From Stephen Bougourd.
I WAS concerned at Friday’s headline, which read ‘Angry OAPs call for return to “old Jersey” ’.

While I did not attend the meeting that it mentioned, I find it difficult to believe that such a sensible group as pensioners would call for such a return to the past. A past presumably without state pensions or other benefits and with higher mortality rates for the elderly and without modern medical care universally available to all. The latter of which I have recently had some experience when, without modern treatment, I would not be here to write these words.

It is possible that what the headline was reporting was a selective remembering of the past, one that did not include two world wars and a depression. One that kept the many good things about living in Jersey today but left out those things presumably perceived as undesirable such as increased taxation, population and development. I would suggest that only the most adept of governments would have stood any chance of achieving the former without the latter.

As far as the means-testing of benefits is concerned, again I find it difficult to believe that pensioners are actually volunteering to have their pensions withheld from those who are deemed not to need them. Though I am sure the saving from such a scheme could easily fund free TV licences for all OAPs, not just the over-75s.

I understand the pensioners’ concern about inflation, but surely as with most other benefits paid by the States, the pension will in due course rise by inflation. The challenge, of course, is the timing of this increase, which may be some time off. This is not, however, a problem experienced solely by pensioners but indeed by anyone subject to an annual review in their income. At least States pensions are unlikely to go down, which may not be the case for other workers’ income, depending on how current events unfold.
4 Edward Place,
Parade,
St Helier.