Monday 11 January 2010

One out, one in

By a happy quirk of politics, on the very same day that UKIP propose replacing a whole raft of overlapping contributory and non-contributory, means-tested and non-means tested taxpayer-funded pensions with a Citizen's Pension*, the Lib Dems abandon exactly that idea.

* For clarity, those people who are currently entitled to taxpayer-funded pensions (Basic State Pension, SERPS/S2P, public sector pension etc) that add up to more than the Citizen's Pension would of course be entitled to claim under the old rules.

2 comments:

bayard said...

I wonder if Nick Clegg explained why a Citizen's Pension had to more expensive than the current system and the Beeb just didn't report it. Smacks to me of the politics of envy.
Looks like the country will be faced at the general election with at least three identical parties, differentiated only by the names of their candidates and the colour of their electioneering material.

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, my point is that a CP set at the same level as Pensions Credit would be more-or-less zero extra cost (or at least, the benefit would far outweigh any additional cash cost), because the admin savings would be huge; the take-up much better; and it would not discourage private provision.