My frustration is that people often don’t seem to understand just how dire the situation is financially as a country. Public sector net debt at the end of 2023/24 will be £2.6 trillion – a staggering 98% of GDP. The interest the Government has to pay to maintain this debt, which should be used to make the UK a better place, is at a 20-year high.
The fact that 9.2 million people aged 16 to 64 in the UK are not working or looking for work is clearly a problem, but there is another group of people who are being pushed beyond our ability to pay: pensioners.
In 2023-24, the government is forecast to spend £265.5 billion on pensions and benefits, of which just over half, £134.8 billion, will go to pensioners. This is far more than the expected spending on health (£176.2 billion), education (£81.4 billion) and defence (£32.4 billion) in 2023-24.
Meanwhile, since 2019, state pensions have increased by a staggering 31 percent.
Mr Sunak has now proposed increasing personal allowances for pensioners only, and agreed to give them very targeted tax cuts – the so-called “quadruple lock”. Labour has not been held accountable on this, and has been accused of plotting to plunder pensions. Jonathan Garris, the deputy Conservative leader, said: “As Labour governments always do, when the money runs out you can be sure they will have their hands in your pockets and your pensions.”
I say not only should the next administration raid pensions, it must do so.
Young people have had a tough time in recent years.
They are the population least at risk of contracting COVID-19, and yet they are the ones whose lives have been most upended by efforts to contain its spread: In the first year of the pandemic, the unemployment rate for workers under 25 was over 40%. For everyone else, their education, not to mention their mental health and social lives, has been severely and cruelly (with hats off to Mary Boustead and co.).
In 2019-19, the government spent around £14,655 for every child in the UK, £10,178 for every working-age adult and £20,789 for every pensioner – roughly two-fifths of NHS spending on this age group, and this is set to rise.
We can’t afford to continue to subsidize the elderly to this extent, and unfortunately, it’s time for good fortune and government subsidies to favor the young.
Anna van Praag is the Evening Standard’s chief content officer.
