Buying the grey vote? ‘Not at all’
PENSIONERS were one of the big winners in the Budget with a €3 increase in the weekly pension, a 75 per cent restoration of the Christmas bonus and a hike in the fuel allowance all granted yesterday.
There were no cuts to any allowances for the elderly, unlike in previous years, and the Respite Care Grant that provides essential rest for carers of many elderly people was reinstated to €1,700 following a controversial €325 cut in 2012.
The moves were broadly welcomed last night by charities and support groups representing the elderly, but Active Retirement Ireland warned the Government against trying to buy the next election.
With an election looming, many would see this as a blatant attempt to win the ‘grey vote’ of the elderly who traditionally vote in greater numbers at the ballot box.
Social Protection Minister Joan Burton last night said that the elderly deserved the breaks that the Budget is delivering.
Central to this was the proposal to increase the weekly rate for the country’s 600,000-plus pensioners aged 66 and over for the first time since 2009. This will kick in from January, bringing the basic rate up to €226 a week for a single pensioner, or €452 for a couple.
Carers aged over 66 who look after their loved ones will also see their payment go up €3 from €239 to €242.
Ms Burton said last night it was now ‘time to give something back.’
At the press briefing, the Tánaiste said: ‘Throughout the worst of the crisis, the Government protected the State pension.
‘So many pensioners have supported their adult children and their families throughout very difficult times. They deserve to see their income in retirement increase now that we have some room to do so.’
However, she rejected suggestions from reporters that she was trying to buy the so-called ‘grey vote’.
‘Pensioners are an absolute rock on which our society is built and I have had extensive formal meetings during the year with organisations representing people who rely on social welfare,’ she said. ‘I am constantly advised that pensioners, carers – that they should be a priority – and in my view they are a priority.’
This December, pensioners will see a Christmas bonus of €173 – that’s on top of their regular weekly pension of €223. The fuel allowance will also go up for all eligible pensioners from €20 to €22.50 a week.
Active Retirement Ireland is the country’s largest community-based older people’s organisation.
While it welcomed the increase in the State pension and to the Christmas bonus and household benefits package, it warned the Government that partial restoration of benefits does not amount to buying votes.
‘Older people have taken cuts that amount to about €13 per week over successive Budgets,’ the association’s head of communications and advocacy, Peter Kavanagh, said.
‘While a partial restoration of benefits is welcome, and will help keep some older people out of consistent poverty, we want to be clear that this is not a giveaway Budget for all older people.
‘This increase in the State pension
falls short of what we were calling on the Government to give, but is a welcome and progressive move to cope with increased demands on a limited income.
‘Once you factor in the property tax and water charges, older people are still worse off than they were in 2009... The cost of living has also increased f or older people and services that they rely on have been badly affected, leading to knock-on costs.’
Mr Kavanagh pointed to some of the many cuts and reductions in services that have not been restored by this Government.
‘Rural transport links, post offices, Garda stations and l ocal bank branches are all closing, which makes it more difficult for older people to remain in their communities,’ he said.
Meanwhile, it was announced that the pension levy paid by all workers with a private pension plan to provide comfort in their retirement will not be renewed in 2016.
The levy was much despised by the pensions industry as it ate into their bottom line every year when they had to charge it on their customers and then hand it over to the Exchequer. The Professional Insurance Brokers Association, the country’s largest group of financial brokers, said confirmation of the ending of the pensions levy was ‘a relief ’, since it ‘was a grossly inequitable tax on the pensions’ savings of private sector workers primarily’.