Elderly could bankrupt welfare state, claims mobility tsar Alan Milburn Growing numbers of elderly people could bankrupt the welfare state unless better-off pensioners are stripped of some of their benefits, Britain’s social mobility tsar Alan Milburn has claimed. The former health secretary, infuriated pensioners’ groups and sparked a political row, by urging the Government to “place their bets” on the young rather than the old. He called for better off pensioners to lose universal benefits such as bus passes or winter fuel allowances but also for the elderly in general to suffer what called a “fairer share” of the “pain” of cuts. If not, he suggested, Britain will face not only growing divisions along traditional lines of class and geography but conflict between generations. The need to spend money to help children and people of working age was “in competition with” with a desire to pour billions into pensions and benefits for older people, he said adding that the Government would have to “choose”. For too long, he argued, politicians had been “favouring pensioners over their children and grandchildren” in order to win votes. telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10386194/Elderly-could-bankrupt-welfare-state-claims-mobility-tsar-Alan-Milburn.html
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 08:57:31 +0000
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