17/02/05 - Swindon Conservatives Commitment For A Better Life For Swindon Pensioners

Swindon Conservative Candidateswelcome
Conservative commitment fora better
life for constituencys pensioners

Cllr Justin Tomlinson & Robert BucklandConservative ParliamentaryCandidates for North & South Swindonhas welcomed Conservative Party Leader, Michael Howard's commitment for a better lifeSwindon's pensioners.

CllrJustin Tomlinsonsaid,

"People deserve to be treated with dignity and respect in their retirement.ButSwindon's pensioners have become a forgotten majority.

That's why the next Conservative government will increase the state pension in line with earnings, not prices, to provide an extra 7 a week for single pensioners and 11 a week for couples.

We will end the situation where theSwindon's elderly are forced to sell their homes, saying goodbye forever to their independence as they go into residential care.

We will provide security to those who pay for the first three years of residential care by guaranteeing free long-term care after those three years, regardless of the value of their house or savings.

We will also abolish the governments requirement that people with private pensions are forced to buy an annuity at the age of 75."

Rob Buckland added,

"Many pensioners have become prisoners in their own homes too frightened of yobs and muggers to go out even during the day.

Thousands of elderly patients people who have worked hard all their lives have to wait in pain for operations.

And millions of pensioners have been pushed onto means tested benefits forced to go cap in hand to the State.

People who saved for their retirement suddenly found that the money theyd put aside simply wasnt there that the value of their pensions had been destroyed by Gordon Brown's stealth taxes.

Pensioners on fixed incomes have struggled to cope with an ever increasing Council Tax, which rocketed a staggering 42% in just 3 years under Labour.

It'sobscene that nearly half of allSwindon's pensioners are on means testing.Across the country over one and a half million pensioners eligible for means tested pensions dont claim them its complicated, its humiliating, its wrong.Means testing penalises the forgotten majority for doing the right thing saving for their retirement."

Cllr Justin Tomlinson recently met with David Willets MP, Shadow Minister for Works & Pensions to highlight these issues, and the effect on local residents.