Pensioners are being hammered from every angle
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IT has been calculated that Scotland’s pensioners could be worse off by £900 million by the end of 2014 under UK Government policies, according to research from the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR).
Now all of you over 50 may be targeted, whether you like it or not, by Saga Magazine.
However, the CEBR study, commissioned by Saga, estimated the impact of fiscal and monetary policies on pensioner incomes. The study found pensioners across Britain would be £11.5 billion out of pocket – an average of £900 per pensioner. For Scotland’s 1,014,000 state pensioners, that equates to £900m.
The analysis included tax and benefit policy such as changes to winter fuel payments, the abolition of age-related allowance (the “granny tax”) and changes to state pensions. This was coupled with the impact of low interest rates and quantitative easing (QE) which has pushed up the costs of essential goods like food and energy which form a greater share of the income of pensioners.
The report found the Bank of England overlooked or underestimated pensioner inflation which is much higher than state pension increases. A recent parliamentary question from my colleague, Dr Eilidh Whiteford MP, revealed the ONS Pensioner Prices Index rose by 6.6 per cent between 2010 and 2011, and a massive 22 per cent since 2007.
This report shows the real impact of the flawed Tory / Lib Dem austerity agenda. The coalition has failed the fairness test and has its priorities all wrong – giving tax breaks to millionaires while pensioners are left facing brutal cuts to their income.
Pensioners are being hammered from every angle – their savings are hit, their pensions are hit and they face cruel cuts like the granny tax. On top of that, the cost of living has soared, rising food, fuel and energy bills all disproportionately hurting the pockets of pensioners.
While pensioners are already struggling to make ends meet, the full impact of the Tory / Lib Dem agenda has yet to come. It’s appalling that Scotland’s pensioners will be worse off by a collective £900m by 2014, as a result of damaging Westminster policies – that’s not what I’d call a Union dividend.
Perhaps the Tory / Labour anti-independence coalition can explain to Scotland’s hard-hit pensioners why they are better off under Tory rule from Westminster, rather than a Scottish Government 100 per cent elected by Scottish people and committed to building a fairer society.
I MADE reference in the Scottish Government programme debate last week to my old friend and colleague former enterprise minister Jim Mather. He believes the Scottish business community will back independence so long as it is given accurate information.
In an interview recently, he criticised those who tried to portray independence as a “hostile de-merger” from the UK.
The former MSP for Argyll and Bute also suggested that an independent Scotland might still be able to join the euro – but only after a considerable time and only after the eurozone had stabilised.
Mr Mather was an MSP from 2003 to 2011 and served as a minister in Alex Salmond’s first administration.
He is a successful self-made entrepreneur who thinks there is a case for an ongoing conversation with business. There is also a case, though, to get people to focus more on the positives: the negatives are being somewhat overstated in the current climate.
There is a tendency towards at least the language of hostile de-merger with some people saying they want to poison the well or scorch the land and then leave if Scotland becomes independent. I think that is just unhelpful and bizarre.
Mr Mather is so convinced about the business arguments in favour of independence he believes that, given an hour or two with an audience of business leaders, he could convince a decent number of them to back the cause. But he stressed it wasn’t just the independence side that had to make its case.
There is an onus on all three sides of this argument: independence, the status quo and more powers, to say what the positives are and I have a considerable amount of data in my possession that shows standing still is a recipe for extinguishing all growth: you have to be moving on.
Part of Mr Mather’s pro-business argument 10 years ago was that Scotland should join the euro but he, like others in the SNP, has changed this too.
He said: “I think sterling currently in the short to medium term is the better option for Scotland.” Does that rule out membership of the euro for the foreseeable future? No. Mr Mather still believes Scotland could join the eurozone in the future but only after it has stabilised and only when the Scottish people decide to vote to join in a referendum.
THROUGH this column and in the news section of the Groat, I have questioned the value of the label Pentland Firth and Orkney waters energy park.
My concerns were crystallised this week at the Scottish Renewables conference held in Inverness.
Transmission charges are greatest on our northern and western isles, the Pentland Firth is second as we face huge penalties for delivering clean power to the grid. There is no level playing field in the UK grid market. This must change.
Rob.gibson.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
