First OAP whinge of winter

Oct 22 2009 By Maureen Messent

PREDICTABLE, isn’t it? With the first nip in the air, our pensioners take to Birmingham city centre for a whinge.

They join trade unionists to feel ill-used. They want higher pensions and no cutting of services for the elderly and, in all honesty, they have a watertight case.

British state pensions make us the geriatric paupers of Europe.

But then the marchers mar their protest by spouting that countless thousands of old Britons will die of cold in the next few months because they’re afraid to turn on their heating lest they can’t pay their fuel bills.

Who are these anonymous souls who die from Jack Frost and fear of debt? I’ve never once come across an inquest report that cites such a cause of death.

Nor have I met a pensioner who exists on just the minimum pension: there are top-up benefits paid to all. That, in an ideal land, there shouldn’t be a need for these supplementary payments, goes without saying.

The scandal here is not so much miserable pensions, but more the injustice of the larger sums doled out to the blatantly work-shy, feckless, and scrounging.

It’s always an eye-opener to me how several men and women I know, currently on disability allowances, still manage to nip round to their off-licences when their money lands in their banks.

Miracle cures? You ain’t seen nothing like it.