SO, new Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson will “stand up for the poor”.
In that case, will he seriously consider the two million or so pensioners who are what is called “in the poverty trap”?
The Government’s own findings show that pensioners are entitled to £171 a week now — not the measly £97 they receive.
Well, hope springs eternal. As my letter (Oxford Mail, February 4, 2008) stated, this situation for pensioners is “an indictment of our society”, irrespective of the intentions of the Adair Turner report on pensions some three years ago.
Like the welfare state, the pensions system has developed over the decades.
UKIP believes that the pensions system has three purposes: to alleviate poverty in old age; to encourage people to save for their retirement and to reward long-serving workers who believe that the current system is failing to meet these objectives.
The current pension system is flawed. The levels of poverty and deprivation are unacceptable and cannot be allowed to exist among our older generation.
JOHN MADEN UKIP Oxford
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