According to the BBC it is expected that there will be an announcent on plans to reform the state pension next week, with a new flat-rate scheme to start in 2015 or 2016. 

The flat-rate pension could be worth at least £155 for new pensioners, and detailed plans are expected to be published next week, explaining how the system will be introduced. 

The full state pension is currently £97.65 a week for men and women, but extra payments ensure a minimum weekly income of £132.60, and the current minimum income guarantee also means that couples receive £202.40 a week through the means-tested pensions credit.

BBC chief economics correspondent, Hugh Pym said:

“It is assumed that inflation-linked increases will take the means tested guarantee up to around £155 by the middle years of this decade. 

“The government may decide to bring in the new single pension at a slightly higher level.”  

This would also be higher than the figure of £140 a week previously mentioned by the government.

 Plans for a universal, flat-rate state pension have been discussed for a number of weeks, and final confirmation of the government’s intentions was given in Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget on 23 March when he said that the flat-rate pension would only be available for new pensioners reaching state pension age, rather than the millions of existing pensioners.  

More than one-and-a-half million eligible pensioners do not claim pension credit, and the government believes that such individual losses of entitlement would not occur under a simpler flat-rate system, but there is likely to be debate over the “fairness” of a flat rate which makes no distinction between poor and wealthy new pensioners.

1. Ensure that you have a working smoke alarm, and if you don’t, get one today.
2. Establish an escape plan and make sure that everyone in the property knows what to do to escape safely if a fire breaks out.

I’m not in the habit of reading Tory websites – I find that on the whole, the less I speak about politics to Tories the better we get on, but this article written by Tim Montgomerie was recently brought to my attention, and I couldn’t resist helping to publicise it!

It’s been quite a while since my last thorough stock-take of who was winning the tug-o-war inside the Coalition.

Before I do a comprehensive update it’s worth noting that there have been significant signs recently that the Liberal Democrats have been increasingly assertive inside the Coalition and that they are winning some important battles:

• In a victory for Chris Huhne, an extra £2 billion for the Green Investment Bank was announced by George Osborne last week (despite the fact that Alternative Energy produces bottom-of-the-league returns);
• An extra £70 million to replace the Educational Maintenance Allowance (for which Simon Hughes has claimed the credit);
• The Orwellian-sounding Office for Fair Access will have been given real powers to ensure (as today’s Mail puts it) “pupils from bad schools be given college places ahead of middle-class students with better grades”;
• The appointment of Anthony Lester, Phillippe Sands and Helena Kennedy (Labour peer) to the commission to investigate reform of human rights act (appointments that will make serious reform very unlikely for the reasons explained by Fraser Nelson);
• Imminent dilution of the Health Reforms (although many Tory MPs will welcome a gentler pace of reform here). 

Clegg hasn’t stopped there. Yesterday, on his way to Mexico, he signalled that onerous requirements on the nuclear industry might make it uneconomic. Britain’s nuclear plants are already super-safe and a new generation of hi-tech nuclear plants would be even safer but the Lib Dems appear to want to kill the nuclear industry by imposing impossible costs on it.  We also have had, of course, the Vince Cable call for new property taxes.

The nuclear and other re-positioning may all be pre-election posturing. The Lib Dems are facing terrible results in May, as Jonathan detailed con Tuesday. What we are seeing, however, is an increasingly assertive yellow team. The language used yesterday by Chris Huhne towards Sayeeda Warsi was extraordinary:

“If Baroness Warsi thinks that AV will benefit fascism she has to explain why the BNP wants to stick with what we have and Operation Black Vote supports AV. The BNP know the present system is their only chance of election. This is another example of the increasingly Goebbels-like campaign from the anti-AV people, for whom no lie is too idiotic given the truth is so unpalatable to them. AV makes lazy MPs work harder and reach out beyond their tribe. It is what Britain needs to clean up politics.“

Responding to the article by Conservative Co-Chairman Baroness Warsi in the Sun today, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness (Kishwer) Falkner dismissed claims that the Fairer Votes referendum would help extremist parties.

The housing charity, Shelter, has started a campaign for better protection for tenants, and earlier this year I proposed a motion to N E Lincs Council which was accepted unanimously in support of this campaign.  You can see below what is on the Shelter website:

Renting a home can be a risky business. Rogue landlords still operate in the UK and continue to get away with harassing tenants and letting out homes in an appalling condition.

• Complaints to Shelter advice services about landlords have increased by 23 per cent in the last year.
• Just 2.2% of landlords belong to a professional body.
• Almost 1 million Britons have been the victim of a scam involving a private tenancy or landlord in the last three years*.

Unfortunately rogue landlords don’t come with a warning sign and even the savviest of tenants get ripped off. Finding an honest landlord who lets out a decent home shouldn’t be about luck or guesswork: tenants should be able to make informed choices.

That’s why Shelter is calling on the Government to establish a national standard for landlords to sign up to. That way, landlords can demonstrate their commitment to providing quality accommodation and tenants can be sure that their landlord is reputable.

You can sign Shelter’s petition to help us convince the Government that they must protect people who rent their homes at http://ow.ly/4qda5

* Results from an online YouGov survey. Fieldwork was undertaken between 10-12 August 2010. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).

