DAVID Cameron said it was "fair" to protect the basic state pension from cuts, but declined to rule out a squeeze on other pensioner benefits after the general election.
The Prime Minister pledged to retain the "triple-lock" guarantee of minimum annual pension rises of 2.5% until 2020 if the Tories won the next election.
He said it was right to prioritise "security" for people in their old age while austerity continued to bite.
But he failed to carry over a pledge to continue winter fuel payments, free prescriptions, bus passes and TV licences for all pensioners.
"I made a very clear promise. We've kept that promise," he said amid mounting pressure to remove such perks from better-off OAPs. "We will set out our plans at the next election in our manifesto."
Labour plans to strip winter fuel payments from the richest 5% of pensioners and the Liberal Democrats have also said they would means-test the benefits.
Under the "triple lock" the basic state pension rises in line with inflation, wages or 2.5%, whichever is highest.Mr Cameron said the protection had been made possible by "difficult decisions" such as extending the retirement age, meaning millions in their 30s and 40s will wait longer to get a pension. "Politics is about choices and the choice I make is: yes, we should be giving pensioners dignity and security in their old age," he said in an interview.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article