MINIMUM RETIREMENT PENSION BILL (Hansard, 17 April 1973)

§ Mr. Sydney Bidwell

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to establish a minimum retirement pension related to average earnings. The principle of my Ten-Minute Rule Bill is of vital consequence to the senior citizens of this country. I beg leave to bring in a Bill to establish that a national insurance single pension and dependent wife's pension be related in real terms to national average earnings and progressively upgraded over the period of the next four years.

Since 1948, with little change under both Labour and Conservative Governments, the single State pension, at present £6.75, has been about one-fifth of average earnings and for a couple about one-third of average earnings. At present for a couple it stands at £10.90. The schedule of my Bill would lift that level in four annual stages until it became one-third for the single pensioner and one-half for the couple.

Last autumn average earnings were over £35 a week. On present figures my proposal to start with would mean about £16 a Week for a couple. This is, of course, the current demand of the TUC and the Labour Party. The TUC have often related the State pension to earnings and pointed to its total inadequacy at the present level. It stands to reason that very many are obliged to apply under the hated means-testing arrangements for supplementary benefit.

The Social Services Department has spent a great deal of money seeking to find out those in need through what is called "the lack of take-up". My Bill would go a long way towards overcoming that problem. Supplementary means-tested benefits for the aged have been on the increase, which itself speaks for the poverty level of the basic pension. The general index of retail prices is not a good measure, but basic food price increases are. Pensioners today are literally being priced out of the butchers' shops and the food markets.

Members on both sides of the House are sick and tired of hearing the boasts of the Government about their pensions efforts. What do hon. Members think 273 £7.75 for a single pensioner and £12.50 for a couple under the Chancellor's announcement on increases will buy when October is reached?

A Government whose Prime Minister nets £8 a week in his pocket under Budget tax relief must have a neck of brass to tell the pensioners that an increase of only £1 is to be made and that that is all that can be afforded in the autumn.

My proposals would without doubt cost a great deal of money. All worthy aims are costly. But I firmly believe that the majority of people in the nation desire to find ways to improve the lot of our old people who are too old to work and too young to die.

The Government claim that they appreciate the need to do better than they have done up to the present time. My Bill points the way. There is no reason why the Government should not provide time to pass my Bill into law.

Young people in Task Force, many trade union friends and Labour Party friends and friends outside narrow party political confines are giving me their full support today for proposals of this kind which must eventually become law. Although I did not seek the aid of many of these friends, when they became aware 274 of the proposals they confirmed their support. I know that young Liberals and young Socialists are on my side, the young Liberals supporting the principle of the Bill if not the detailed figures.

I know that there is widespread concern about hypothermia as it affects our old people, and now, with the ever-rising price of protein food, the effect on the old people by the autumn could become quite catastrophic. Surely there is enough public support and support in the House to push through this long overdue change.