Pension Books (Hansard, 16 December 1987)

§ Mr. John McAllion (Dundee, East)

I am pleased to bring to the House two petitions that have been organised separately by two Dundee pensioners, Mrs. McDonald and Mrs. Grieg, which between them contain more than 1,100 signatures of pensioners and citizens in Dundee, including the Lord Provost of the city of Dundee.

1207 The petitions arose as a result of a front page article in a Scottish newspaper. the Sunday Post. The Petitioners ask that this House ensures that The Government does not force pensioners to switch from pension books to plastic cards to cash their pensions. They further ask that the Government guarantees to pensioners the choice … to cash their pensions through their pension books at post and sub-post offices. I am grateful to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security for giving an immediate assurance that the Government have no intention of doing any such thing. However, it is important to recognise the work that has been carried out by those two ladies in Dundee in organising the petitions that have been presented to the House, and it is also important that this becomes a matter of record. If the Government should consider such a step in future the proposal will meet fierce resistance in Dundee and across the United Kingdom.