In Place of Failure by Jim Sillars

Author:Jim Sillars [Jim Sillars]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908251527
Publisher: Vagabond Voices
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Here I think the Yes campaign erred. I cannot recall pensioners receiving an individual letter from the Yes side, carrying that vital quote from the DWP, along with an explanation that where a person lives is irrelevant to the contractual, legal right to a state pension. Many people have gone to France, Spain, Portugal and many other countries, to live there permanently on retirement. They get the UK state pension as of right.

What is true about the state pension is true about company pensions. They are not paid on the basis of country of residence, but on a contractual legal right.

The Yes campaign met pensioner resistance (75% voted No) based on the fear generated by Brown and others, but not enough was done to drive home the truth; not enough done to publicise that DWP letter, to make sure it was read and understood by every pensioner in Scotland. Appeals by Yes activists to grannies, grandpas, aunts and uncles to think and vote for the younger generation were outweighed in many a pensioner mind by the fear of losing the pension.

That is understandable. Pensioners are wide open to manipulation by the fearmongers, because as the years advance, they lose earning power. Reliance on the state pension, little as it is, becomes their lifeline. Lose it, and absolute poverty beckons. Until that fear is removed, many pensioners will act solely in their own interests. There is no point in getting angry at those who take this position, as opposed to voting for the grandchildren’s future. People are going to live much longer in future years, and so their financial vulnerability is something they cannot ignore. That is the reality the next campaign has to address.

There is one organisational idea to be taken on board now – at national level Yes must have a pensioner unit supplying local campaigns with facts, and ensuring that national advertising in newspapers has to get the “your pension is safe” message across. Every local Yes campaign must also have a pensioner unit, whose sole purpose is to identify where pensioners live, talk to as many of them as possible to trace the effects of fear, and produce the truth in letters and leaflets that prove their pensions are safe.

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