Steve Brine

Supporting older people locally

Steve Brine looks at the positive programme for Government the Conservatives are proposing to support older voters.

Gordon Brown has betrayed older people time and again over the last 13 years. He raided private pensions, doubled council tax and has done nothing to stop people having to sell their homes to pay for residential care. Today, too many pensioners are living out their days without the dignity and security they deserve.

Prospective Winchester MP Steve Brine says; "David Cameron has set out how we will change that. His Pensioners’ Pledge outlines how we will support pensioners and address their concerns. It also nails Labour’s lies that Gordon Brown’s MPs are desperately spreading about our policies.

"We are the only party that is truly on the side of old people. We won’t settle for a Britain in which people who have worked hard all their lives don’t have a secure retirement. They can’t afford five more years of Gordon Brown."

David Cameron's pledge to older people across Winchester & Chandler's Ford ...

The Government David Cameron will lead will make sure that older and retired people are treated with dignity and given the quality of life they deserve. “This is my pledge to support pensioners”, he says.

1. Increase the value of the basic state pension for all pensioners and help to stop the spread of the means test by linking pensions to earnings. You won’t get a repeat of Labour’s mean 75p rise with us.
   
   
2. Freeze council tax for the next two years, in partnership with your council.
   
   
3. Make it worthwhile to save for a personal pension and get rid of the rules that force people to get a compulsory annuity.
   
   
4. Help people protect their home rather than have to sell it to pay for care.
   
   
5. Take all family homes worth less than £1 million out of inheritance tax.
   
   
6. Increase spending on the NHS every year, which is our number one priority.
   
   
7. Cut paperwork so we get more police out on the beat fighting crime.

These vital benefits will not be cut under the Conservatives. You have my word on it.

If he wins the election, Gordon Brown wants to introduce a number of measures which will hit pensioners: A Conservative Government will not penalise pensioners, as Labour are planning to do:

We can afford to make these pledges because we have found the money from other areas, like cutting government waste and bringing forward the date at which the state pension age will rise to 66.