[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22835027

Labour has said spending on state pensions is likely to be included in its proposed cap on welfare budgets.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls told the BBC "at the moment" Labour intended to factor pensions into its calculations for a three-year cap from 2015-16.

The opposition said it was committed to maintaining the value of the state pension but welfare expenditure needed to be looked at "across the piece".

Mr Balls told the BBC's Sunday Politics: "George Osborne is going to announce his cap in two weeks time. I don't know whether he will exclude or include pensioners spending. At the moment our plan is to include it."

The shadow chancellor said it was not the case that a future Labour government would have to cut the value of the state pension in order to ensure any welfare cap was not breached.

But he said including pensions, which forms the largest part of the multi-billion pound structural benefits bill, made sense.

"Look across the whole welfare state and ask what are the drivers of expenditure," he explained.

"I think many people watching your programme will not realise that actually today the clear large bulk, most welfare spending is in fact going to people over 60. That is the truth. We should look across the piece."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22835027

All parties should beware the grey vote - those that are and those that soon will be :

“At the 2010 general election, 40-somethings were dominant at the ballot box. The youngest voters, and voters in their early-30s, were particularly disadvantaged. There were more potential voters aged 50, 51, 52 or 63 than any single age between 31 and 36, more potential voters aged 62 than any single age between 32 and 35, and more potential voters aged 50, 51 or 63 than aged 18. The potential voting power of people approaching retirement in 2010, whose life chances will be affected by electoral outcomes to a far lesser extent than younger voters, is therefore highly significant.”