Tories against Pensioners

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Tory governments against Pensioners

Tories never created the State Pension

Extreme Ageist sexism against women by attack on state pension, even with a woman Prime Minister.

Tory Prime Minister Thatcher / Prime Minister Major government between 1979 and 1997 

STOPPING PRIOR VERSION OF TRIPLE LOCK ANNUAL RISE OF STATE PENSION
  • By 1997 pensioners had lost £20 a week off the low state pension, by Tories stopping the prior triple lock annual rise of state pension since 1980. 


    HALVING OF VALUE OF
    STATE SECOND PENSION 

  • The tiny 20 per cent of workers (mostly men) left on state second pension, had seen SERPs more than halved in value between 1979 and 1997. 

DID NOT END SERPs OPT OUT 
  • Tories did not end the SERPs opt out (begun 1978 by Labour), when Tories had the power in government to do that for majority who were working direct for government and in councils, between 1979 and 1997.  

MONEY DEPRIVED FROM
NATIONAL INSURANCE FUND 
  • The late Tony Lynes wrote the paper
    The Rape of the National Insurance Fund     for Southwark Pensioners Action Group, part of the radical National Pensioners Convention. 

  • Lynes says – and it is borne out by other documents (Paul Lewis - finance blogger) ... found – that when the fund was set up in 1948 its income from contributions was boosted each year by a Treasury supplement.

    In 1973, that was fixed at 18 per cent of its contribution income. So National Insurance contributions only paid for part of the benefits the fund provided and did not pay anything for administration.

  • Lynes reveals that, in the 1980s, that Treasury supplement was cut from 18 per cent to 5 per cent and was finally abolished in 1989.

  • What was lost - ... "Restoring the supplement at its pre-1981 level would bring an extra £11.3 billion a year into the Fund"... Lynes' paper. 

  • Tony Lynes' paper ... "The main reason for this is the policy adopted by the Conservatives (Tories) in 1980 and pursued by both Conservative and Labour governments since then, of breaking the link between pensions and average earnings, so that, while the Fund’s income from contributions rises roughly in line with earnings, pensions and other benefits normally rise only in line with prices.
    By 2010, if present policies continue, the Actuary’s figures show that the balance can be expected to rise to over £60 billion, about £48 billion above the recommended level.

  • Tony Lynes paper ... "The loss of the Treasury supplement has had a catastrophic effect on the (NI) Fund. Reintroducing the supplement now at its pre-1981 level of 18% of contributions would bring in an extra £11.3 billion a year. Together with the Fund’s predicted surplus of £3.4 billion for 2005-06"... 

Source: Paul Lewis: The NI sting depriving 1950s women of their state pensions
4th October 2018 10:35 am

Link to the late Tony Lynes original paper 

Tories Rose Women's Pension Age 

Tory Prime Minister Major rose women's pension age from 60 to 65. 

1995 pension act. 

  • Debated between 1993 and 1995 and the Tory government never told us talking about raising women's pension age. 

  • This discriminated against women and men the same, as women's detriment is loss of 5 years of  full works and payment of state pension money, and men continuing to lose same from 60 to 65, that had been in law since 1940. 

  • Men had won court cases for pensioner benefits from age 60 long before and even after 1995, so various courts agreed equality was pension age 60 men and women.  Ignored by Tory government. 

  • Men were granted unemployment or sick benefit, without requirement to seek work, between ages 60 and 64 inclusive, which continued under the Tory government from 2010 til 2018. Not granted to women who suffered pension age rise from 60 to 66 from 2011-2014 onwards. 

  • Men were granted free National Insurance credits, when neither in work nor on benefit, when 'economically inactive' as early retired between 60 and 64 inclusive. Not granted to women who suffered pension age rise from 60 to 66 from 2011-2014 onwards. 

  • Tories kept pension age rises to women when ruling alone in government as Pension Ministers from 2015 onwards til today. 

  • Tories did not permit 1950s born women to shield by age from the pandemic between ages 60 and 66, yet we are equally at risk of death as all oldest ages. 
  • This continued for the 1960s born, turning 60 from first plague year of 2020.
  • ...."COVID-19 is not just hazardous for elderly people, it is extremely dangerous for people in their mid-fifties, sixties and seventies,” says Andrew Levin, an economist at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, (USA) who has estimated that getting COVID-19 is more than 50 times more likely to be fatal for a 60-year-old than is driving a car."...
    Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02483-2


Blair's 1997 general election
press release
re Tory pension policies

Click Below Links for Pages with details of Over 50s (saves all ages)
party's pension policies

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