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AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands / Nieuws uit Amsterdam / March 20, 2009
Thousands of senior citizens in Amsterdam have a ‘dreadful’ minimum income. The Platform AOW Omhoog! (Raise the State Pension) is gathering signatures for a petition to put the issue on the agenda of the Lower House. WILLEM DREES, one of the members of the platform explains the campaign in an email.
How did the idea to launch a campaign originate?
It resulted from a debate on poverty among the elderly, organised by the Senior Citizens Advice Council (OAR) Oud-West in 2007, which was also attended by members of the city organisations of the elderly. In 2008, they got together to discuss the prospects in Amsterdam. Outcome: a large part of the poverty problem is located not in Amsterdam, but in the Hague [the seat national government]! So the Hague must be targeted in some way. On 2 April 2008, the Platform AOW Omhoog! was launched in Bellevue.
You argue that raising the state pension has become more important as a result of the crisis?
Correct: with the company pension funds doing worse, the need for a good basic pension is greater than ever. And for people who only have AOW, a raise has not become any less important!
One might argue that in times of economic crisis, there is little use in raising the state pension: the elderly have relatively low expenses and chances are that they will only hoard such a raise. As a result, there would be no positive impact on the economy.
That kind of reasoning is completely wrong! Perhaps the elderly aren’t as spendthrift as the young, and perhaps some of their expenses are indeed lower. But this does not answer the question why the elderly have lower expenses. This might well be because their income is lower! You can’t spend what you haven’t got! Anyway, according to the Amsterdam Poverty Monitor, some 17,000 elderly people in Amsterdam have a dreadful minimum income.
Further, the expenses of the elderly may not be as low as you suggest: higher expenses on all kinds of services, more medicine they have to pay for themselves, etcetera. Also, I don’t think that landlords will lower the rent when someone turns 65, and (forcedly) sitting at home more often implies higher energy bills, etcetera. Over ten years ago, the elderly already started cancelling their newspaper subscriptions because they could no longer afford them due to their risen fixed charges.
One might also question the hoarding argument. First, what someone does with his income, much or little, is his own decision. Second, when people hoard money, banks profit. And third: if hoarding doesn’t have a positive impact on the economy, so what? We do not demand the AOW to be raised in order to save the economy, but to make up for the 15 to 17% the elderly have wrongly lost over the past years! If the political will is there, money should be no problem.
Is your campaign a private initiative or are organisations involved?
I just explained how the campaign was launched. A number of organisations have declared their support. Like hundreds of individuals, they help gathering signatures. These organisations include local departments of unions and political parties, etcetera. However, at present there are no structural ties. The motto was: first the grass-roots effort to gather signatures, and then see what happens next. In any case, the Platform maintains an independent position vis-a-vis the political parties. Other alliances are being formed.
Forty thousand signatures are needed in order to put your proposal on the agenda of the Lower House. How likely are you to succeed?
Very likely! Lists of signatures are arriving from all over the country. We already have 32,000 of them.
And when do you think this will happen?
At some moment this spring, we expect. Especially since it is now possible to sign the petition online.
Platform AOW Omhoog! Image: Willem Drees, who introduced the forerunner of the AOW state pension. Photo Wikipedia / Het Museum van de Vaderlandse Geschiedenis
Source:
Nieuws uit Amsterdam
Thousands of senior citizens in Amsterdam have a ‘dreadful’ minimum income. The Platform AOW Omhoog! (Raise the State Pension) is gathering signatures for a petition to put the issue on the agenda of the Lower House. WILLEM DREES, one of the members of the platform explains the campaign in an email.
How did the idea to launch a campaign originate?
It resulted from a debate on poverty among the elderly, organised by the Senior Citizens Advice Council (OAR) Oud-West in 2007, which was also attended by members of the city organisations of the elderly. In 2008, they got together to discuss the prospects in Amsterdam. Outcome: a large part of the poverty problem is located not in Amsterdam, but in the Hague [the seat national government]! So the Hague must be targeted in some way. On 2 April 2008, the Platform AOW Omhoog! was launched in Bellevue.
