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Brown Skid Mark on Bounce of Premiership

terratech | 06.08.2007 15:00 | Other Press | Social Struggles

New PM Brown gathering pace for a General Election is putting the Spin out Thick and Fast, will this skid mark on his journey stick?

Proclaiming pensioner poverty will soon become a thing of the past, the Gordfather`s statement has made welfare groups furious as all evidence, even from the governments own figures prove many pensioners are worse of than ever.

Realising just how much worse of they are single pensioners saw the pension drop £1 pound this year due to low inflation figures but as inflation has risen to 3% this in real terms has meant a cut of £5 pound a week or £250 this year which could have gone to fuel. Couples have faired a little better but a drop of £4 a week is still a smack in the face for the contribution they have made.

Chris Grayling (Con) Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary was astonished by this claim saying that `the PM could not possibly claim this`, adding that `when you read the small print, the governments claim of achievements prove to be untrue`. Giving a clear pledge he said `the real problem is with means testing, we will end this and link the basic state pension with earnings`

Welfare groups warning Brown that remaining ignorant of the mounting evidence that what has to be done; Automatically paying the retired their due and not putting them through means testing, is long over due. Help the Aged in a firm statement and recoiling at Brows statement said “if means testing was replaced by automatic payment, about 500,000 pensioners would be taken out of poverty overnight”.

The Argument supported by the Institute for Fiscal Studies whose recently released report contended that without `substantive reforms` pensioner poverty would not stop falling from its current level of 2.2 million, without government new spending defined the real problem, while automatic payment would alleviate the problem short term the issue at hand is the need for real determination to cut the bullshit about policy and the politics and to get down to the facts. Our society needs to stop concentrating on feeding the Rich and start building a society where as our population age’s poverty is not the norm.

terratech
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