Pensioners’ rights campaigner Dennis Reed visited Downing Street on Tuesday to present a Change.org petition supported by over 117,000 people urging the Government to use the Spring Statement as an opportunity to uprate the state pension tax threshold.
Within the next two years, the state pension will rise to a level where it exceeds the personal allowance tax threshold, meaning that many more pensioners risk paying tax on their state pension, having already been taxed on their income during their working years.
Speaking from the doorstep of Number 10, Dennis said:
“660,000 older people were brought into the tax system last year because the tax thresholds are frozen, and as long as they are frozen, more pensioners will be brought into the system. It’s just outrageous, you contribute tax and national insurance throughout your working life; to then have it taxed again is a double whammy.”
Dennis also criticised the Government’s approach to the Spring Statement more broadly; drawing a link between what he perceives as the Government’s treatment towards the elderly along with many other vulnerable groups. Asked what message he would send directly to the Chancellor, he said:
“Stop talking all the time about the only people that matter are working families. There are loads of other people in this society that aren’t working families. There’s older people, who’ve had their winter fuel payment taken away. The WASPI women haven’t been compensated. Social care has been ditched into the long grass. And last week, it appears that disabled people are the latest to be brought into a ‘non-citzen’ category after news of the PIP cuts. We want them to stop saying it’s only working families that matter. We all matter, and we all make our contribution.”
The petition can be found at Change.org/StatePensionThreshold. If you’d like to speak with Dennis about the campaign, please contact gsproston@change.org
