The Great Scottish Pensions Robbery
by If you ever needed a textbook example of Westminster’s breathtaking contempt for the people of Scotland, Andy Burnham has just delivered it on a silver platter.
The Westminster Prime Minister’s latest grand scheme is to establish a ‘National Care Service’ south of the border, funded entirely by scrapping the state pension triple lock – which covers the whole UK.
But as a Guardian journalist revealed, Burnham’s big idea appears to be to simply copy the free personal care system that Scotland has already enjoyed for over two decades – and it won’t even cover the residential element of staying in a care home.
Strip away the political spin and grandiose title, and the reality is as absurd as it is outrageously unfair: Scottish pensioners – who already have access to free personal care under an SNP-run Scottish Government – are about to have their triple lock snatched away to pay for English pensioners to get the very same thing. It is the political equivalent of a burglar stealing your front TV, selling it to your neighbour, and then handing you a bill.
Official Scottish Government analysis paints a devastating picture. As First Minister John Swinney has pointed out, this raid on older people’s pockets will collectively fleece Scottish pensioners out of an eye-watering £4 billion.
By 2050, individual pensioner incomes in Scotland will be slashed by almost £2,000 every single year in real terms.
Having clearly learned nothing from Keir Starmer’s disastrous decision to axe the Winter Fuel Payment, Andy Burnham is repeating the exact same errors – treating older citizens like a loose change jar to cover up decades of economic mismanagement by successive Westminster governments.
Meanwhile, where is Scottish Labour in all of this? Slipping into their customary role as Westminster’s mute spectators.
Just days ago, as captured on the BBC, Scottish Labour leader Michael Marra was asked outright if the triple lock should end, responding with a firm, unequivocal: “No, I don’t believe it should.”
Scottish pensioners deserve a straight answer: Will Michael Marra stand by his word, or will he dutifully fall into line to support short-changing Scottish retirees?
This brazen pension pinch is all the more bitter when set against the golden promises fed to the Scottish public in 2014.
During the independence referendum, the anti-independence campaign pledged that state pensions were “guaranteed” only with a ‘No’ vote.
They insisted that remaining part of the UK offered “better protection” for Scottish pensioners than any alternative.
Twelve years on, those vows lie in absolute tatters. Far from offering “better protection”, Westminster has treated Scottish pensioners like a spare wallet to be raided whenever London runs short of cash.
With Westminster control the UK already pays some of the weakest state pensions in Europe. Asking our older people—many struggling with soaring energy bills – to swallow a £4 billion hit so Westminster can plug its self-inflicted financial black holes south of the border is a betrayal too far.
The promises of 2014 were not just broken – they have been completely dismantled by subsequent events. A fundamental breach of trust like this proves that Scotland needs a fresh start and another referendum to secure its own future for Scotland’s pensioners.