I'm glad that we now have a state pension that lifts most people above means-testing for the actual benefit and basing the weekly amount on NIC. But IDS is now suggesting (for that, read setting the scene) that the next generation of pensioners shouldn’t automatically assume the right to free bus passes, TV licences and help with heating bills.
Call me Dave told pensioners before the last election that the extra benefits were all ‘safe’; in fact, he actually said - ‘You can read my lips, that is a promise from my heart’. But IDS claims it was only an assurance that was valid until 2015.
If you want to be objective, you have to ask; should we exclude pensioners from the rigours of the recession or should we spread the pain a little? The hawks argue that baby boomers have benefited over the past 40 years and that the extra money has to come from somewhere. The state has removed the indignity of impoverished OAPs trying to scrape together a meagre income but the cost of that has been to the detriment of those who have accrued a decent NIC record.
But as a result of the new system, we'll have a first and second class state pension system, for sure. I’m not sure that that we should confuse that with, or be entirely pessimistic about saving elsewhere and in other ways for a state retirement income though.