Salford elderly slam "Granny Tax"

ANGRY grannies today vowed to vote out the government at the next election as payback for the Chancellor's attack on pensioners' tax allowances, writes Sanjay Dove.

George Osborne’s so-called "Granny Tax”, announced in the budget, has caused outrage among Salford’s pensioners, Salford News found out today.

The tax, which affects middle income pensioners over 65, means those receiving between £10,500 and £28,930 will end up paying the same rate of tax as current workers.

Jean Bailey, 73, said: “As a granny myself, I think that my generation have paid into this country, we’ve paid our taxes and we’ve paid our dues.  My generation didn’t know unemployment so we worked and we paid our dues.

“We put so much into this country and he’s come along and he’s grabbing back.  He’s taking back as much as he can.”

Jean also admitted that it could also affect the way her generation would vote in the next general election.

“It will be interesting to see what knock-on effect this will have, because it’s my generation of pensioners who vote.  Our vote could stop kind of thing from happening in the future.”

Another angry pensioner, Margaret, 81, agreed, adding that she would be using her vote to vote out the government rather than to elect a new one.

She added: “I do object to the way pensioners have been hammered in this budget.  I’ve worked most of my life, apart from when I had four young children. I think it’s rubbish."

Before the budget, the personal tax allowance was set at £10,500 for pensioners earning less than £28,930 and £8,105 for current workers.

Now, as the personal allowance for workers has increased to £9,205, the allowance for the over 65s has been reduced to match this level, in what George Osborne says is a “much simpler system for everyone.”

At the moment, OAPs pay £493 less than a worker on the same wage.  Those over 75 get a higher allowance, paying £523 less tax.  Age UK says that the aged will pay up to £279 more than they otherwise would.

However, not all agree that middle income pensioners should have a tax break.

Winton, 65, said: “I’m not quite sure why pensioners ever got the tax break in the first place.  Not having had it, I suppose I won’t miss it.  I can’t see why pensioners should have a higher level of allowance.

“There are issues about whether people get enough pensions but I don’t see the way to address that is to give people a higher tax allowance.  It ought to be a higher pension.  There shouldn’t be why any one group get a better allowance than another.”

However, Winton, who has recently turned 65, misses the "granny tax" because he was born before the 5 April1948. Only those born after that date, are in line for the new tax.
The reduction in allowance will raise £3.5bn for the Treasury in five years but the implications of which remain to be seen.