Conservative Candidate Marcus Bleasdale outlines the choice to pensioners, and those coming up for retirement, next Thurday...
If you’ve recently retired or are coming up to retirement, you may not know what it was like for pensioners the last time Labour was in Government.
People who had saved throughout their lives for their retirement were hit with a £118 billion pensions tax raid. One year, the State Pension rose by a paltry 75p per week.
That’s why, since 2010, we have made it a priority to give people peace of mind in their retirement.
We introduced the Triple Lock, which has seen the basic State Pension rise by £3,700 since 2010. This year, the new State Pension increased by £900.
We will maintain the Triple Lock. Current forecasts suggest this means the State Pension will rise to a record £13,200 by 2029.
But that’s higher than the rate at which people start paying income tax. So, without action, it means people could be hit for the first time with income tax bills on their state pension.
The Conservative plan is to make sure your state pension is never subject to income tax.
Our Triple Lock Plus will continue to increase the pension and will also increase your personal allowance before you pay income tax.
Bizarrely, Labour opposes this – that means that pensioners across Wirral will be filling in self-assessment forms for HMRC before being hit by income tax bills, with penalty charges and interest for those who can’t pay up.
Conservatives will also:
Maintain all current pensioner benefits, including free bus passes, Winter Fuel Payments, free prescriptions and TV licences.
For those who save and invest during their working lives, we will maintain the 25% tax free lump sum and maintain tax relief on pension contributions at their marginal rate.
Many of our pensioners are also veterans, people who served our country and whose contribution needs to be recognised, instead of being penalised or taxed.
We will therefore bring forward measures so that War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme awards are not counted as income for the purpose of benefits and pensions.
We will cap social care costs, as promised.
We will implement our planned reforms to cap social care costs from October 2025, meaning there will be a lifetime limit on how much a person can be charged for their social care.
