Wales is promised a “living pension”

The leader of Plaid Cymru, Ieuan Wyn Jones, has unveiled plans to ensure that Welsh pensioners receive a “living pension”.

Speaking at a bowls club earlier this week, he explained the details of his planned £20bn spending spree.

“You would provide to all pensioners the existing basic state pension together with the amount of the pension credit which a number of pensioners now have to claim for and, of course, a quarter of them don’t do it. That would be a living pension, which would be the basic pension together with the current level of the pension credit.”

Older people do not claim pension credits for a combination of reasons. Some find the forms too difficult; some are unaware that they are entitled to payments; others simply feel too proud to ask the government for money. It is unlikely that the baby boomer generation who are about to retire will feel a similar reticence about coming forward.

Mr Wyn Jones intends to roll the scheme out to the over 80s first, gradually extending the extra payments to younger pensioners.

Of course, the plans have been derided as being “half-baked” by the other parties. Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams thinks that the proposed scheme would jeopardise other services, claiming that a government “simply cannot fund huge pension increases for millions of people, without endangering the front line services upon which many older people depend.” Labour and the Tories were similarly dismissive, claiming that such proposals were “fantasy politics” that could not be delivered.

But whilst this proposal has not attracted cross party support, it is widely accepted that older people are struggling financially on what is currently available. And given that this demographic group are statistically the most likely to turn out on election day, their votes are going to be hotly contested over the coming weeks, as polling day looms.

Campaign groups Help the Aged and Age Concern regularly make representations on the issue, and took the recent Plaid Cymru plans as “an acknowledgement that the state pension is too low.”

However, no one has come up with a palatable method of financing the state pension in the coming age of austerity. Plaid Cymru are framing the debate as one of priorities. Is the London government  prepared to drop Trident renewal and I.D. cards in favour of looking after vulnerable members of society?