimming ... the list goes on. If a few more people had thought about their grandparents and parents, or even thought far enough ahead to their own time as a pensioner, then maybe they wouldn't have been so quick to dismiss what the Labour Party had achieved. As the saying goes, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."