The No to AV camp’s bogus claims on extremism suffered another blow today as community leaders and people of different faiths and none united in a show of support for a Yes vote.

Nick Griffin’s party are actively campaigning for a No vote, having sneaked into town halls across Britain on a tiny minority of the vote thanks to the First Past the Post system.

AV would require all candidates to aim for 50% support – shutting the door on extremism. Leading pollster Peter Kellner has described AV as “the most extremist-proof of all electoral systems.”

Simon Woolley from Operation Black Vote agrees. “AV means all MPs will have to reach out beyond a narrow targeted group of voters and represent people who often feel neglected by our present system. The fact that the BNP desperately want a NO vote speaks volumes.”

Yes to Fairer Votes has also been bolstered today by the leaders of Muslim and Hindu groups coming out in support of the campaign. Farooq Murad, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain commented “We believe that politics can be better. AV means that all voters will

have a stronger say in our elections, and that all politicians will have to reach out further – and secure majority support from the communities they seek to represent.

“The BNP are campaigning for a No vote because they know what a YES vote means – that racists who won’t reach out have no future.”

Meanwhile, Brij Mohan Gupta, Chair of the Hindu Culture and Heritage Centre has also come on board. “AV will give more power to ordinary voters to decide the fate of the nation”.

Scientist and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins commented to the Independent newspaper today that “I am at a loss to understand how any reasonable person can defend first past the post. AV should be supported by every democrat.”

This prompted the Bishop of Buckingham Alan Wilson to say “It doesn’t often happen, but I strongly agree with Richard on this one — we may differ on why the cosmos came into being, but it’s good we can agree on how our little corner of it should work democratically.”

The campaign for the UK to adopt the Alternative Vote in May is supported by reasonable people of all faiths and none, and from across the political spectrum. The No campaign can’t choose their supporters, but they can’t escape the fact the BNP are campaigning for a No vote.

Maybe up is down and black is white, but Nick Griffin is still saying No to AV.

A £180 million bursary scheme to help the poorest teenagers has been welcomed by the Liberal Democrat MP for  Cambridge, Julian Huppert. 

The scheme will replace the Education Maintenance Allowance bringing a guaranteed payment of £1,200 a year for the most vulnerable teenagers and a discretionary fund for schools and colleges to hand out.

 Julian said:

“This decision means that those students currently at Cambridge Regional College and Long Road should not have to review their decisions on staying at college in Cambridge.

“This post-16 bursary will pay for travel, lunch and equipment for thousands of students  nationally,” said Julian. “The poorest youngsters will receive more help to stay in education than they used to get under EMA which is the way it should be – we should help the worst off most!

“There’s enough money so that, for example, any child eligible for free school meals could receive an extra £800 a year to stay on in full time education. Young people who were getting the full EMA will continue to get financial support to help them out.

“This is something that really matters to young people in Cambridge and across the country as my colleague Simon Hughes has found. It is Lib Dem pressure, coordinated by him, that ensured that there was more money available for this than there would have been otherwise.

“It is crucial that we keep young people in education and this new scheme will give the poorest and most vulnerable young people a chance to continue beyond 16.”

Cambridge City Councillor and member of Liberal Democrats’ Federal Policy Committee, Julie Smith said, ‘I welcome the announcement that the government has found sufficient funding to ensure that no young person will be prevented from further education because of travel costs.

“While we acknowledge that the total sum available is less than the EMA, it will be targeted to help those who need it most, including children leaving care, teenage parents and young people with severe disabilities, who will now be eligible for a £1,200 bursary each year, more than anyone has been getting from EMA currently.”

Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East, David Ward, has welcomed a package of measures to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds to stay on in education as demonstration of Liberal Democrat influence in government.

The package, which has been unveiled by the Education Secretary, will form part of the replacement to the Education Maintenance Allowance, which is being wound down this year.

The Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, Simon Hughes, has played a significant part in drawing up the proposals, acting as the Government’s Advocate for Access to Education.

Speaking in the House of Commons, David Ward strongly welcomed the measures, which include:

• A new targeted scheme worth £160 million to help the poorest to stay on in education. This will be a discretionary fund administered by schools and colleges.
• A £194 million transitional support fund for those currently on EMA. All students in receipt of the full rate will get at least £20 per week, and those currently receiving £20 will continue to receive £10, with further discretionary support available.
• An additional £15 million of support for the most vulnerable people such as those on income support or in care.

Commenting, David Ward said:

“This is why the Liberal Democrats are part of the Coalition. Scrapping EMA without a proper replacement was something which I and many Liberal Democrats up and down the country could not support, and I voted against it in the Commons.

“My colleague Simon Hughes has been working with the Government on this issue since the Autumn, and this very welcome package of measures is the result. It deals with many of the shortcomings of EMA whilst ensuring that that people from poorer backgrounds get the targeted support they need to stay on in education. In fact the least well-off will actually get more support than they do now.

“I also very much welcome the transitional support available so that those already receiving EMA don’t have the rug pulled out from under them. This is good news for the 9000 thousand young people in Bradford who currently get EMA payments each week.

“This is another example of the real influence that the Liberal Democrats are having to make this Government fairer and to support greater equality of opportunity in our society.”