Protestors show anger at billions for bankers but peanuts for pensioners

National lobby demands a decent state pension for all generations

Britain’s pensioner and trade union movements are today (Wednesday 22 October 2008) joining together for the first time to call for a higher basic state pension for the over 60s of today and tomorrow.

Over 1000 protestors of all ages are expected to lobby Parliament as part of a campaign organised by the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) and over 15 individual trade unions, to mark the centenary of the state pension (first introduced in 1908).

For the first time in 100 years, working age and retired people will lobby their MPs together to stress that a decent state pension is an issue not just for today’s pensioners, but for future generations as well. This point has taken on extra significance given the recent financial crisis and the weakness of private pensions which have recently lost £250bn in value – adversely affecting up to 5m people who are about to retire.

Key demands
The lobby will be calling for:

The basic state pension to be raised above the poverty level (of £151 a week for a single pensioner)
The link with earnings or prices (whichever is higher) to be restored immediately
The state pension to be paid to all existing pensioners on a universal basis

NPC general secretary Joe Harris said: “After 100 years of the state pension it’s a national disgrace that at least 2.5m older people are still living below the official poverty line, and millions more are struggling to meet the rising costs of living. Next year’s increase in the state pension will be a measly £4.55 a week, at a time when millions of older people will be faced with the unenviable dilemma of trying to heat their homes or eat properly.”

“For decades, the policy of successive governments has been to rely on means-tested benefits for existing pensioners and good occupational pension schemes for future generations, as a way of avoiding paying a decent state pension. But this approach is unravelling – with means-testing remaining unpopular and ineffective at getting money to the poorest and many decent company pensions being replaced by insecure money-purchase schemes. Billions of pounds have been wiped off private pension funds in recent weeks – and up to 5m workers now face an insecure retirement.”

“Pensioners – both now and in the future – need dignity and security in retirement that only a decent state pension can provide. The government should use the huge £46bn surplus in the National Insurance Fund and give everyone a pension that takes them out of poverty. It’s not acceptable that there’s billions for bankers, but peanuts for pensioners.”

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “This year we have celebrated the centenary of the state pension. It remains a key achievement, but its value has melted away since the link with earnings was ended by the last Conservative Government.”

“This is why unions are giving strong support to today's NPC lobby and rally, and joining the call to give today's pensioners a decent pension and restoring the link to earnings or prices.”

Programme
The programme for the day will be:

· DEMONSTRATION 11am Parliament Square (by Churchill statue). Up to 200 protestors with banners and placards, with some in Victorian costume.

· RALLY 12-2pm, Great Hall, Methodist Central Hall, Westminster
Speakers include: Joe Harris NPC General Secretary, Kate Hoey MP, Mark Serwotka PCS General Secretary, Bob Crow RMT General Secretary, Kelvin Hopkins MP, Paul Kenny GMB General Secretary, Christine Blower General Secretary NUT, Michelle Stanistreet Deputy General Secretary NUJ, Bishop Howard Tripp (Titular Bishop of Newport), Derek Simpson Joint General Secretary UNITE, Dave Prentis UNISON General Secretary and Brendan Barber TUC General Secretary

· LOBBY 1.30pm onwards Westminster Hall and Central Lobby, House of Commons

Pension Facts and Figures
· Pensioner poverty has risen in the last year by 300,000, taking the total to 2.5m older people living on less than 60% of median population income before housing costs (the same figure as in 1997/8). For a single pensioner this equals £151 a week.
· Next April, the state pension will rise from £90.70 by just £4.55 a week for a single pensioner and from £145.05 by £7.25 a week for a pensioner couple.
· About two thirds of those pensioners living in poverty are women. The Government admits that women’s pensions are a ‘national disgrace’, with the overwhelming majority of existing women pensioners receiving less than a full basic state pension. Many were badly advised about the ‘small stamp’ or were unable to pay their national insurance contributions because of caring for their families, and being in low paid or part-time employment. Many married women will see their state pension rise next year by just £2.70 a week.
· Between 1997 and 2006, the number of people living in severe poverty – defined as living on less than 40% of median population income – increased by 600,000. The poorest quarter of pensioner households saw their incomes rise by less than 1% last year, well below inflation. The poorest single pensioners saw their real incomes drop by 4%.
· Around 61% of pensioner couples have an annual income of £15,000 or less, and 45% of all single pensioners have an annual income of £10,000 or less.
· In a recent EU survey, only pensioners in Latvia, Spain and Cyprus are more likely to fall into poverty than those in the UK. The Institute for Fiscal Studies concludes that the proportion of pensioners below the poverty threshold will remain at its current level for at least the next decade, despite government reforms.
· If the link between the state pension and earnings is restored in 2012, 3m existing pensioners will have already died. Even those who actually get a pension in 4 years’ time will only receive £1.40 a week more than they would have got anyway under the present system, because the level of the state pension will be so low.
· Had the link between the state pension and average earnings not been broken in 1980, a single pensioner would now be getting £154 a week rather than £90.70.
· By 2012/13, the National Insurance Fund will have an estimated balance in excess of £114bn - which the Government continues to use for other purposes.
· A recent survey by Scottish Widows found that 1 in 3 future pensioners will not have sufficient income to avoid poverty when they retire. Up to 9m workers currently have no other pension provision than that which will be provided by the state when they retire, whilst up to 5m soon-to-be pensioners have seen their pension pots dramatically reduced as a result of the current economic crisis.

