Wellbeing Pension Campaign Welcomes SNP Manifesto Commitment to Wellbeing Pension.
The SNP manifesto published on June 19th 2024 contains the pledge to:
“Protect pensions by maintaining the triple lock and move to deliver a wellbeing pension. We will oppose any further increases in the state pension age.”
This commitment follows multiple meetings between The Wellbeing Pension Campaign and Government Ministers and presentations made directly to the SNP.
Throughout Scotland local volunteers (mostly through the Believe in Scotland campaign and its 142 affiliated local Groups) have distributed more than 100,000 Wellbeing Pensions leaflets through doors and from town centre stalls. That combined with our billboards and website https://wellbeingpension.org/ have helped promote the need for a pension level that reflects the minimum amount required to live with dignity.
Although there is still work to do on the details the Scottish Government along with the SNP have reacted very positively to the Wellbeing Pension Campaigns’ concept and methodology.
The Wellbeing Pension has now been committed to in principle by the Scottish Government and we welcome that commitment. However, we recognise that control over pensions remains a reserved power of the UK Parliament in Westminster, so the SNPs commitment is to raise pensions to the Wellbeing Pension level in an independent Scotland. So we continue to campaign for a decent pension.
Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp
Founder of the Wellbeing Pension Campaign
Too many UK pensioners are forced to live in poverty.
The UK’s basic weekly state pension of £169.50, paid to approximately 82% of Scottish Pensioners, is one of the worst in the developed world.
Poorer pensioners can claim means-tested benefits to get £218.15 per week but that is still not enough to live on.
The UK Government can afford better pensions – they just don’t prioritise pensioner wellbeing.
Consider this – The UK is by far the largest Northern European country but others with similar population sizes to Scotland: Denmark, Norway, Ireland and Finland all have better pensions than the UK. The average weekly basic pension (plus benefits) of those nations is £281.98 per week, this is £112.78 higher
The UK government also cost each pensioner up to £487.00 a year by breaking its “triple- lock guarantee” that pensions would match inflation. This was whilst the cost of living was skyrocketing.
Female pensioner poverty is rising the fastest. Since 2014, pensioner poverty has increased from 12% to 16% for males but from 14% to 20% for females.
Successive UK Governments have maintained a policy of keeping the state pension low to force people to buy private pensions and boost London’s financial sector but that forces pensioners who can’t afford private pensions into poverty.
WE NEED TO PRIORITISE PENSIONER WELLBEING
HELP US send a message to the UK’s Pensions Minister by signing our petition stating loud and clear that pensioner poverty is unacceptable and that a Wellbeing Pension of £241.50 per week is required.
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