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'Scrooge' Treasury chiefs award £10 pension bonus
22 Dec 2009Pensioners have been awarded a Christmas bonus of just £10 this year - the same amount as when it was introduced almost four decades ago.
Treasury chiefs were branded Scrooges by the Liberal Democrats, who discovered the real terms squeeze in the payment through Parliamentary questions.
When it was launched by Ted Heath's Tory government in 1972, the bonus payment was worth £98 in today's money.
The £10 Christmas boost was then worth more than the £6.75 basic state pension. The basic pension is now £95.25 a week.
The bonus has declined in real terms ever since it was introduced, apart from two years in the mid-1970s when it was suspended altogether by Labour PM Harold Wilson.
By the time Tony Blair and Gordon Brown came to power in 1997, it was worth £14 in today's money.
Lib Dem work and pensions spokesman Steve Webb said: "The measly Christmas bonus is a slap in the face for today's pensioners.
"What was once a valuable additional benefit is now nothing more than a joke.
"When it was brought in, a pensioner could buy Christmas dinner and still have money left over. Today it wouldn't even buy you the turkey."
But the Government insisted it was doing much to help pensioners through other means than the Christmas bonus, including increasing the basic pension.
Pension credits had increased incomes by almost a third in real terms since 1997, officials said.
Work and pensions minister Helen Goodman said a £60 top-up to last year's Christmas bonus had been a "one-off" to help pensioners cope with sharp increases in food and fuel costs.
"This year, despite low inflation we will make an above inflation increase in the basic state pension, targeting our help to pensioners all year round," she said.
"We also continue to help this winter through a second year of higher winter fuel payments of between £250 and £400; and cold weather payments of £25 a week."
Reader views (3)
Fantastic....My wife and I had a buttered scone each plus a cup of coffee in a cafe. That was the end of my Christmas bonus!
- George, Cambridge UK, 22/12/2009 15:53
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UK Gov use the ‘Robin Hood’ system, but in reverse. They take from the poor and give to the rich, such as MP’s expenses, Quango’s, Council Officials Golden Pensions etc.
- Carl Barron, Christchurch, Dorset, 22/12/2009 14:41
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The worse pensions in Europe. No pensions at all for Forces people doing as much as fourteen years service. Oh! yes, just run it by me again how much these greedy politicians, Lords, Quango chiefs etc are getting.
- Fred, Horsham, 22/12/2009 11:48
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