Winning the pensioner vote is the key to winning the general election. You anger this army of voters at your peril – and the Conservatives need to lock-in their support to avoid annihilation.
The secret to pensioners’ power is they show up and vote. In the summer election, 73% of voters aged 65-plus cast a vote, according to YouGov. This contrasts with just 37% of 18-24s voting.
Fewer than one in four voters in the older age group voted Labour (23%). Since then, the party has sometimes seemed on a mission to alienate them further.
Millions have been stripped of winter fuel support and inheritance tax relief has been slashed for family businesses and farms. Farmers tell harrowing stories of how families now look to the future with fear.
The axing of universal entitlement to help with the costs of winter fuel is considered a key reason why Labour suffered a drubbing in last week’s local elections. Labour MPs are right to worry and push for a rethink.
For the Tories to stay in the game, Kemi Badenoch must assure pensioners she – and not Reform UK’s Nigel Farage – is the party leader who will fight their corner with ferocity and conviction.
She needs to put a stop to stories suggesting the Conservatives could unpick the triple lock, the measure which ensures the state pension increases by whichever is greater, 2.5%, average earnings or inflation.
The cost of living crisis would have been an even more horrific experience for pensioners if this protection had not been in place. It is a myth pensioners are rolling in cash.
The House of Commons Library last year reported: “The UK devotes a smaller percentage of its GDP to state pensions and pensioner benefits than most other advanced economies.”
It cited OECD research showing pension income as a percentage of previous earnings was just 54.4% – far below the OECD average of 61.4%.
Many workers who lack final pension salary schemes look to retirement with anxiety. During the election campaign they will demand concrete assurances parties will not axe further entitlements.
Measures such as the winter fuel allowance and the triple lock are defences against pensioner poverty. They have every right to use their clout at the ballot box to defend their ability to heat their home and do the weekly shop.
