Submitted by AWL on 13 June, 2006 - 2:29
This --- opposes the Government's proposals in the Pensions White Paper to raise the state pension age to 68 by 2050.
We note with regret that Brendan Barber, as general secretary of the TUC, and other union leaders, have welcomed the White Paper, although it fails to meet the TUC's previously-stated benchmarks.
The unions should fight for:
- A decent state pension for all (regardless of contributions record), indexed to earnings. The indexation to earnings should be immediate and restore the relative value of the state pension as of 1980, i.e. raise it from £82.05 to £119 a week. The White Paper proposes restoration of indexing only from 2012, and then only conditionally and without catch-up.
- No increase in the state pension age.
- The increaed cost of pensions, as the welcome process of people living longer after retirement continues, to be paid by the rich and by capital.
- A workers' government which will take all the pension funds into public ownership - without compensation to the financiers - and put them under democratic control, using the proceeds to level up pension provision with a proper guaranteed minimum; and tax the rich and capital as much as is necessary to maintain the provision.
