Rachel Reeves has declared war on pensioners, warns leading campaigner | Politics | News
In his budget this week, the Chancellor can either begin to rebuild older people’s trust in Labor or declare war on pensioners. The option is obvious; either remove the lower tax threshold to stop state pension taxation, or extend it until 2030 and fail to deliver on the Manifesto promise to both pensioners and low-paid workers.
If the low tax threshold is extended beyond the end of this Parliament, the consequences for the quality of life of senior citizens will be enormous. An extra £14bn will be stolen from pensioners’ pockets as millions of people are already struggling to cope.
As our member Karen highlights, life is already miserable and scary for those just over their retirement credit limit.
Karen limits the number of showers she can take and does not turn on the central heating. He can’t afford to go out, he doesn’t smoke or drink, and he struggles to understand why Labor has put him in this situation. They can’t afford to pay more taxes.
Silver Voices believes that if the Government continues with this vicious tax trap it will be part of a deliberate conspiracy to secretly undermine the state pension and the Triple Lock system.
By 2030, the vast majority of seniors (up to 10 million) will be included in the tax system, meaning each Triple Lock increase will immediately lose 20% of its value.
This agenda is being pushed harshly in the Government by anti-pensioners in the Treasury, such as MP Torsten Bell, whose political mission seems to be to make retirees pay for the current economic mess.
We are also concerned that there will be further crackdown on pensioners in the Budget, as the Government has in recent weeks encouraged speculation about the means to test state pensions and the remaining universal pension benefits.
He has cynically used think tanks to lay the groundwork for wider attacks on pensioners both in this Budget and in the coming months.
But our main goal this week is to block moves to expand the lower tax threshold, which would penalize low-wage workers as well as senior citizens.
Think again Rachel, there is no public support for this constant bashing of retirees.
