Over 1000 members of Britain’s biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) will gather on Tuesday June 17 for the start of their annual 3-day Pensioners’ Parliament in Blackpool. The event will open with the launch of the NPC’s Pensioners’ Manifesto for the forthcoming general election.
Over the last three months the NPC has been running a consultation amongst its members to see what the main issues are that older people want to put before the candidates in next year’s general election. Thousands took part in the exercise, and the top five concerns include:
- Raising the basic state pension for all above the poverty level of £175 a week, and ensuring existing pensioners are not penalised by the new single-tier state pension
- Reintroducing the Retail Price Index alongside the Consumer Price Index, earnings and 2.5 as a measure for increasing pensions each year
- Maintaining universal pensioner benefits (bus pass, winter fuel allowance, free TV licences for the over 75s and free prescriptions) without any means-testing
- Creating of a National Health and Care Service which is free at the point of use and funded through taxation (merging the NHS and social care)
- Introducing a legally binding Dignity Code to improve the quality and standards of care for older people in hospital, care homes or their own home
The Convention also received over 120 additional policy suggestions from its members, including a call for more action to be taken to combat the negative portrayal of older people in the media and elsewhere, a nationwide programme of insulation and energy efficiency measures to tackle growing fuel poverty and a minimum visit time of at least 30 minutes for social care at home.
Over the coming months the NPC plans to put the manifesto before prospective parliamentary candidates as a way of highlighting the concerns of Britain’s 11m older voters – and the campaign message will be clear – “Use your vote for those candidates that support the Pensioners’ Manifesto”.
Dot Gibson, NPC general secretary said: “The UK is not an easy place for many older people to be right now. Despite what some have argued, pensioners have not escaped the government’s austerity programme and cuts to the winter fuel allowance, rationing of care services, changes to the way pensions are uprated every year, the freeze on tax allowances and the rising costs of living are all beginning to take their toll.”
“But pensioners are not selfish and we recognise that younger people are also having a difficult time. Suggestions that there is a kind of generational divide are therefore totally untrue. The real division is between those at the top of society and the rest of us who are having to pay for their mistakes.”
“It will be important that we send a clear message to all the political parties this week – that we have campaigned over many years to secure benefits such as the free bus pass – and we will not give them away lightly. Our state pension remains one of the worst in Europe and the universal benefits are essential in enabling older people to maintain independence and social inclusion which allows them to continue contributing to their local communities.”
Highlights of the Parliament will include:
- On 17 June: a two hour rally featuring Owen Jones (Guardian columnist), Claire Keatinge (Older People’s Commissioner for N Ireland), Caroline Abrahams (Director at Age UK) and Dot Gibson (NPC general secretary).
- 19/20 June: Debates on pensions and benefits, social care, the changes in the NHS, and how to tackle loneliness and a discussion on whether the UK can afford an ageing population?
