I WOULD like to respond to the letter in the Echo on Monday, February 27 sent by Nancy Curtis.

I do think that the somewhat outspoken Ms Curtis will be upsetting a lot of local people especially in the Boscombe area and I am not sure if this antagonistic stance is at all necessary. However, I would like to address a couple of points in her letter.

Ms Curtis when talking about gold plated pensions cites the civil service pension as non-contributory.

Pre-2007 the principal civil service pension (CSP) was non-contributory, but when accepting an established position you were advised that your salary was lower than outside industry (which it always was) by about 7% per year to mitigate the fact that you did not have to contribute.

However, from 2007 the government revised the CSP pension scheme totally and civil servants now have to contribute a percentage of their salary. The pension age was also increased from 60 to 65 with a view to further increases over the years ahead.

Also, as any increase in the pension is now based on the consumer price index there has now been no increase for two years.

There has also been much said about rich pensioners recently, but to take this year’s state pension increase in April, the council tax rise and income tax due on it alone wipe the increase cleanly away.

The result of these facts is an erosion of income and with little or no income from any savings, pensioners’ incomes are reducing quite drastically.

The knock-on effect from this is that pensioners are reluctant to spend in the shops or on their homes, which has a knock-on effect to the economy.

I have heard it said quite a lot recently that it was the pensioners’ spending that kept the economic wheels turning. It would be nice to be a rich pensioner. Any idea where I am going wrong?

ROBERT HILL

Potters Way, Poole

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