Elderly deserve to keep their universal benefits
DAVID CAMERON’S promise that pensioners will keep universal benefits such as free television licences for the over 75s, bus passes and winter fuel payments as long as he is prime minister is to be welcomed.
After all it is only fair that pensioners get to keep their benefits.
After a lifetime of paying into the system it should be there to look after people in old age. Furthermore, as Mr Cameron has acknowledged on previous occasions, it is far more difficult for the elderly to change their circumstances.
Springing cuts on them would have serious implications for how many elderly people manage to live within their means.
Pensioners’ incomes have already suffered greatly as a result of record low interest rates, cutting their benefits too would be disastrous.
The Government has done some excellent things for the elderly during this parliament, notably protecting the value of state pensions and giving people far greater flexibility when it comes to what they do with their private pension savings.
With Labour and the Liberal Democrats both refusing to match Mr Cameron’s pledge it is reassuring to know that such concern for the elderly would continue in a future Cameron administration.
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Ukip’s policies on the NHS display the common sense that has become a hallmark of the party. Particularly attractive is their pledge to stop migrants having access to the NHS for their first five years in the country.
This would work to end health tourism, mitigate the stress placed on the NHS by Britain’s open-door immigration policy and dissuade even more people from coming here.
With budgets stretched this would improve the service on offer to those who are eligible without costing the Treasury more money. Just because the NHS is free at the point of delivery does not mean it is a charity. It is a facility funded by Britons’ taxes and it is unfair that people who have never contributed to the system can access it.
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As IF a lifetime of ridicule were not enough the likes of Friendless Baxter, Leicester Railway Cope and Mineral Waters – who were all born in the 19th century – are now having their names laughed at again after records were unearthed by genealogy firm Fraser & Fraser.
What’s in a name? For the parents of these unfortunate children it seems mostly the opportunity for a good giggle.
