10M PENSIONERS FACE A £500 CUT

[dipsydoodle]

MILLIONS of pensioners will lose an average of £500 a year in a state pension con trick played by Chancellor Alistair Darling, it emerged last night.

Whitehall figures released yesterday show the Treasury will save £500million by limiting the scope of a 2.5 per cent increase in payments due to come into force in April.

Angry pensioners have been told the rise will apply only to the basic state pension while the level of other elements of their income, affecting 10million people, will be frozen.

It means some hard-up retired people could be getting around 10 per cent less than previously expected. The revelation of the stealth cut in the state pension provoked fury among campaign groups and opposition MPs. Neil Duncan-Jordan of the National Pensioners Convention said: “This is a shabby move by the Government.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/153651/10m-pensioners-face-a-500-cut

Another nail in the coffin of New Labour.

[Hopeless Romantic]

1. Shocking!

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Hmm, how does not getting a 2.5% rise on part of your pension mean "10 per cent less"?

I'd have thought it would have to be "up to 2.5% less".

[dipsydoodle]

3. It's a function

of the relationship between the "real" basic state pension the aggregate when all of the add-ons are accounted for.
If it was applied to the whole lot I'd have c. £ 220 / week come April - we'll see what happens.

I'm not too bothered myself but I do think he's being sneaky.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. But, again, if the 2.5% increase had applied to everything

rather than, say, the £95 single basic state pension, then £220 per week would have come from:
£95.25 BSP + £119.38 other = £214.63 ; £214.63 * 1.025 = £220.00
But that instead will be
£95.25 * 1.025 + £119.38 = £216.91

So £214.63, instead of rising by 2.5% to £220, rises to £216.91. So it's a rise of 1%. It's less than 2.5%; but I just can't see where the Express pulled their '10%' figure from.

On edit: I think the Express has added a zero. Their headline is:

"10 million pensioners face a £500 cut"

But in the text, they say the Treasury is saving £500 million (and that figure is right - here's the parlimentary written answer). £500 million divided by 10 million is £50. So they've added a '0' to that. And that might then mean "some hard-up retired people could be getting around 1 per cent less than previously expected". And in the example I just did, it was 1.5% less than expected.

Hey, I'm glad the Express isn't running the country. They may not have quite got this 'tens and units' thing down yet.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Thanks for pointing that out.

Yes maybe they added a nought but then that's only about £1 a week. Maybe the average add-on bits are less than mine. :shrug:

I'm actually amazed there's 10 million pensioners !

[dipsydoodle]

6. That bastard Darling has gone ahead and done it.

The increase was applied to the basic only so it's only £2.45 or so. My mother 'phoned to tell me. - I didn't get mail today.

Given the proportion of the population this affects and the fact that broadly speaking that group all bother to vote I next expect New Labour to get shafted even more.