JOHN RENTOUL Political Correspondent Dire Conservative warnings of a retirement time-bomb caused by an ageing population

JOHN RENTOUL

Political Correspondent
Dire Conservative warnings of a “retirement time-bomb” caused by an ageing population were dismissed by Labour yesterday as a “softening up” exercise for “vote-buying, panic measures” expected to be announced by the Prime Minister at next month’s Conservative conference.John Major has signalled the introduction of measures to help old people who are forced to sell their homes to pay for nursing and residential care.John MacGregor, MP for Norfolk South and a former Cabinet minister, warned on Wednesday in a speech to Tories in his constituency that the Government faced an “explosive cocktail” as the number of pensioners grows in relation to the number of workers supporting them. He said the Government needed to take action to encourage people to save for their old age.Adam Ingram, Labour social security spokesman, said: “It is odd that Mr MacGregor is now wearing his heart on his sleeve. It’s all to do with the preconditioning of the political scene – clearly the Government is going to announce something.”He described Mr MacGregor’s speech as “strange”, claiming that, because Britain has the largest funded pensions sector in Europe, the burden of growing numbers of the elderly would not fall primarily on the taxpayer. “If problems exist, then he and his government colleagues have helped to create them. The pension changes to which Mr MacGregor was party have resulted in millions of future pensioners being robbed of their due entitlement as a result of the mis-selling of pensions.” Independent observers also accused Mr MacGregor of “exaggerating” the demographic time-bomb for political reasons. Two social workers were also in court.The public is excluded from youth courts, but more than a dozen media representatives packed the rear of the small courtroom.The boy was asked to stand with his mother as Mrs Darwin told the magistrates that he faced a charge of manslaughter on Tuesday, 29 August.Mrs Condie died almost instantly when an 18lb (8kg) piece of concrete struck her on the head as she was entering a side door of the 12-storey flats with her husband, George, 76, and daughter Janet, 43, at lunch-time on Tuesday.Following the incident, the dead woman’s husband was comforted by family and friends after being treated for shock at Leeds General Infirmary.Two other boys, one aged 10 and one aged 9, were arrested and questioned by police but were released without charge on Wednesday..

His solicitor, Anne Glen, made no application for bail.The fair-haired boy spoke only once during the hearing yesterday. He nodded when he was asked to confirm his name, and said “Yes” at the end of the hearing, when the chairman of the bench, David Homewood, asked him if he understood the remand. Ann Darwin, solicitor for the prosecution, made an application for the seven-day remand.The boy, wearing trainers, jeans, a shirt and a sleeveless wool jerkin, stood throughout the hearing holding his mother’s hand.On the other side of him sat his grandfather and grandmother. The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, made a six-minute appearance before the court in Leeds in connection with the death of Edna Condie outside her 43-year-old daughter’s home at Grayson Heights in Kirkstall, Leeds, on Tuesday.
The boy was remanded into local authority accommodation until next Thursday. A 10-year-old boy accused of the manslaughter of a 74-year-old woman, who was struck by a block of concrete that fell from the roof of a tower-block, was remanded in custody for a week when he appeared at a youth court yesterday. National Westminster, which charges a pounds 9 fee for unauthorised overdrafts plus pounds 3.50 a day for amounts over pounds 50, said that for a number of years local managers had discretion to waive charges.A spokesman for the Consumers’ Association said that it was “good that one of the larger banks was trying to reduce overdraft charges”..

The charges for unauthorised overdrafts are the single greatest cause of complaint, with almost one in five saying they would threaten to change their bank.Its main competitors said there were no definite plans to follow Barclays’ lead but that charges were constantly being reviewed. Customers will be subject to the same charges if they have an unauthorised overdraft for more than two days.The reason Barclays gave for suspending charges was NOP research which indicated more than two in three people think banks put overdraft charges before customer service. Previously it had charged pounds 15 for unauthorised overdrafts up to pounds 200, and pounds 30 for those over that amount. GLENDA COOPER

Barclays Bank will suspend charges for people who go into the red by mistake, after research found that two out of three people think banks put overdraft charges before customer services.
Its high street competitors did not commit themselves to follow Barclays’ lead, and consumer organisations gave the move only a cautious welcome, saying there was still much room for improvement.The bank says it will give customers two days’ grace if the account goes into the red by any amount.