Has Labour really ransacked our pensions?

Yes, according to this article in This is Money it looks as though they have, taking £5 billion pounds from our pension funds each year since 1997 reducing the value of pension funds by £100 billion.

To quote the article:"Gordon Brown's last words on the matter came in staunch defense three years ago.

He said: 'It was the right decision for investment. It was the right investment for our pensions and the right decision for our economy.'

But the facts don't support his case. Help the Aged has reported that 2m older people live in poverty. Granted, this is a decline from 2.9m in 1999, but it's still a disturbing number.

And the reason is that the basic state pension falls below the poverty line. Labour's attempts to tackle this have created an unedifyingly complex credit system. Exasperating statistics show that up to £5bn in pension credit, housing benefit and council tax goes unclaimed by 5m pensioners each year – or 30% of entitled recipients - as many simply become lost in a mire of paperwork."

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/pensions/article.html?in_article_id=502626&in_page_id=6#ixzz0kefSP6ba Or Click here.