AGEING BRITISH POPULATION
MINISTER REPLIES TO PENSION DEMANDS
(Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, December 14. Britain’s population is ageing so fast that in 10 years there will be one. old age pensioner of 65 or more to every four workers. In 30 years the ratio will be one to three.
The Minister of National Insurance (Mr James Griffiths) gave these figures in reply to Mr Percy Daines (Labour, East Ham North). Mr Daines had asked for the Minister’s policy on the charter of the National Federation of Old Age Pensioners’ Associations. which demands £2 weekly for all men and women at 60.
This, said Mr Griffiths, would cost immediately £500,000,000 a year. If this extra sum were raised in the same way as the cost of the present pensions. working people and employers would each have to pay an extra 2s 3d weekly. General taxation would have to provide £340,000.000 extra, rising to £400,000,000 by 1958—an extra 2s 6d on the standard rate of income tax.
Justice would demand that widows, the sick, and unemployed should have their benefits raised to the same level. This would cost £2,000,000 more.
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Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25679, 16 December 1948, Page 7
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188AGEING BRITISH POPULATION Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25679, 16 December 1948, Page 7
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