Labour will
stand up for older people and has made five key pledges to ensure older people
have the security and dignity they deserve:
1.
Secure pensioner incomes with the Triple-Lock on state pensions.
2.
Protect the Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes for
pensioners.
3.
An extra £45 billion for the NHS and social care.
4.
No rise in the state pension age beyond 66.
5. Justice for women born
in the 1950s hit by five year rise in pension age.
Theresa
May’s government has failed older people, their cuts to social care have
resulted in over one million older people not getting the care they need.
Labour will spend an extra £45 billion on the NHS and social care over five
years.
The
Conservative Party manifesto has promised three major new burdens to be placed
on older people:
1.
Scrapping the ‘triple lock’ on state pensions so that pensioner
incomes are no longer protected.
2.
Means testing Winter Fuel Payments to remove support to heat the
homes of ten million pensioners
3. Forcing those who need
social care to pay for it with their homes.
Pensioners
would be at least £330 worse off under the Tories’ new Double Lock had it been
in place between 2013/14 and 2017/18, compared with the basic state pension
being uprated by the Triple Lock. Under Theresa May’s plan, ten million people
– five out of six pensioners – are set to lose their Winter Fuel Payments,
worth up to £300.
Jeremy
Corbyn, Leader of the Labour party, said:
“Not
satisfied with plunging our social care system into crisis, Theresa May’s nasty
party has promised more attacks on older people: scrapping the
triple-lock on state pensions, removing the Winter Fuel Allowance and asset
stripping the ill by forcing those who need social care to pay for it with
their homes.
“Labour will protect the Winter Fuel Allowance and Triple-Lock on state
pensions to deliver a secure and dignified retirement for all, and spend an
extra £45 billion on the NHS and social care over five years, so that older
people can get the care they deserve.
“Theresa
May and the Conservatives won’t stand up for pensioners, their only concern is
their billionaire friends. Labour is proud to stand up for the many, not the
few.”
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