Greens promise £165 a week state pension "Time to lift every pensioner out of poverty"

On the recent National Pensions Action Day, the Green Party announced its key election pledge for pensioners - a £165 a week non-means-tested citizens' pension for every pensioner in the UK.

The pledge will form part of the Green New Deal for Older People, which the Green Party will launch in the build-up to this year's elections (1).

Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London, the Green Party's spokesperson on social affairs, said today:

"The Green Party celebrated Pensions Action Day with possibly the best action a political party could take for British pensioners: a policy that would lift all our pensioners out of poverty."

Rupert Read, Lead Green Party candidate for the Eastern Region at the 4th June 2009 Euro Elections, said:

"This policy forms part of the Green Party's Green New Deal for Older People and would ensure that pensioners can live in more comfortable, dignified conditions. We Greens have campaigned long and hard for pensioners' rights at the European level and I will continue in that vein if elected to join Jean Lambert in June this year.

The Green Party lobbied the UK Government when the energy companies hiked their prices up by 30% at the end of last year, leaving many pensioners with the choice between heating and eating this winter. A Citizens Pension will take
all pensioners out of fuel poverty, leading to a more dignified retirement for all, which is nothing less than they deserve. Only the Greens will truly deliver social justice in the UK today."

The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) has been calling for a pension at or above the official poverty level, which is defined as 60% of median population earnings less housing costs. For 2007/8 this would have meant a single person's pension of £151 per week - compared to the actual full state pension of £90.70 and a pensions credits guarantee level of about £120 a week.

The NPC has recently pointed out that:

- Between 1997 and 2006, the number of British people living in severe poverty - defined as living on less than 40% of median population income - increased by 600,000.

- Last year the poorest quarter of UK pensioner households saw their incomes rise by less than 1%, well below inflation. The poorest single pensioners saw their real incomes drop by 4%.

- At least 15% of UK pensioners - over 1.5m older people - are living in persistent poverty (below 60% median population income for three out of the last four years).

- Pensioner poverty in the UK has risen in the last year by 300,000 - equivalent to 822 people a day - and now reaches 2.5m (1 in 4 older people). Two thirds of these pensioners are women.

Rupert Read commented:

"If the other parties are unwilling to lift pensioners out of poverty, then it's clear pensioners will need to elect Greens to fight their corner.

Voting Green is about building a better future (2) - and that includes a secure economic future for older people."