Pensions, NHS waiting lists and cost of living - the leaders of the three main parties write exclusively for Saga Magazine about what their policies mean for older people.
I owe so much to my parents. They gave me, my brother and my sister a happy, loving childhood. As a pharmacist and a GP, they also taught me the value of hard work and the rewards that come from serving your community. Ultimately, they were my inspiration.
Now they are in their seventies, it’s good to see them able to enjoy life at a gentler pace, with more time to do the things they love. I have huge respect for pensioners who have worked all their lives and I passionately believe they should enjoy their retirement with the dignity and security they deserve.
My party, the Conservatives, have consistently been on the pensioners’ side. The last Labour government put up the weekly state pension by a derisory 75p in one year, and raided pensions to the tune of £118 billion. In very difficult fiscal circumstances, the Conservatives made the decision to prioritise pensioners after the 2010 election. We introduced the ground-breaking triple lock, which ensures pensions rise each year in line with whichever is highest out of inflation, earnings or 2.5%.
That triple lock has meant the state pension has risen by £3,700 since 2010 in cash terms and we’ve pulled 220,000 pensioners out of poverty. In recent years, the triple lock has helped to cushion the shocks of the pandemic, and rising energy bills that followed the war in Ukraine, with the state pension rising by £900 this year.
On current forecasts, the state pension will rise by £430 next April – and by around £1,700 a year by the end of the Parliament. And we’ve provided winter fuel payments, free eye tests, NHS prescriptions and free bus passes, because pensioners deserve that comfort.
"We will make sure that there will always be a buffer between the state pension and income tax."
Now we will go further. We will make sure that there will always be a buffer between the state pension and income tax. A new age-related allowance for pensioners will mean that both the state pension and pensioners’ tax-free allowance will always rise in line with the highest of earnings, wages or 2.5%. A new triple lock plus.
This is a tax cut of around £100 for eight million pensioners next year, which will only grow over time – expected to be almost £300 a year by the end of the Parliament.
Labour have refused to back our plans. That means that the state pension would be dragged above the tax-free threshold for the first time in history – which not only means higher taxes, but also the administrative burden for millions of pensioners of going through a tax assessment for the first time.
So there is a clear choice for pensioners at this election – the Conservatives who have a track record of putting pensioners first and taking the bold action needed to build a better future, or Labour, who have no plan, no convictions and will hammer pensioners with a Retirement Tax.
In an increasingly uncertain, unstable world, we have made progress on our plan to turn around the economy after the shocks of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. My first priority when I became Prime Minister was to halve inflation – that’s now back to 2.3%, from its peak of 11%.
We’ve grown the economy too, allowing us to cut taxes, create new jobs and give national defence a massive boost to keep our country safe in a more unstable world.
We don’t know what Keir Starmer would do if he got into power because he hasn’t had the courage to tell us. That’s not leadership, and it’s not right that he’s taking voters for granted.
On Friday nights, my father-in-law often comes over for dinner. It’s one of the highlights of my week to see him with my kids.
Telling them his stories. Passing on his wisdom.
People like him have worked hard all their lives. They’ve raised families and contributed to our nation. And they still have so much to give. But, in retirement, they deserve the security that comes from knowing Britain will allow them to enjoy their later life.
Yet the blunt truth is that, at this election, their pension is at stake. Rishi Sunak has said, repeatedly, that he would abolish National Insurance. At the moment that is £46bn worth of funding which is spent on two things – state pensions and the NHS.
Time and again, he has been asked how he intends to fund this pledge. And time and again, he provides no answer. It’s unfunded. This can only mean one of two things. Either he has a secret plan to get around the triple lock and cut your pension. Or he has learnt nothing from the whirlwind of chaos of Liz Truss’s unfunded tax cuts unleashed on the economy and is prepared to put us through it all over again.
Never mind his latest offer – the so-called triple lock plus. That is also unfunded. In fact, if anything it exacerbates the problem – it shows he has something to hide. And besides, because of his policies, the average pensioner already faces an £800 tax hike after the election.
Labour would protect the state pension – we are committed to the triple lock. And alongside the Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, I have committed my party to tight spending controls that will keep taxes, prices and the cost of living low. I will never put working people or pensioners through the financial chaos the Tories unleashed. Economic stability is my priority.
This goes back to my background. My dad was a toolmaker, my mum was a nurse – we didn’t have much growing up. I know the value of every pound, because I’ve been through a cost-of-living crisis myself – this was the 1970s!
