Memories
NOVEMBER 11, 1954
was, by all accounts, the best-behaved mass protest London has ever witnessed.
On November 11, 1954, thousands of older people from all over the UK converged on the city.
They were there to take part in a rally calling for an increase in their pensions.
The National Federation of Old Age Pensions Associations had been leading a campaign demanding an immediate rise of 17 shillings and sixpence.
This would take a single person’s allowance to the princely sum of
£2, 10 shillings per week, the equivalent of about £70 in today’s money.
The Conservative Government had promised that summer to restore pensions to at least the equivalent of their 1946 value, as laid out in the National Insurance Act of that year.
But there was disagreement about just how much the payments would need to go up to achieve the same post-war purchasing power, and it was said the government was looking at an increase of just four shillings and nine pence for a single person, and six shillings and thruppence for a couple.
The Minister of Pensions and National Insurance, Osbert Peake MP, had promised to announce his government’s final decision before Christmas, but he insisted legislation would need to be altered and that this could delay the increased payments for two or three months. Unimpressed, pensioners were bussed in to the rally in Westminster’s Central Hall.
There, a letter from the National Federation to Mr Peake, demanding he explain his reasons for stalling over the increase, was read to the crowd by Mr A Williams, a pensioner from Cardiff, who ended his recitation by saying: “I hope it spoiled his breakfast.”
Another speaker said: “This rally registers their disgust at the delaying tactics of the Government in their refusal to grant a living pension to the old folk.
“Slight relief will not satisfy this federation. We demand an immediate increase from 32s 6d to £2 10s per week for all old-age pensioners.”
When the assembled elderly were asked to approve the resolution calling for the extra money, there was a unanimous roar of “Aye!”.
The resolution was sent to relevant ministers, including the Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, but a parliamentary debate on pensions held later that same week was won by the government on the promise of a “good plan” for pensioners.
The following year, the National Insurance Bill of 1955 proposed increasing single benefits to 40s (£2) and a couple’s allowance to 65s (£3 5s), short of the pensioners’ demands. Looking back at what made the news in years gone by