You are here: Home » News » Campaigning for a better state pension

Campaigning for a better state pension

What follows is the text of a letter published in The Guardian, on Monday 6 April.

 the basic state pension should  be raised above the poverty level estimated at £165 a week

"Today (Monday 6 April) the basic state pension increases to just £95.25 a week, and for millions of older women, the figure is even less. At least one in four pensioners still live below the official poverty line and current government policy appears incapable of tackling the problem.
 
Relying solely on means-tested benefits for today's pensioners and occupational pension schemes for future generations simply won't work. Means-testing remains unpopular, demeaning and ineffective at reaching nearly 2m pensioners who need it and occupational schemes are facing a wave of closures as pension pots have lost £billions in the recent economic crisis.
 
The answer however remains simple. As a matter of urgency the basic state pension should  be raised above the poverty level estimated at £165 a week, paid to all in retirement and re-linked to earnings or prices (whichever is the greater).
 
Christine Blower, acting General Secretary, NUT
Jeremy Dear, General Secretary, NUJ
Dot Gibson, General Secretary, NPC
Sally Hunt, General Secretary, UCU
Tony Kearns, Senior Deputy General Secretary, CWU
Paul Kenny, General Secretary, GMB
Gerry Morrissey, General Secretary, BECTU
Dave Prentis, General Secretary, UNISON
Mark Serwotka, General Secretary, PCS
Tony Woodley, Joint General Secretary, UNITE".

5% increase

The increase to the state pension takes the weekly payment to a single person up from £90.25 to £95.25, an increase of 5%. Rates are increased each April in line with RPI the previous September. 

However the NPC and the trade unions are arguing that no pensioner should find themselves living below the poverty line. Campaigners also want the inequality which besets many women pensioners deemed, under current rules, not to have paid sufficient national insurance contributions, to be addressed.