Tories to issue pensions pledge
The Tories’ work and pensions spokesman David Willetts today will commit his party to increasing the basic state pension.
He will say by the end of the Tories’ first term in power, single pensioners would receive an above inflation payout of £7 a week extra, with couples gaining £11 a week.
At the Conservatives annual conference in Blackpool, Mr Willett will deliver his keynote address on “a fair deal for pensioners and savers”.
According to Tory economic estimates, the pensions pledge would cost £7 billion per year. It would come from abolishing the New Deal for the unemployed and the pensions credit system.
The Conservative Party has committed itself to liberating one million pensioners from means-testing,
Mr Willetts is expected to say: “The next Conservative government will increase the value of the basic state pension by earnings rather than prices in order to reduce the number of pensioners subject to means testing.
“We need to float pensioners off means-testing so that a pound of savings equals a pound extra of income.
“That way we can start shifting the balance of pensioners’ incomes away from state benefits and towards funded savings.”
