Gaham Carpenter of Oldfields Close, Leominster asks why treat some pensioners worse? (From Hereford Times)

Gaham Carpenter of Oldfields Close, Leominster asks why treat some pensioners worse?

3:00pm Sunday 19th August 2012 in Letters

ARTICLE 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and Article 14 of the Human Rights Act of 1998 both state that “The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground.”

But in the UK, some 12 million people have the status of retired but they are about to be discriminated against when the government introduces its two-tier pension system.

Those 12 million people will have to rely upon means testing to take them above the level of the basic state pension of £107 per week, while people reaching retirement age when the new law comes into force will automatically receive £140 per week.

Why should one fifth of the population be discriminated against in this way?

GRAHAM CARPENTER, Oldfields Close, Leominster.