Hansard

I believe that the basic pension should be raised. However, I am astonished that the Conservatives did not address that issue when they were in power. They decoupled the relationship between earnings and pensions. [Interruption.] As Frank McAveety has just shouted out, they had only 18 years in which to address the issue. We are all aware—except those on the Conservative benches—that pensioners gained no favours during the Conservatives' 18 years in power.

An Age Concern members' survey said:

"Ageing persons do not welcome complicated forms to fill in—

as Mr Davidson rightly said—

"What they hope for is minimal fuss when they find themselves obliged to call in financial help in these matters."

In 1999, a Scottish Executive survey of older people's needs and services found that there was a lack of knowledge about services and how to access them and that that was a major reason for unmet need. People tended not to approach social services for help and advice, and information did not appear to be readily available to them.

The Executive has produced a welcome document, "Are You Over 50?", to serve as a guide for older people to the service provision that is available to them, but it does not go far enough. A more widely publicised campaign for benefit take-up in Scotland is required. Alice Jarvie of SeniorLine in Scotland states that calls to SeniorLine

"reflect older people's confusion about exactly what they are entitled to."

That is particularly important, because changes to the way in which benefits are paid are to be implemented next month. Benefits are reserved, but education about them is not. Pensions are also reserved to the Department for Work and Pensions, but pensioner poverty, which is an important issue for Scottish older people, is devolved.

Minimum income benefits should enable pensioners to have a reasonable standard of living, but benefit take-up problems continue to be rife. Women who are over the age of 65 are less likely to have an occupational pension, because of career breaks for children. The fact that women are likely to live longer through retirement means that they experience particular issues relating to poverty. Today, fewer than half of people of working age contribute to a non-state pension. As members are all well aware, there is a £27 billion hole in pension provision in the United Kingdom, because of the volatile nature of the pensions market. I am sure that the Conservatives will focus heavily on that issue. I must contradict the minister, as I do not believe that current Government policies have helped to produce stability in that area. That is ominous for the future, especially as the Scottish Executive's social justice annual report showed that it had failed to increase the number of working-age people who contribute to a non-state pension, which is milestone 20 of the 2002 report.

Poverty and the number of pensioners who live in poverty are major issues of concern. Relative poverty is the issue that we should debate, in common with other European nations. I will not argue that case, as I have very little time left.

The Scottish Executive stated:

"the poorest families have experienced real increases in their living standards since 1996/97."

On the contrary, a study on Scottish poverty by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which was published just a few months ago, concluded that in the seven years between 1994 and 2001,

"the overall sense is one of little change".

Given that I am running out of time, I will jump ahead in my speech to an issue that has not been mentioned a great deal. I am sure that my colleagues will discuss poverty at some length, but I want to make a point about fuel poverty. I have some concerns about the Executive's line on fuel poverty. Four weeks ago, the minister issued a press release that said that some 20 local authorities had finished their central heating programmes. One of those local authorities was Glasgow City Council, which will not finish its programme for three years. When I pointed that out to officials, they said that the minister would release a retraction, but that has not happened. We must be concerned about spin on that issue.

The Conservatives quoted a figure on fuel poverty. I, too, have a figure: 25 per cent of our pensioners live in a household that is cold enough to put residents at risk of hypothermia. There is still a long way to go.

Older people are more likely than younger people to worry about being mugged or robbed. Although we know that older people are less likely to suffer from crime, fear of crime can be as much of a problem as crime itself. Forty-six per cent of people who are over 65 believe that crime in their area has got worse during the past two years. Between 7 and 10 per cent of older people are victims of some form of abuse, often from family members. The Parliament has not touched on that issue in recent years, but we should examine it, especially in light of the alarming information that Age Concern has provided, which indicates that reports of abuse of the elderly have increased by 400 per cent in the past year. Although that increase might be the result of greater awareness, it is a serious concern.

I would also like to discuss transport, but I have only 30 seconds left, so I will not.