Just when we thought there was no competition for Labour, the Conservatives have come out with a corker – however far fetched it may seem!
According to a Conservative spokesperson, State benefits should be received by people as their right and not because they pass a means test for eligibility. We all agree that this would be very nice indeed, but how to pay for all those extra benefits?
One extremely intelligent comment came from Mr Willetts the Shadow Pensions Secretary. He said “One of the main reasons for the crisis is that means testing has spread so far up the income scale that people cannot be confident they will be any better off when they retire if they have saved”. Mr Willetts then went on to say that based on the State benefit calculations for pensioner couples, if they could not save £142,000 then there was no point saving.
£142,000 puts a pensioner couple just out of the bracket for means tested benefits. This comment does nothing to inspire people to save for their futures. This may be all well and good now but what about when the benefits system changes again? Who will be worse off?