Field dampens high expectations

Former social security minister Frank Field MP warned delegates at
the conference to limit their demands on the government over the
issue of pensions and poverty.

He said: “I do not believe the government will concede in one swoop
to restore the state retirement pension to [be in line with
average] earnings and also to make the taxpayer cough up the
earnings that have been lost.”

Instead he suggested the focus should be on getting the link
restored to older people over the age of 80, who tend to be the
poorest.

He also said that tackling the “log-jam” on the debate over
pensions could go some way towards ending “the cruel and wicked
poverty in which so many of our citizens end their years in [what
is] the fourth richest country in the world”.