The Western Mail reports on Welsh Liberal Democrat MP, Jenny Willott’s attempt to live for a week on the basic state pension.
Jenny, who usually earns £64,766 a year as MP for Cardiff Central, and company director Dwynwen Williams, pledged to live on the £95.25 each as part of a UK-wide experiment aimed at highlighting pensioner poverty:
Ms Willott, a 35-year-old Liberal Democrat, who lives in Adamsdown, Cardiff, told her Twitter account: “My Remembrance Day poppy is looking tatty and I need a new one. I appreciate now it’s a much bigger sacrifice to buy one as a pensioner.”
She was also forced to make compromises when it came to food, with extracts including:
“This week is good for my caffeine intake. I can’t afford as much tea as normal. Instead I just have a dull throbbing headache.”
“I’m really bored of baked potato, cottage cheese and coleslaw – third same meal in two days.”
The week, which also included volunteers ex-England rugby player Kyran Bracken and author and broadcaster Rose Millard, was part of finance and insurance firm Axa’s “My Budget Day” campaign to encourage people to take better control of their finances, particularly when it comes to retirement planning.
The company’s research has found that 64% of UK residents intend to rely on their state pension in retirement as more and more workers move away from occupational pension schemes.
There was a genuine political point, as Jenny explains: “Attitudes towards saving for retirement need to change drastically if individuals are to make ends meet.
“The current pension system is unfair. It discriminates against women and carers who take time out of work, and the basic state pension is far too low. A total of 2.1 million pensioners live in poverty in the UK today, and two out of three pensioners are forced to rely on benefits to get by.”
You can find her Twitter-feed on the week here.
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