Ed Miliband vowed to reduce university tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000 per year. There are more than 500,000 students studying in higher education institutions in this country. The reduction in tuition fees is going to cost £3 billion a year. The party intend to raise £2 billion a year by curtailing pension tax reliefs.
The Labour party thinks raiding pension funds is a way to do it and this plan would target nurses, teachers and firefighters. SAGA said Labour was playing ‘Russian roulette’ with people’s future and robbing pensioners was the wrong decision. This policy will leave universities out of pocket in the long term.
Labour created several new universities and several private colleges/universities. At least 25 percent of students studying in private/polytechnic universities are from overseas and European countries. In one private institution the number of students has gone up to 40,000. Most of them are from Europe since they need not pay tuition fees and are entailed to council grants and loans. Universities are starved of money for research in science and engineering subjects and there are too many colleges running business studies.
It seems politicians have come to see the retirement savings as a convenient piggy bank which can be raided. The pensioners should oppose strongly on this proposal.
Arun Vaidyanathan
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