Notes for Editors
· Key spokespeople from the national and regional pensioner campaigns will be available for interview, as well as trade union officials
· All regions of the country will be represented
· There will be banners, placards and pensioners dressed in Victorian costume at the Parliament Square protest and an old Routemaster Campaign Bus touring the area

For more information contact

NPC – Neil Duncan-Jordan 07940-357-608
TUC – Rob Holdsworth 07717 531150

“Decent state pensions for all generations”

BRIEFING PAPER
National Joint Lobby of Parliament
Wednesday 22 October 2008
"Decent state pensions for all generations"


Theme
This event has been jointly organised with the TUC and the trade union movement in order to stress that the campaign for a decent state pension is an issue not just for today’s pensioners, but for future generations as well. We are therefore hoping that at least one pensioner and one worker from each constituency will see their MPs on the day.

Key demands
The lobby ties in with the State Pension Centenary campaign and as such, echoes the immediate demands for:

• The basic state pension to be raised above the poverty level (which was £134 a week, but has since been revised to £151)
• The link with earnings or prices (whichever is higher) to be restored
• The state pension to be paid to all existing pensioners on a universal basis

Rally
At 12 noon, there will be a rally in the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster addressed by MPs, trade unionists, pensioner leaders and others. Owing to the large number of people expected to attend, two rooms have been set aside – The Library and Lecture Hall – and we hope to run two simultaneous rallies to encourage maximum attendance. The rallies are expected to close at around 2pm.

Lobby
Anytime from 1pm onwards, lobbyists can make their way over to the House of Commons to see their MPs. Those wishing to take part in the lobby should now write to their MPs asking if they will make themselves available on the day to be lobbied. Owing to the limited space available in the House of Commons, MPs should arrange to meet lobbyists either in the Westminster Hall, Central Lobby or a private room/café.
Arrangements for getting into the House of Commons will be available shortly.

Delegation to Number 10 Downing Street
We also hope to arrange for a joint NPC/TUC delegation to see the Prime Minister sometime during the day of the lobby to present our demands.

Supporting action
Those pensioner groups, trade union branches or other groups not able to come to London on the day of the lobby are encouraged to organise some event in their local area on the same day at 12 noon. This could be a march or rally, demonstration or some other activity. This action could help spread the message even further and encourage more people to get involved in the campaign.

Campaign materials
The NPC will be producing flyers, briefing notes and campaign stickers for those attending the lobby, long with newspapers and petitions for those holding events in their local areas. Please contact the NPC office to place an order.

Further information
For further information contact the NPC on 020-7553-6510 or email: info@@npcuk.org.

Prime Minister’s warm words not matched by action

Britain’s biggest pensioner organization, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), has criticized the prime minister’s speech at the Labour party conference today, as being strong on rhetoric but weak on action.

Commenting on the prime minister’s speech, Joe Harris, NPC general secretary said: “Mr Brown is right to call an ageing population a blessing rather than a burden, but his speech still lacked any date as to when he was going to restore the state pension link with earnings. Whilst he said no-one should live in fear of old age, he has refused to give an immediate increase in the winter fuel allowance and his commitment to better social care will be meaningless if it does not include an end to means-testing. He had lots of warm words but very little action.”

Inflation rise will force more older people into poverty

Inflation rise will force more older people into poverty
 
Britain's biggest older people's organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), claims that millions of older people are now on the brink of poverty, following the latest figures released today showing a further increase in inflation.
 
The official poverty figures show that 2.5m (23% of the pensioner population) are living on less than £151 a week. Up to 61% of all pensioner couples have an annual income of £15,000, whilst 45% of all single pensioners live on just £10,000 a year.
 
