Too old for pensions
Sir: Allowing Mr Phillips's contention (Letters, 21 July) that pensions 'have been purchased by money which had up to three times the purchasing power of that in which pensions are currently payable' this still leaves the greater part of the pension paid to eighty-four-year-olds uncovered by contribu- tions. (In December 1964 Mr Terence Higgins MP stated that 9s of the £5 9s pension reflected Pay- ments into the fund.) And as Mr O'Hanlon's letter pointed out, it is this 'uncovered' amount which old non-pensioners are entitled to receive.
That there is almost no connection between con- tributions and pension payments has been demon- strated time and time again. Dame Irene Ward in the House of Commons in July 1966 cited the case of late entrants receiving £200 per annum (soon to be increased) for total contributions of £115. Mr Douglas Houghton has referred to the 'mytho- logy' of the contributory principle as applied to pension benefits, and, as the Government must be aware, it is merely a dishonest quibble to put for- ward lack of contributions as their reason for total exclusion of non-pensioners; who, moreover, were not allowed to contribute.
In justice these old people, who have given half a century or more of work to the community, should receive the same help against inflation as others of their advanced age. Why they do not, under a government supposedly committed to 'social justice,' is a mystery—unless one remembers that as voting material their importance is minimal.
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