The National Pensioners Convention, Britain's biggest pensioner organisation, gives a cautious welcome to the Conservative Party proposal that they will restore the link between the state pension and average earnings if they win the next general election.

It is welcome provided it is properly financed through the current £20 billion surplus in the National Insurance fund or through increased contributions, and not by taking money from other needy sections of the community.

We are cautious because it was the Conservative administration in 1980 that originally broke the link, leaving today's single pensioners £30 a week worse off.

Cautious also because promises made in opposition do not always come to fruition once the party is in power. Witness Gordon Brown's declaration in 1993 that he would end the scandal of means-testing British pensioners. Or a letter from Tony Blair, dated September 4, 1996, saying "We are carefully looking at proposals to guarantee pensioners a decent income in retirement, so we can end means-testing for pensioners once and for all and get rid of the evil of pensioner poverty."

The reality, with the introduction of the Pension Credit on October 6 is that over half of all pensioners are now subject to means-testing with many still living below the poverty line.

The Conservative decision to restore the link with earnings shows that the main political parties are beginning to see the importance of the pensioner vote and the justice of the campaign for dignity in retirement. It is to be hoped that the Government and Liberal Democrats will respond by adopting this enlightened policy. The state pension is too important, both for present and future pensioners, to remain a political football.

In this rich country, consensus among political parties to give dignity and security of income in retirement should be adopted without question.

The simplest and most cost effective way to attain this laudable, and affordable aim is with a basic state pension, free of means-testing, linked to earnings to maintain its value and free from any successive governmental interference.

Never again should pensioners be subjected to the threat, as in 2001, that unless votes went a certain way handouts, given in lieu of a decent pension, would be lost.

Cliff Fuller

Press Officer

NPC South Central & West