Between 1997 and 2006, the number of people living in severe poverty – defined as living on less than 40% of median population income – increased by 600,000. The poorest quarter of pensioner households saw their incomes rise by less than 1% last year, well below inflation. The poorest single pensioners saw their real incomes drop by 4%.
 
Joe Harris, NPC general secretary said: “Nearly three million pensioner households already spend over 10% of their income on energy and are living in fuel poverty. If you add onto household bills things like food and council tax, millions more older people could be using as much as 70% of their income just to keep their house warm and eat a decent meal[i]. That doesn’t leave very much at the end of the week to enjoy life.”
 
“The real reason pensioners are suffering is because they spend a higher proportion of their income on those items that are rising fastest – whilst the purchasing power of their state pension continues to decline. It’s a shocking indictment of the government’s pensions’ policy that the number of older people in poverty is higher now than five years ago and things look set to get worse. It’s time the government used the growing surplus in the national insurance fund to pay everyone a decent pension above the poverty line of £151 a week that rises every year in line with the greater of inflation or earnings. In light of the current increases in the costs of living – pensioners simply cannot afford to survive.”

 For more information contact Neil Duncan-Jordan on 07940-357-608
[i]  For a single pensioner living on the pension credit guarantee of £124.05 a week, fuel, food and council tax bills can equal as much as 70% of their annual income 

Pensioners need immediate financial help with paying fuel bills –

Pensioners need immediate financial help with paying fuel bills –
not energy efficiency schemes

Britain's biggest older people's organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), has called on the government to ensure its package of measures aimed at helping families meet rising fuel bills (due to be announced tomorrow) includes an immediate increase in the winter fuel allowance to £500 for all pensioner households.

Joe Harris, NPC general secretary said: "Many older people are already struggling to pay their energy bills and the recent increases are likely to drag well over a million more into financial hardship by the end of the year. Around 2.4m pensioner households are currently spending more than 10% of their income on fuel bills, and are living in fuel poverty.
What these people need now is more money – in the form of the winter fuel allowance so that they can avoid having to decide whether to heat or eat.

Energy efficiency schemes won’t help them pay their bills this month and neither will they prevent over 20,000 pensioners dying from the cold this winter.”

"Every time there is a 1% increase in energy bills, a further 40,000 older people fall into fuel poverty. It's time the government intervened to prevent the energy companies making profits at the expense of vulnerable pensioners, raised the winter fuel allowance to £500 and regulated social tariffs to give proper discounts to older customers."


FUEL POVERTY FACTS

• Nearly 90 per cent of all excess winter deaths are of people over the age of 65.
• There were 22,300 excess winter deaths of older people last year, and 260,000 since 1997.
• Almost one in three older people live in homes with inadequate heating or insulation making their homes more difficult to heat and/or keep warm.
• More than 1 in 4 people living in fuel poverty are over 70 years old
• Average annual energy bills now exceed £1,000. This will absorb 16 per cent of the income of a single pensioner dependent on the pension credit minimum guarantee and the current £250 Winter Fuel Payment.

Pensioners 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.

Currently around 400,000 over 60s still receive their weekly or monthly state pension payment through a giro cheque that can be cashed at their local post office. Up till now ministers have accepted that this arrangement could continue, but the NPC has learnt that letters are being sent to these pensioners telling them that the giro cheques are being withdrawn in 2010 and that they will have to have their pension paid directly into a bank account.

The NPC, which opposed the scrapping of the original pension book back in 2003, believes that this latest move will not only further undermine the viability of hundreds of local post office branches resulting from a loss of income, but will also seriously restrict the ability of pensioners to manage their day-to-day financial affairs.

Cheques are issued to the pensioner’s home address on a regular basis to match the current frequency of their benefit or pension payments, either weekly or monthly. If the individual cannot collect their pension in person, they can sign the back of the cheque to indicate that they have asked someone else to cash it on their behalf. The person cashing the cheque will also have to sign and provide suitable identification.

For many older people, the cheque payment enables them to easily get a friend or neighbour to collect their pension on their behalf. It’s a flexible approach that helps those who may not always be able to get to the post office in person. Lots of older of older people don’t have, don’t want or cannot open a bank account – but they want to keep using their post office to collect their pension. It’s outrageous that the government is now making it difficult for pensioners to get at their own money. The decision to withdraw the cheque payment is yet another attack on both the pensioner and the post office.

The NPC believes that the government is unable to legally stop paying pensions, simply because an individual does not have a bank account, and is considering a legal challenge to this latest move. In the meantime, they are advising those affected to ignore any letters advising them to give up their giro cheques in favour of opening a bank account.

