Ideas for electability: Linking state pensions to the National Minimum Wage

For the first in our “ideas for electability” series, Cat Smith outlines potential changes in the state pension.

The decline of final salary pensions means that UK workers face a bleak retirement living on less than the minimum wage. Pensioner poverty is a real issue and according to Age UK the winter of 2008-09 saw more than 300 additional winter deaths every day – a rise of 50% on the previous year. These deaths do not need to happen, and are often caused by older people not having enough money to properly heat their homes. Pensioners on the lowest incomes are more at risk as they struggle to pay the fuel bills.

By linking state pensions to the National Minimum Wage we would raise the poorest pensioners’ incomes, meaning fewer unnecessary deaths in the winter. More importantly this would send a strong message – that we believe that everyone has the right to a minimum wage. If this is the minimum wage we believe working people need to survive we should show the same respect to our retired workers.

I believe that this policy idea would be a vote winner on the doorsteps too. We are all getting older and many people worry about what their life will be like in retirement. Many of us have older relatives and friends who we can see struggling to make ends meet. You can tell a lot about a society by how they treat those in the greatest need, and ending pensioner poverty would send out a strong message about where our Labour values are coming from.

It is straightforward to sell on the doorstep too. We protect you with a minimum wage when you are working, and we protect that wage and your dignity in retirement too.

Do you have an “Idea for electability”? – why not email it to us, and be part of the series.