For the past 13 years, Labour has trampled all over savers with its tax attack on pensions and its undermining of the habit of long-term savings.
Over the past year, the damage has been compounded by the Government"s desperate attempt to rescue the economy from a double-dip recession.
The result - record low interest rates - has wreaked havoc, especially among deposit savers who depend on the interest from their nest eggs to supplement their retirement income.
Finding a savings account to limit the damage of rising inflation has become much harder
Although a limited number of savings accounts continue to pay three per cent plus, they are the exception - and even these best-buys fail to pay sufficient interest to repair the damage of inflation, currently 3.7 per cent.
Most savings accounts are paying a paltry 0.1 per cent interest (before tax) while rates available under the tax-friendly shelter of a cash Isa are only marginally better, by virtue of the fact that interest is paid gross.
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Worryingly, despite the formation of savings pressure groups such as Save Our Savers (SOS), matters look as if they will get worse before they get better.
The base rate is stuck at 0.5 per cent and all the indications suggest it will stay there until the end of the year at the very least. So upward pressure on savings rates will be minimal.
Indeed, in the months ahead, savings rates could slip further as banks and building societies (especially) strive to improve their profit margins by widening the gap between savings and mortgage rates.
Manchester Building Society last week cut savings rates across the board by a minimum quarter of a percentage point, reducing gross rates on some accounts to 0.2 per cent. Others will surely follow.
Until the economy swings fully into recovery mode - or a more savings-friendly government is in power - people can do no more than scour the market to find the best deal on their hard-earned savings.
No set of savers has suffered under Labour more grotesquely than Equitable Life"s one million policyholders.
For the past ten years these savers, many of them now elderly, have waited patiently in the hope of receiving some compensation for the money they lost when Equitable teetered on the verge of collapse in 2000. And, sadly, some have long passed away.
Only radical financial surgery by the insurer"s management in the wake of the crisis saved Equitable from administration, but the price paid by policyholders in the form of cuts to their investments was heavy.
Former Bond girl Honor Blackman, who fell victim to Equitable, is leading a protest calling for Gorvernment pay-outs
Unfortunately, and scandalously, calls for compensation have been ignored. Despite numerous reports from parliamentary committees, MEPs and Parliamentary Ombudsman Ann Abraham - all recommending compensation in light of the failure of regulators and various government agencies to spot the problems at Equitable in the run-up to 2000 - not a penny has so far been paid.
The Government has simply sat on its hands and stalled all efforts to bring compensation any closer. Yet, frustratingly as far as frugal Labour is concerned, the Equitable issue will not go away.
Tory leader David Cameron last week put pressure on Labour when he said he would resolve the issue "very early on" - if a Conservative government comes to power at the next General Election.
On compensation, he said: "The Government has put it off and put it off and in a very sick way, I think, they"re waiting for people to die."
According to the formidable Equitable Life Members" Group (Emag), 15 Equitable investors are dying every day while waiting for justice.
Emag, aided by actress Honor Blackman, an Equitable victim, has now called on the Government to make payments on account to those worst hit by the fallout from Equitable - namely 44,000 with-profits annuitants, all in their 70s and 80s, who have seen their retirement income halved since 2000
Emag wants the Government to pay the equivalent of two years of pension - equating to an average 4,400 each - to these annuitants which would be deducted from any future compensation.
It is a smart idea that is likely to be picked up at Wednesday"s meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life policyholders.
Emag"s proposal should be seized on by a Government with more than one eye on an impending election. But given Labour"s lamentable treatment of Equitable policyholders, it will no doubt be ignored.
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