Letters / We don’t know
About a month ago Douglas Young (Don’t vote from fear, SN 19/06/2014) advised our pensions were not under threat from independence and any queries should be sent to the Department for Work and Pensions.
This I did and asked who would pay our pension after Scottish independence.
The reply I got did nothing to ease my worries in fact it made me worry even more:
Dear Mr Harmer
Thank you for your recent correspondence, raising issues arising from Government policies which are the responsibility of this Department. Government Ministers receive a large volume of correspondence and they are unable to reply personally on every occasion. We have been asked to respond.
In the event of independence, State Pensions and benefits in Scotland for its citizens would be the responsibility of a Scottish Government. Therefore, any questions about entitlements in an independent Scottish state should be directed to the Scottish Government.
Yours sincerely
Ministerial Correspondence Team
As we don’t know who will form the first independent Scottish government it is pointless asking the present Scottish government this question.
Therefore we must assume the question of pensions can be entered into the ever-thickening file on independence entitled “we don’t know”.
Gordon Harmer,
Brae.
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