On 15 February 2006, James Plaskitt MP, Department for Work and Pensions minister told the House of Commons: “It is not the Department’s policy to stop an individual’s pension payments if he or she refuses to receive pension payments by the direct payment method. Customers who do not provide account details are paid by cheque.”

Grey power marks 100 years of state pension with demand to end poverty in old age

* Delegates believe grey vote may hold key to election victory
* Composer Michael Nyman lends support to campaign with new piece

Two thousand leading members of Britain’s growing grey power movement will mark 100 years of the state pension at the opening of their annual Pensioners’ Parliament on Tuesday June 3, by calling on the government to raise the state pension above the poverty line and restore its link with earnings before 2012.

The demand comes at the start of the 3-day annual event in Blackpool, organised by the National Pensioners Convention (NPC). Delegates from across the UK will also argue that meeting the needs of Britain’s 11m older voters will be key to winning the next election.
A recent survey by the Hansard Society confirmed previous findings that the propensity to vote directly relates to age. 78% of 65-74-year-olds said they would definitely vote, compared to only 23% of those aged 18-24.

Some of the major concerns which delegates will discuss include:
· Raising the basic state pension above the poverty level of £134 a week and restoring the link with earnings now
· Requiring good quality, free long-term and social care to prevent people from having to sell their homes in order to pay for services
· Replacing the council tax with a fairer system based on the ability to pay
· Tackling the growing threat of fuel poverty amongst Britain’s elderly to prevent the deaths of over 20,000 pensioners every year from the cold

Joe Harris NPC General Secretary said: “The current political climate shows that the general public are unimpressed with what the government has done over the last ten years in relation to pensions, council tax and care. After a century, the state pension remains just £90.70 a week and at least 2.2m pensioners are still living in poverty. The link between pensions and earnings has been delayed until 2012, by which time 3m of today’s older generation will be dead.”

“Social care in Britain is in crisis. The government refuses to spend the money needed to provide free care in the home and continues to argue that patients must pay for help with washing, eating a meal or going to the toilet.”

“Council tax has risen by more than 100% in the last decade, and fuel bills continue to escalate to such a point where millions of older people are now having to make the unenviable choice between eating or heating.”
”All political parties need to realise that pensioners may well hold they key to who wins the next general election – especially as they are more likely to turn out and vote than any other section of the electorate. The Pensioners' Parliament will warn the politicians that if they want the votes of Britain's 11m older people, they are going to have to do something positive.”

The opening session of the Parliament will also feature theatrical readings in period costume and speeches from Frances O’Grady (TUC), Danny Alexander MP and Kate Hoey MP. Delegates will also hear a specially composed piece of music by Michael Nyman entitled “The Battle for the Old Age Pension”.

Michael Nyman said: “The state pension is a fantastic piece of social policy, yet it is in urgent need of support. I’m backing the NPC’s campaign to raise the state pension above the poverty level to help pensioners with rising costs of living. That’s why it’s important that the battle for a decent old age pension continues.”

Pensions Minister, Mike O’Brien will also attend the event for a reception on Wednesday evening.

A more detailed programme is available at http://www.npcuk.org/.
· National and regional representatives from across the UK will be available for interview on request.
· The event starts at 1pm on the North Promenade, Blackpool with a marching band and over 1000 marchers with banners.
· The opening session will start at 2pm in the Empress Ballroom, Winter Gardens, Blackpool.

· Michael Nyman's new piece "The Battle for the Old Age Pension" will be performed live by the Wingates Band on June 3 at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool as part of the Pensioners’ Parliament. I
t will also be performed at the "Nyman Live at Cadogan Hall" festival on June 6,7,8. For more information http://www.cadoganhall.com/.
· Contributions will also be made throughout the event by a number of guest speakers from the Royal College of Nursing, Commission for Social Care Inspection, Carers UK, Communication Workers Union, Local Government Association and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Pension facts & figures - then & now

1908
· Non-contributory pension
· Payable to men and women at 70
· 5 shillings a week: represented between 20-25% of average earnings
· Means-tested and based on character
2008
· Contributory pension
· Payable to men and women at 65 in 2024 and rising to 68 by 2044
· £90.70 a week: represents around 15% of average earnings
· Pension not means-tested, but means-testing still exists for those who need additional income
· One in five of today's 11m pensioners live below the official poverty line, the vast majority of them women. In 1891, 1.3m people were classed as paupers – of which 31% were over 60-years-old
· The National Insurance Fund currently has a surplus of £46bn, which is forecast to grow to £114bn by 2012. This money is primarily intended to pay for state pensions, but today’s pensioners are being denied a higher pension because the government is using the money to fund other expenditure