Towards public–private partnership: Labour and pensions policy

At first glance, the period from 1964 to 1970 does not appear a particularly significant era in the development of post-war retirement/old age pensions policy in the United Kingdom. In terms of legislation designed for the bulk of National Insurance (NI) retirement pensioners during the first two Wilson Governments, there was little to show other than three increases in the rate of the standard pension, in 1965, 1967 and 1969. Moreover, these upratings, which followed similarly spaced Conservative increases in 1958, 1961 and 1963, were, as Heclo argues, ‘fairly mechanical decisions’ merely designed to prevent old age pensioners from slipping too far behind general wage and price increases (1974: 258).