e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@paullewis.co.uk
Means test. Two words to strike fear and loathing into the hearts of many people over 65. Yet in less than eighteen months, half the pensioner population in the UK will have to go through a means-test to get their full state pension entitlement. The means-test that many people of that age may still remember was applied to people who could not find work in the 1920s and 30s. Not just their poverty but their character was assessed – the deserving poor got help from the National Assistance Board – the undeserving poor did not. No wonder it was hated.
Today’s means-test is a very different thing. But the intrusive questions about income and, above all, savings are still resented and disliked. So much so that millions of people over 60 would rather be poorer than make the claim. The Government’s own figures show that up to three quarters of a million people over 60 give up on average £24.60 a week rather than go through the means-test to claim what the Government now likes to call its ‘minimum income guarantee’ or MIG. Up to 300,000 more fail to claim a similar amount each week off their rent, and well over a million give up £350 a year off their council tax – all for the want of claiming.
This April even more people became entitled to the MIG – while the basic state retirement pension went up by £3 to £75.50, the MIG increased by £6 to £98.15 a week. But the big change comes in October 2003 when the Pension Credit begins. That will add to the minimum income guarantee by allowing people to keep some of their personal or company pension on top of the MIG amounts. Anyone with an income of les than £7000 a year (£10,000 for a couple) will be able to claim extra help with their weekly income. The Government says around 5 million people over 65 will benefit. But only if they claim it. Let’s hope they do.
Summer 2002
e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@paullewis.co.uk