Why Vimto pension is too little
what the Commerce and Employment minister's ill-judged comments about wanting to erode the value of the Guernsey old age pension have done is to focus attention on how little many of the island's older folk have to survive on.
what the Commerce and Employment minister's ill-judged comments about wanting to erode the value of the Guernsey old age pension have done is to focus attention on how little many of the island's older folk have to survive on.
As we report in the centre pages today, the pension which the minister believes is generous leaves the over-65s with precious little left after paying for the basics, so even buying an occasional DVD is a luxury.
Compare that with the average household in the island, which spends £44.69 a week on what are termed leisure goods.
A married couple's OAP is £257 but the rest of the island, on average, spends £748.58, indicating an annual income of a little over £38,926 – coincidentally, about £1,074 less than a minister earns.
By contrast, an elderly couple relying on the States pension are expected to get by on the equivalent of £13,300 a year, more Vimto than the champagne lifestyle made possible by the average £22.39 a week spend on alcohol.
And it is that gap which the States, the Policy Council (of which the Commerce and Employment minister is part) and the island as a whole agreed to try to close as a result of the Townsend Report into relative poverty and adoption of the Government Business Plan and its aspiration to redistribute wealth wisely within the community.
Social Security has gone some way over the years towards narrowing the gap, which is why the local pension compares well with the UK's at just £90 a week, which is so low because it is divorced from earnings growth. There is still a long way to go locally, however, towards improving the lot of pensioners.
The Guernsey average is for each member of the 22,664 households here to spend nearly £300 a week, but we expect those on a States OAP to survive on substantially less than that – but for two people.
This episode also highlights the utter inadequacy of the States as a whole at reducing its costs to fund the essentials. Instead, as we are seeing, government would rather penalise the less well-off rather than do the job which, by the standards of an OAP, they are paid handsomely to do.
