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Should pensioners face means-test humiliation?
• AS chairwoman of Camden Pensioners Action Group, I wonder which planet Ann Raynes lives on (Never had it so good, September 20)? Pensioners’ income is a complicated subject, and very few pensioners receive the same amount.
Every pensioner pays council tax, and, if they live in rented accommodation, they pay rent. If they are lucky enough to get some rebate on either rent or council tax, they have been means tested – they have gone through the humiliation of having every penny of their income scrutinised, including any savings they may have, and even the yearly interest they may get on those savings.
Pensioners only get free dental treatment if they are claiming Income Support, which most pensioners are not entitled to. They also have to pay the full amount for new spectacles, although they do get a free eye test worth £10, and if they require any form of social care they have to pay something towards it, again means tested.
All we get free are our prescriptions and the Freedom Pass, which entitles us to free travel on buses, Tube and rail within the six London zones.
Pensioners have paid National Insurance and income tax all their working lives, and are still taxed on their income and interest from savings until the day they die. Where are all these free concessions? Perhaps Ms Raynes would let me know so I can pass this information on to all Camden pensioners.
Wendy Munro
Chairwoman, Camden Pensioners Action Group
NW5
• I STARTED work at 14, and retired at the age of 71, although I did take a few years off to have children.
The last 20 years I worked full time, paying a full stamp, and also paid into a private pension fund. In retirement, with government pension plus private pension I still get nowhere near £119.05 a week.
I have to pay full rent, full council tax, and full dentist charges. In fact, I needed some dentistry work recently but, because it was to cost me more than £200 and as I could not raise this money, my bad teeth will have to stay and rot.
The only things I get free are NHS prescriptions and my Freedom Pass. I do not know where Ann Raynes gets her information. It is not from the English pensioner, or perhaps pensions are higher in Fitzjohn’s Avenue.
I also have difficulty in getting around and use a wheeled frame with a seat (bought secondhand) but because I am still just about able to dress myself I am not classed as disabled.
What has happened to the England we knew and loved?
June Perrine
Address supplied
• I AM incensed with the letter from Ann Raynes. How dare she speak about pensioners like that.
I am 70 years old and my pension is £95 a week, and my council tax is £870 a year. Yes, I get free travel and NHS, which I have worked all my life for by paying tax and insurance for more than 50 years. If she could give me the name and address of a dentist who will treat me for nothing I would love to get my teeth seen to.
I don’t know what kind of pensioners she knows, but in this area they are all very active and don’t sit about all day doing nothing.
And, judging by her address, she doesn’t have to worry where the next penny is coming from.
S Roberts
Stanhope Street, NW1
• ANN Raynes should check her facts more carefully before commenting on the financial state of the average pensioner.
The basic state pension (which most pensioners have paid for over a lifetime of work) is £87.30 a week. It can be raised to a maximum of £119.05 after a stringent means test. If the lucky pensioner is over 80 he or she will receive an additional 25p a week.
Pensioners are not exempt from paying council tax or rent. Again, some help may be given after a means test. They, along with with many other people, receive free NHS medicines (presumably because they are ill). Corrective spectacles are not free, although eye tests usually are. Free travel is a benefit which London pensioners share with many others. It does not extend to other parts of the country and does not, of course, cover mainline rail fares.
Pensioners, in the main, come from a proud and self-sufficient generation. They dislike intensely submitting to means testing, which is why the take-up of additional pension payments and various other benefits is very low.
BJ Cairns
Victoria Road, N22
• I WANT to tell all these people who have written letters disagreeing with me that I am 74 and have never in my life felt richer and more carefree than now, living on Income Support, the minimum income guarantee for pensioners of £119.05 a week.
All elderly people who claim Income Support get their council tax and rent paid for, as well as gas, electricity and other concessions.
If you are of pension age and find it demeaning to claim, many helpers from Age Concern and others will willingly help you.
All pensioners like me can live the life of Riley – no work and £119.05 a week to spend on non-essentials.
Ann Raynes
Fitzjohn’s Avenue, NW3
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