Young people champion pensioners' rights to remain exempt from benefits cuts

A survey has found that both pensioners and the wider general public feel that over 65s should not be exempt from benefit cuts.

Opposing this view was the youngest age group asked, with 52 per cent of 18-24 year- olds feeling that pensioners should be protected from cuts.

In a survey commissioned by The Independent and carried out by ComRes, it has been found that the majority of pensioners do not feel they should be exempt from feeling the impact of the Government’s spending cuts on benefit perks such as the winter fuel allowance.

The poll suggests that most 65 year olds have accepted that benefits for older people might need to see cuts and are prepared for this possible occurrence in the future.

By comparison, the strongest support for protecting pensioners was among young people aged 18 to 24.

Dot Gibson, general secretary of the National Pensioners Convention, said: “Pensioners are members of families and of course they understand how all age groups are being affected by the Government’s programme of cuts. But pensioners have not escaped the austerity measures.

“The winter fuel allowance has already been cut, pension increases have been reduced, bus routes and services have been withdrawn and social-care services are collapsing all over the country.

“The truth is that there is a move to divide the generations and start blaming each other for the financial crisis – when the real culprits are the bankers and the politicians that allowed them to operate without any real control.”

However this survey seems to portray a different view, with the younger generation supporting pensioner’s needs to protect their state pension from potential cuts.

Fifty-six per cent of those aged over 65 felt that they should ‘be no more immune to the impact of government cuts than other member of society’, with 49 per cent of the public expressing a similar feeling.