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Remember PM’s pledge to end means test for elderly?
• WHILE it is true a large number of pensioners have an income above the basic state pension, it is nevertheless true that the basic pension is only £87.30 a week (Never had it so good, September 20).
Means-tested income support implies that this basic sum is an insufficient amount to provide retirement in comfort and with dignity. Prior to Labour’s election victory in 1997, Gordon Brown said in a speech: “I want the next Labour government to achieve what in 50 years of the welfare state has never been achieved – the end of the means test for our elderly.”
However, there are more people means-tested today than at any time in the history of this demeaning personal inquisition.
Pensioners are not exempt from council tax, as claimed by Ann Raynes in her letter. They do have to pay rent, and free dentistry is only available to those pensioners on income support.
In many parts of the country pensioners do not have access to free travel, although in London free travel is available from 9am on buses and the Underground.
Nothing is absolutely free. What concessions are enjoyed by the older person today have been earned by their contribution to the country’s growing wealth. They are hard-earned rights that have been paid for in work and tax, and, for many thousands, six years of bloody war.
Ken Savage
General Secretary, Greater London Pensioners Association
• I BELIEVE Ann Raynes is under a misapprehension regarding concessions pensioners receive. It is likely that those pensioners who rely solely on the government pension may get their council tax and rent paid, but it is my understanding that most pensioners pay council tax in full.
May I remind Ms Raynes of those pensioners who have been arrested and imprisoned for not paying their council tax. If you are a single occupant of a house or flat you are entitled to a 25 per cent discount only on the council tax.
As a recent retiree I do not get free dentistry. The Freedom Pass is the only travel concession that Londoners get. If they want concessionary rail travel they buy a senior rail pass.
It would be wonderful if all pensioners did not have to pay council tax and were eligible for housing benefit that covered the whole of their rent, but this is something that will never happen. Paying for one’s living expenses, which include gas, electricity and telephone, before food and clothing is an incessant juggle of resources.
Patricia Christopher
WC1
• I DON'T know what planet Ann Raynes is living on when she claims all pensioners are receiving a minimum £119.05 a week.
I know plenty of pensioners getting far less than this amount. For example, one pensioner I know gets £89.64 a week, another £109.60. Lots of pensioners have paid into superannuation pensions for years and have to declare this with their state pension, so they don’t get anything for nothing.
Like many others I have had to work hard all my life and pay into my pension. But there are those who have never paid their National Insurance stamp and are yet entitled to receive a maximum pension (pension credit). I would like to know why?
Ellen Luby
Parkhill Road, NW3
• PERHAPS Ann Raynes would tell me how to manage on my slightly higher than basic state pension, plus more than 75 per cent of rent paid by housing benefit, less single person’s council tax.
I travel free in the London area after 9am and enjoy concession rates at theatres and music venues. I could get free TV, but this does not interest me. Unfortunately I receive no benefits in lieu. Books and music save me from staring listlessly at the ceiling.
WP Jaspert
Fermoy Road, W9
• I RESENT the suggestion by Ann Raynes that pensioners cannot think clearly and that we have all day to make decisions, unlike busy working people.
Perhaps she would like to see my diary and, I am sure, the workload of many volunteer pensioners who do a lot of important unpaid work for their communities.
Frances Eley
Ainsworth Way, NW8
• SOME pensioners on limited finances receive rebates on rent and council tax, but the majority have to pay both in full.
The state pension just about pays for a Camden tenant’s rent. There’s nothing left to pay council tax. I am sure pensioners would love to change places with Ann Raynes.
Bill Ayres
Belsize Avenue, NW3
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