Meanness Rule
I'm delighted that Miss Margaret Herbison has promised to look into the notorious earnings rule that lays down that any pensioner between sixty- five and seventy has his pension reduced if he earns more than f5 a week. The logic of this is that the state pension is officially a retirement pension and not an old-age pension, and so semi- retirement only deserves a semi-pension. This pedantic quibble is one that the last Govern- ment was shamefully slow to disown, and I hope the present administration will do better. It is not just that we need all the manpower we can get. What matters more is that, for many old people a job is the only interest in life they have left. To penalise them, on top of everything else, by depriving them of part of their pension is unforgivable.
To be honest, I'm not quite sure why Miss Herbison decided to air this issue at this parti- cular time; for I can't for the life of me see the Chancellor agreeing in the present state of the economy to let go of a significant part of the £100 million a year the earnings rule saves him. But when the time comes to relax, this should come high on the list.
Previous page
