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UK News

Christian charity welcomes pension rise, but slams care cuts

by Aaron James

Outlook Trust is speaking after the Chancellor George Osborne announced it would rise to £119.30 a week from April 2016 - a rise of £174.20 a year.

It also said that it was unlikely a state pension would still exist for today's young people when they hit old age, given the current scale of government spending cuts. The Outlook Trust added that for many older people, who rely on the state pension to survive, it is still not enough to live on.

Supporters have praised the government for supporting the elderly, who are some of the most vulnerable in society, while critics have said increasing the state pension is a ploy to secure votes from older people, the majority of whom vote Conservative.

Robin Rolls, from the Outlook Trust, told Premier: "With cuts to welfare and certainly care for older people, it's not a position I'd like to be in myself. I wouldn't like to be a pensioner at the moment.

"120 pounds a week may be their only income. Some older people are still looking after grandchildren. It's still quite a small amount of money to get by on.

"Older people face enormous challenges, and I've been on your great programme before talking about how difficult it is for an older person with dementia, how difficult it is for an older person whose only vistors - human contact - every day is the 15 minutes they get from some kind of carer."

He gave this message to the government: "Please be realistic. Do some homework. Speak to genuine older people, not just those who can vote. Speak to those who're lonely, those who struggle. Please, make the right decisions accordingly."

Pensions minister Ros Altmann said: "Over the last quarter of a century, pensioners have fallen below the rest of society as average earnings have done so much better than the increases in the state pension.

"Since 2010, we have really begun to correct that.

'We are now back to the highest level for a quarter of a century - and quite right too. Pensioners deserve to be treated much better than they have been in the past and to have security in retirement."

Listen to Premier's Aaron James speaking to Robin Rolls here:

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