Comfortable Life for Pensioners
06 March 2004
In a speech to the Conservative Spring Conference in Harrogate, David Willetts outlines how a Conservative Government would restore dignity, independence and security for Britain's older people.

PENSIONERS

Earlier this afternoon I talked to you about Conservatives and the future of our country. Now I want to talk about a group of the population that thinks more about the future, is more focused on the long-term than any other – pensioners. Pensioners think about the world their children and grandchildren will inhabit. They don’t just think about themselves. Many of them are still saving – they are more likely to be saving than young people with an income that is many times higher.

Let me tell you about pensioners.

They don’t commit crimes – or at least not many. Have you ever heard of a Saga lout?

They provide lots of childcare for their hard-pressed children and grandchildren.

They keep the voluntary sector going. They are more likely to give their time to charity than just about any other group.

And let me tell you something else about them. Something that we should all be ashamed of. They suffer real discrimination. Do you know the most widespread form of discrimination in Britain today? It’s not because of your gender or your race or your religion. It’s because of your age. That’s an injustice we all must tackle.

Many older people are managing on very tight budgets. They have built up modest savings which they eke out. They live frugally. They were brought up to make do and mend. They have paid their taxes and their National Insurance contributions all their working lives. We should value them. We should respect them. But what has happened since 1997 is little short of a disaster.

• The money in their pension fund has been taxed.
• They have been forced to buy an annuity when they don’t want to.
• As their savings have lost value they have been driven on to means-tested benefits instead.

The next Conservative Government is going to give pensioners back their dignity, their independence, and the respect which we owe them. And let me tell you how we will do that. We are going to increase the value of the basic state pension by earnings instead of just prices. That way we can boost pensioners’ incomes and tackle today’s biggest problem they face today that more than half of pensioners are on means-tested benefits. This afternoon I can tell you that the next Conservative government should be able to take a million pensioners off means-tested benefits during our first term in office.

This policy terrifies the Labour Party. They know how good it is. They will say anything to try to damage it.

First, Labour will say the basic pension is theirs and that we can’t be trusted with it. But let me tell you, the basic state pension was introduced by a Conservative Government in 1925 to help get pensioners off the means-tested benefits introduced by Lloyd George. Now to tell the truth, neither I nor my father knew Lloyd George. But I do know that Conservatives believe in contributory pensions not means-tested welfare.

Labour will also say that we are going to abolish the Pension Credit. They have already started these scares.

Let me tell everyone of you when you are out campaigning that you can look every pensioner in the eye and say, it isn’t true. The Pension Credit remains. All that we are doing is increasing pensioners’ incomes so that fewer of them need the Pension Credit. But it will still be there for every pensioner who is entitled to it.

And there is a third thing Labour will say. Labour will say that our approach doesn’t help the poorest pensioners. That is not true either. Let me tell you who the poorest pensioners are. They are the millions of pensioners who are entitled to means-tested benefits but don’t claim them.
They are too proud to claim. Or they are put off by the sheer complexity of it all.

Why do you think every day in our papers there is another expensive advertisement from the Government trying to get pensioners to claim the Pension Credit. It is because they aren’t. 2m pensioners entitled to the Pension Credit aren’t claiming it. I can reveal today how much Labour has spent advertising their complicated benefits since the last election – it is an extraordinary 47 million pounds. That is 15 million pounds a year, 5 times the advertising spend when we left office. They have to spend so much on advertising because the benefits are so badly designed millions of pensioners don’t want to claim them. Why don’t we have a simple, straightforward benefits system, save the money on the advertising and put it all into extra help for pensioners instead.

We Conservatives are offering our pensioners what they are entitled to expect. So let me end with this pledge to the nation’s pensioners.

We will treat you with respect.
We will free you from means testing.
We will restore your dignity.