Falling-income pensioners ‘let down’

For retired education consultant Keith Bristow, George Osborne’s budget “has let down the pensioners.”

The way he sees it is that there’s been plenty of taking – the 3p per litre rise in fuel duty is particularly galling given the 20-mile round trip to the nearest supermarket – and precious little giving.

Mr Bristow, who lives in the remote East Yorkshire village of Thixendale with his partner, retired primary school headteacher Pauline Foster, said: “Living in a rural area with no public transport we rely on our cars for shopping and social and leisure events.

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“The high price of diesel together with excessive electricity bills for heating and the rising cost of food when combined with negative income from investments results in a downward economic spiral. You think when you retire that your investments will continue to be OK, but they are actually falling back all the time.

“We therefore have very little disposable income to buy goods and services which would assist growth.

“Whilst the automatic review of state pensions is acceptable, it will have little overall impact on our lives.”

It doesn’t appear that the so-called “granny tax”, which will see income tax breaks scrapped for people as they turn 65 will affect him, but overall he says he is “surprised and disappointed” by the Budget.

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Mr Bristow said: “I think we are going to miss out. It doesn’t sound in general terms that we will be any better off and I will be probably be worse off. It is interesting how many leaks there have been, but none about pensions – I am surprised and disappointed about what I have heard.”