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Pensioner benefits ‘should be cut immediately’

Many of those affected "won't be around" by the next election, argues think tank

The Taxpayers’ Alliance has called for the Government to make cuts to pensioner benefits, including the Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes, immediately.

Alex Wild, research director of the conservative think tank, said that many of those hit by the cuts might “not be around” by the time of the next election.

He also said that others may forget which Government had made the cuts.

'Practical' cuts

Mr Wild is quoted by the BBC as saying that cuts should be made “as soon as possible after an election for two reasons”.

“The first of which will sound a little bit morbid – some of the people... won't be around to vote against you in the next election. So that's just a practical point, and the other point is they might have forgotten [who made the cuts] by then.”

Dr Liam Fox, MP for North Somerset, also appeared on the conference panel, and insisted that any such cuts must be made permanently, in order to help the next generation – something which he suggested that older people would understand his position on.

“We have a broken opposition,” he said. “We have just won a general election and we need now to take the tough decisions we believe are right.”

Dr Fox said that in order to fund current pensioner benefits, the state is “borrowing from the next generation to spend today”. He likened this arrangement to a Ponzi scheme, saying that it is unsustainable and must be changed.

“We can't afford it now, we can't afford it in the future, why don't we try to get a longer-term plan put in place so that people can make the adjustments they will need to make for us to be able to get back into balance,” he said.

Do you receive pensioner benefits? How would you feel about them being cut – and how would you react when the next election comes around? Let us know in the Comments below.

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Comments



  • 10 August 2016

    Pensioners perks are not really sustainable. Bus passes, a Gordon Brown vote catcher, are a non controllable expense. Apart from being a costly exercise to operate it has expanced beyond its original remit. The idea was to give pensioners taxpayer funded transport to their shops, not a catre blanche to travel all over the place. As pensions have risen faster than anything else I feel the free bus pass should be curtailed to become a reduced pass to give fares similar to child fares. Gordon Brown's other fiasco was the free TV licence, again went wrong. I am in favour of a "free" TV licence when the only occupants are pensioners and one has reached 75.

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  • 10 July 2016

    Ahem. What about the fact the older generation have already paid into the system which supported those who went before them? I am in my mid-fifties and have worked continuously (often in low paid jobs) since I left school at the age of 16 years. I do not claim/am not entitled to ANY benefits at all and will be approaching 70 years of age before I receive a pension. I don't think it's asking a lot to expect a small winter fuel assistance and maybe a free bus pass after I'll have paid into the system for well over half a century...

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  • 05 July 2016

    Well, well!! Boris has gone & good riddance. He got the sack from the Times for lying, he got into trouble with the House of Commons 4 lying about an affair & he lied about Brexit & has now got his cum-uppance. The least said about Gove & Fox the better, but suffice to say the “The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust.”

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