Pensions & Benefits Government silently robs pensioners - again!
29/09/2008
Several readers contacted us after hearing BBC Radio 4's Money Box broadcast on Saturday September 20th. They were alarmed and angry that the Government's new rules on backdated benefits will adversely affect, yet again, some of our most vulnerable members of society - and just as they face the onset of winter fuel bills.
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Mature Times wins back RAF veteran's pension
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Last year Dr David Jackson, who served as a wartime RAF pilot before a long and distinguished career in medicine, asked Mature Times for help in reclaiming three years of his basic State Pension - caused by a DWP error.
As a result of the article, and expert help from an MT reader, he has finally won his case.
"Return To Rationing?" - Royal British Legion highlights pensioners’ struggle
The Royal British Legion (RBL), backed by Age Concern, has launched a campaign entitled "Return to Rationing?" designed to highlight the huge struggle older people are facing just to make to ends meet with the credit crunch, rising taxes, and soaring fuel and food costs. And they are urging the Government to make changes to bring UK pensioners out of poverty.
We've had the vision - now can we have our pension please?
Pensions Minister Mike O’Brien’s homily is merely cynical hypocrisy when he writes: "We must begin to free our minds from some of the prejudices about ageing". He must first free the minds of his DWP colleagues from their prejudice against half the expatriate pensioners, 500,000 people overwhelmingly in the major Commonwealth countries who are denied annual uprating, their pensions frozen for all time.
"Please support our benefits campaign for severe sight loss," says the RNIB
The RNIB is asking Mature Times readers for support in the final stages of their campaign to extend eligibility to claim the higher rate mobility component of DLA to people with severe sight loss. The Government is in the process of making a decision about whether or not to make the changes, and keeping up the pressure at this stage is vital - because the decision could go either way.
"Change policy to end rising pensioner poverty," Government told
Britain’s biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), has called on the government to change its pensions’ policy because it is failing to tackle the growing problem of pensioner poverty.
Ex-Gurkhas lose their battle to retire in the country they defended
The two thousand Gurkha veterans who risked their lives for this country and retired before July 1st 1997 have been denied the right to live here in their old age, having lost an adjourned test appeal case.
One in three of future pensioners face poverty in retirement
Britain's biggest older people's organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), has claimed that today's Scottish Widows’ survey showing that one in three people cannot afford to save for their retirement, is further evidence that the government’s pensions’ policy is beginning to unravel.
Fight goes on for women's pension rights
Regular MT readers will know that Lib Dem MP Steve Webb has been battling for better pension rights for women - here he reports how our readers are helping to bring about improvements for all.
Pensioners “being forced” to open bank accounts
Hundreds of thousands of pensioners are being told to open bank accounts if they want to continue getting their state pension, according to Britain’s biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC).
Disgrace of another 300,000 pensioners being "forced into poverty"
The latest 'Households Below Average Income figures' published on June 10th have shown that an additional 300,000 pensioners have been forced into poverty - on average that’s around 822 pensioners each day. The figures have been described by Help The Aged as "a disgrace" - whilst the Government is claiming that "the vast majority of people are better off than they were ten years ago".
Benefits advice could be just the medicine for older patients
Welfare benefits advice could be just the medicine for millions of older patients, according to a new report by Age Concern. Yet despite growing evidence that claiming benefits can improve health and wellbeing, new evidence shows that the vast majority of GP practices in England are not linked to a benefits advice service.
Older people 'sick at the thought of their future'
One in four older people in the UK have become so worried about the future that they are making themselves ill, according to the third annual ‘Spotlight’ report produced by leading older people’s charity Help the Aged.
Too little, too late
Over the last two months we have published articles by the Shadow Minister for Pensions and the Minister of State Mike O’Brien - both setting out their visions for future pension provision. Frank Cooper, National Pensioners Convention President, says that what’s on offer is too little and too late to help today’s generation of pensioners.
Promises, promises ... the politicians who don't deliver on our overseas pensions
Over half a million ex-pat British pensioners have had their pensions frozen - some by more than £55 a week – because they are now living overseas in Commonwealth countries rather than the EU. But, writes Brian Havard, if UK Government Ministers were to implement the promises they have personally made, our pensions would not be frozen.
