Pensioners still battling 100 years on

Jan 2 2009 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

OLDER people are still fighting for a fair deal as the state pension turns 100.

It was on January 1, 1909 that the first pensioners collected five shillings from post offices across Britain.

But Huddersfield and District Pensioners’ Organisation chairman Noreen Logan is not celebrating the landmark.

She said: “We view this as a centenary rather than a celebration.

“It was the first acknowledgement from government, after a 10-year campaign, that poor people needed support at the end of their lives.

“However, the original pension was means-tested and available only to people of ‘good character’ who had not been in a workhouse. It was also only available to men over the age of 70.”

But Mrs Logan added that the 1909 pension was in some ways superior to the 2009 version.

She said: “Five shillings in 1909 was 25% of average earnings while the current pension is only 15%.

“The Government are deliberately keeping pensioners in poverty. It’s quite diabolical that some pensioners have to choose between heating and eating.”

The National Pensioners’ Convention says 2.5m pensioners are living below the official poverty line of £151 a week.

General secretary Joe Harris said: “We owe the original pension pioneers a great debt of gratitude, but they would be turning in their graves if they knew that one in four pensioners is still living in poverty a century later.

“After 100 years it’s about time we ended pensioner poverty for good.”