"Labour would protect the state pension – we are committed to the triple lock"
This working class fear of debt is something I’ve carried with me as I’ve changed the Labour Party. So rest assured, we will treat every pound as if it’s yours. Because it is.
However, where we do need to take tough choices to invest in public services, we will. And there is no service more in need of care than our NHS. Waiting lists are at their longest ever. That means everyone reading this will either know somebody on a waiting list, or be on one themselves.
We will commit to cutting the waiting lists, with 40,000 more appointments every week, paid for by cracking down on tax avoidance and non-doms. But make no mistake: this is the first step in a longer journey. The last Labour government inherited a similar mess and delivered the lowest waiting lists in history. We will take the same path.
Because we are a changed Labour Party, we will also secure our borders. We will smash the smuggling gangs with a new Border Security Command. A force that will deploy counter-terrorism powers that I know will work from my time defeating terrorists as Director of Public Prosecutions.
Economic stability, secure borders and an NHS back on its feet. They are my priorities – the first steps to changing Britain. It’s time to stop the chaos and rebuild our country.
This is a once-in-a-generation election.
Everyone across the country has the opportunity to deliver their verdict on Rishi Sunak and his government’s record in office. As I have travelled the country speaking to voters, it has become clear that people are crying out for change.
Even lifelong Conservative voters are now struggling to support a party that has taken them for granted. For years the Conservative Party has been more interested in squabbling over who should lead them than in focusing on the serious business of governing our country.
If ever we needed a serious government, it is now. The NHS is on its knees, the cost of living is through the roof, and water companies are shamelessly pumping filthy sewage into our rivers and on to our beaches.
Pensioners have suffered terribly under this government. After years of treating pensioners as an afterthought, Rishi Sunak is scrambling to show that he is on their side.
"The Liberal Democrats are putting forward a plan to get us back on track after years of drift and chaos"
Put simply, the Conservatives have let this country down. That’s why the Liberal Democrats are putting forward a plan to get us back on track after years of drift and chaos. We’d start by properly fixing our health and care services and taking pressure off struggling hospitals.
We are bringing forward plans to introduce a legal right to see a GP within seven days, or within 24 hours if it’s urgent, backed by 8,000 more GPs and allowing pharmacists to prescribe a wider range of treatments.
Dentists too would be encouraged back to the NHS to deliver more appointments, and we’d fix the life-threatening crisis in our ambulance services.
But that’s not enough.
Liberal Democrats understand that we cannot save the NHS without fixing the crisis in social care. We have long called on the other political parties to get round the table and agree a sustainable way forward.
With the Conservatives breaking their promises to fix social care, this is more important than ever. The Liberal Democrats will ensure everyone receives high-quality care when they need it and we will empower the millions of unpaid family carers looking after their loved ones.
With the cost-of-living crisis having caused such huge hardship and with so many pensioners still living in poverty, it is critical that the triple lock on pensions is maintained. The Conservatives cannot be trusted not to break the triple lock again, and their stealth taxes mean that pensioners are keeping less of their money.
The Liberal Democrats are incredibly proud to have introduced the triple lock while in government. It has helped lift hundreds of thousands of pensioners out of poverty and we must keep it in place if we’re to end the scourge of old age poverty.
In that vein we’d ensure that women born in the 1950s, who have missed out on their pension, are finally properly compensated.
We’d also bring down energy bills and help to end fuel poverty by insulating existing homes, ensuring all new homes are warm and cheap to heat, and introducing a social tariff for the most vulnerable.
Nowhere is the Conservatives’ lack of care more apparent than in their failure to tackle sewage discharges. That’s why we would end this scandal by banning bonuses for water bosses and creating a tough new regulator with extra powers to prevent sewage dumps.
This election is a chance to end Conservative chaos and bring in the change this country needs. The Liberal Democrats have the ideas this country needs to get back on track.
For a list of all the political parties standing in the general election and where they stand on the main issues, the BBC has a comprehensive guide.
It is a general truth that the older you are, the more likely you are to vote. Politicians know that very well, which is why all three party leaders have contributed these exclusive articles to Saga Magazine. Each is written in the hope that you will agree that his party offers the best deal for older people.
There is an unspoken assumption here that what brings older voters out on polling day is the promise of security and dignity in old age. Many older people worry more about their children or grandchildren than about themselves, but that is a thought politicians do not seem to have grasped.
That would soon change if the young were as conscientious as their grandparents about voting. But for now, it could be the grey vote that determines who will be Prime Minister after 4 July.
Saga has also analysed the manifestos from each of the parties to find out what they are pledging on tax, pensions and social care and how they could affect your financial wellbeing.
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