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Fieldhead Over 50s Club |
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| With the General Election approaching you, like many people, may be looking at the main parties’ policies and weighing up how you might vote. As your local Conservative Party candidate, I wanted to write to you about an issue that many people raise with me – support for pensioners. |
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| When Labour came to power in 1997, Britain had one of the best pension systems in Europe. Millions of people were saving prudently for their retirement. Gordon Brown betrayed them, robbing them of security in retirement through his £100 billion stealth tax raid on their pension funds. And many pensioners miss out on the benefits that they are entitled to because of the complicated system Gordon Brown has put in place. |
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| We can’t go on like this. As our population grows older, we need change if we are to give people security and dignity in old age. Our approach is based on our belief in responsibility – we should encourage people to take more control over their lives. People should be encouraged to save for their retirement, not punished by means-tested benefits which undermine the need to be responsible about your personal finances. So we will restore the link between the basic state pension and average earnings to help stop the spread of the means test. |
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| Restoring the link to average earnings will benefit all pensioners. This will be made affordable by bringing forward the date at which the state pension age rises from 65 to 66, but the earliest that could start would be 2016 for men and 2020 for women so no-one who is a pensioner today or approaching retirement soon will be affected as a result of this particular change. |
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| We want to give people more choice over how they deal with their pension savings, more control over their income in retirement and more peace of mind in retirement |
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- we will end the effective obligation to buy an annuity at 75;
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- we will introduce a new home protection scheme to help stop people having to sell their homes to pay for residential care. Under this new voluntary scheme, people reaching retirement will have the option to pay a one-off joining fee (that we estimate will be around £8,000) in return for a guarantee that absolutely all fees for permanent residential care would be waived – for life.
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- we will work with local councils to freeze council tax for two years;
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- we will scrap Labour’s plans for an intrusive council tax revaluation of your home; and
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- we will remove the stigma attached to council tax benefit by re-naming it council tax rebate.
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| As the election approaches, I expect our opponents will spread lies about us. So let me make this absolutely clear. |
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- we will protect Disability Living Allowance for the over 65s and Attendance Allowance for pensioners;
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- we will keep the winter fuel allowance;
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- we will keep free TV licences for pensioners;
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- we won’t cut the state pension;
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- we won’t take away free bus passes for pensioners; and
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- we will protect and respect the rights and security of social housing rents.
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| People often say that you can judge a country by how it treats the elderly. I believe that people deserve to look forward to retirement with confidence, not fear. |
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| Vote for change. Five more years of Gordon Brown would make things even worse. David Cameron and the Conservatives have the energy, leadership and values to get our country moving again. |
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