A BID to raise State pensions and establish a Minister for retired
people was launched in the Commons yesterday.
An elderly woman in the Strangers' Gallery applauded loudly -- against
the rules -- as Labour's Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) gained a formal
first reading for his Elimination of Poverty in Retirement Bill, but she
stopped when asked by an official.
Mr Corbyn said the measure would increase a couple's State pension to
half of average earnings and a single person's to one third and then
provide for annual rises in line with earnings or inflation, whichever
was the higher.
It also would exempt pensioners from standing charges for gas,
electricity and water and from TV licence fees and telephone rental.
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