BARONESS Castle of Blackburn has made a Christmas call for the government to scrap means-tested benefits for pensioners.
The veteran Labour politician wants to see the State Earnings Related Pensions Scheme which she devised as a top up for to the state pension for thrifty people brought back.
She said the government proposals for "stakeholder pensioners'', Minimum Income Guarantee, and the proposed Pensions Credit would not guarantee security for Britain's elderly.
She quoted the Blairite think tank the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) as saying: "The government's whole pension policy is unravelling and the government should go back to the drawing board.''
She said Help the Aged and Age Concern had both said that the present means-test based policy was "misguided'' and the best option was a national administered state insurance scheme - like SERPS.
Baroness Castle said: "The future security of millions of our people is at stake.
"It is said that the policy is unravelling because there is no certainty that the stakeholder pension will hit its target or that it will reach people who need it."
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