David Cameron has today launched the Conservative Party's pensioners pledge. I have included the full details of this below, which also touches on the some of the points I discussed in my film clip.
Pledge to Pensioners
Increase the value of the basic state pension for all pensioners and help to stop the spread of the means test by linking pensions to earnings. You won’t get a repeat of Labour’s mean 75p rise with us.
Freeze council tax for the next two years, in partnership with your council.
Make it worthwhile to save for a personal pension and get rid of the rules that force people to get a compulsory annuity.
Help people protect their home rather than have to sell it to pay for care.
Take all family homes worth less than £1 million out of inheritance tax.
Increase spending on the NHS every year, which is our number one priority.
Cut paperwork so we get more police out on the beat fighting crime.
We will protect your Winter Fuel Payment.
We will protect your free bus pass and your free TV licence.
We will protect the pension credit.
If Gordon Brown wins the eleciton he wants to introduce a number of measures which will hit pensioners: A Conservative Government will not penalise pensioners, as Labour are planning to do:
We will NOT introduce a ‘death tax’ of up to £50,000.
We will NOT cut attendance allowance and disability allowance for the over 65s.
We can afford to make these pledges because we have found the money from other areas, like cutting government waste and bringing forward the date at which the state pension age will rise to 66.”