LETTER: Let’s not forget pensioners

The National Pensioners’ Convention members are celebrating winning their fight to reinstate the triple lock to guarantee state pensions rise by 10.1 per cent next year.
But as the increase does not kick in until April, older people already having to choose between paying for food or heating, still face a bleak six months of rampant price rises.
And there are other concerns in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement announced on November 17, including a further rise in the energy price cap next April, and a delay to the introduction of a social care cap, as well as other much needed reforms.
NPC General Secretary Jan Shortt welcomed the news about the triple lock increase next spring, which will be a huge relief to many after months of worry. But the devil is in the detail, and other concerns are still apparent, including the significant hike in the energy price cap next spring, details of which are yet to be seen.
We are also disappointed in the delay in the social care cap for two years, which would limit how much the government can claim from a person’s property to pay for the cost of care.
At a time when the prices of food and essentials continue to rocket, food inflation was at 16.4 per cent in October, older people, who spend a much larger proportion of their meagre fixed incomes on food and heating, are still struggling to afford essentials.
There are still six months before our triple lock pension increase kicks in, that’s a long, cold winter and there’s no sign from the government that any of the measures announced will bring inflation down.
But thanks to the tireless campaigning by the NPC, which saw thousands of our members write to their local MPs and other organisations and supporters, Mr Hunt will increase not only pensions but also benefits such as Universal Credit.
To its shame, the UK has one of the poorest state pensions in the developed world. Its value has been eroded over decades.
Our spending power has decreased to a pitiful level, and the 3.1 per cent rise in April 2022 was swallowed up by energy prices and inflation.
Even with a ten per cent rise, the basic state pension will still be less than half the earnings of a person on the National Living Wage, which is absolutely shocking.
The Office of Budget Responsibility says that living standards are going to fall by seven per cent over the next two years, wiping out eight years of growth.
Rising prices and interest rates have tipped the economy into a recession that will last over a year, with GDP falling two per cent and not returning to its pre-pandemic level until the end of 2024.
The “new” state pension, currently worth £185.15 a week will go up to £203.85 next April.
The basic state pension, for those who reached state pension age before April 2016, is currently £141.85 a week, and will go up to £156.20.
Let us not forget, pensioners were workers once and workers now are the pensioners of the future.

Rodney Sadd
NPC supporter
Crowland