A Scottish Conservative candidate has backed plans by his party to offer a tax rebate to pensioners.
George Macpherson, the Scottish Conservative candidate for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, has said that a Conservative pledge to deliver an annual £500 tax rebate to pensioners is “the right response to the cost-of-living crisis”.
His call comes after Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay defended his plan to give pensioners the tax rebate while cutting spending on child and disability benefits when he faced strong scrutiny of his plans in a media interview.
Mr Macpherson said: “We really need to step in and support people who are on fixed incomes such as pensioners who will be very worried about the cost-of-living and how they can meet the costs of things like the weekly food shop or heating their homes using oil.
“People who have paid their taxes all their working lives deserve a bit of extra help at times like this, especially here in the Western Isles where the cost of living is higher anyway. I am confident that this is the right response to the cost-of-living crisis.”
Mr Macpherson confirmed that the Conservative plans would mean the £500 figure would be triple-locked – increasing annually in line with earnings, inflation or 2%, whichever is highest.
He added: “We are combining this pledge with a commitment to address the burgeoning increases in other costs, such as welfare. Our pledge is targeted at people who really need support and is quite different to the approach of the SNP and Labour who seem to be content with presiding over ever-increasing welfare payments which are putting so much pressure on the government’s finances.”
The Tory Leader proposed tax breaks alongside welfare spending reductions in his party’s Holyrood election manifesto, in a bid, he says to cut “huge amounts of government waste”.
Speaking in a radio interview on 26 March Findlay insisted it was “entirely reasonable” to give pensioners on “modest incomes” the £500 boost. But that he hoped millionaire pensioners would not apply for the payment.
The manifesto proposes that pensioners are able to claim the first £500 they pay in tax on their pension income.
Asked by journalist Martin Geissler if that was the correct use of public money as he attempted to cut waste, Findlay said the payment would not be available to “those at the upper level of earnings”.
The Tory leader then appealed to the good nature of wealthy pensioners not to apply for the funding if they didn’t need it saying pensioners would have to apply to receive a payment.
“It’d be up to each pensioner to apply for this,” he said. “So I would like to think that if you were a millionaire pensioner, of which there are very few, you would not be seeking to get your 50 quid.”
The Conservatives plan to cut income tax by raising the point at which Scots start paying the levy on their earnings.
Scotland’s starter (19%), basic (20%) and intermediate (21%) bands would also be combined into one 19% bands.
And the level at which the higher rate (42%) kicks in would be raised to £50,270, matching the UK tax system.
The candidates for next month’s Holyrood election were confirmed by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s Constituency Returning Officer last month.
On the ballot papers on Thursday, May 7, are Alasdair Allan, SNP; Jamie Dobson, Scottish Liberal Democrats; Kenny MacKenzie, Alliance to Liberate Scotland and Sovereignty; Donald MacKinnon, Scottish Labour Party; George MacPherson, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party; and Malcolm Ivor McTaggart, Reform UK.
Voting in the Scottish Parliamentary election will take place between 7 am and 10 pm on election day.