Speaking at the Conservative conference in Bournemouth, Tottenham's Lydia Rivlin demands that Labour gives a little respect to our pensioners 13/10/04

Lydia Rivlin, Chairman of Tottenham Conservatives, delivered a speech at the Conservative conference in Bournemouth last week.

In the forum preceeding a debate on work and pensions, she spoke about her fury at seeing a very old man having to leave a local post office empty-handed because he had made a mistake while trying to key his identity number into the Post Office PIN machine.  Having received the wrong number, the machine would not recognise him and no payment could therefore be made. 

The focus of Lydia's concern was that the present government had an attitude of contempt towards people who could not operate modern technology. "There is no reason on earth to make an old man prove his identity using a PIN machine," she said. 

Lydia then continued by pointing out that such incidents as the one she witnessed, seemed calculated only to humiliate and went on to criticise means testing as another humiliation.  Now back in Tottenham, Lydia adds, "The documents to means-test pensioners are several pages thick and have be filled out meticulously.  It is a disgrace.  No wonder so many pensioners are choosing not to claim the money and instead to just go without--as if it is not bad enough that the Government is stealing money from the Pensioners by raiding their pension funds."

ENDS.