Eagle missed the point on basic pension

07 January 2010

It is unfair of the Tories to attack the Government for only applying the 2.5 per cent rise to the basic state pension.

It seems to be rather bizarre that the Government continues to refer to the state second pension as Serps, considering that it was this Government that abolished it. Perhaps pensions minister Angela Eagle should go back to school, as long as the school is aware of the change too.

In fact, the S2P would not be due to rise when inflation is virtually nil. in line with company pensions which are on limited price indexation, a fact that Eagle failed to put across satisfactorily and, of course, it was concealed in the small print as usual.

From a technical point of view, increasing the basic state pension by 2.5 per cent is relatively generous.

BGW JAMIESON
Jamieson Financial Management, Bognor Regis, West Sussex

If you enjoyed this article, sign up here to receive daily email updates from Money Marketing and Follow @_moneymarketing