Pensioners have been betrayed

I nearly fell off my chair when I read Andrew Rawnsley’s claim that “not for the first time, a Conservative government has rewarded its core vote of the retired at the expense of workers” (“Boris Johnson’s generation game: the young and poor pay for the old and rich”, Comment, last week). Anyone would think that in the previous week the government hadn’t “suspended” its triple lock guarantee to recipients of the state pension because the increase in average earnings would otherwise produce a significant increase in the pension payout.

But Rawnsley has in mind only the increase in national insurance to inject funds into the NHS and, if it is lucky, social care. In so doing, he overlooks the betrayal of people on a state pension. This is surely now the main electoral worry for the Conservatives. Pensioners have just been very badly let down by the government, which has shamelessly broken the Conservative manifesto commitment to retain the triple lock for the duration of the current parliament – and pensioners vote.

David Head

Peterborough

Yvonne Roberts’s failure to acknowledge the nearly one-fifth of pensioners living in poverty was astonishing (“These strange times have made us experts in loss and loneliness”, Comment, last week). Instead, she describes retirement communities as “plush establishments... for those with sufficient income”. What about those who are not so fortunate?

Joanna Whitehead

London E8