The National Pensioners’ Convention annual conference in Blackpool will be hosting emergency debates next week on the government’s shock axing of universal Winter Fuel Payments.
The NPC, the UK’s largest campaigning organisation run for and by older people, will hear how a wide range of issues are now converging to make getting older in the UK increasingly miserable.
From increasing pensioner poverty to the pressures on our health and care services which we rely upon more than most, and the rise of digital-only services across the public and private sector.
Key evidence will also be given by expert speakers on the disastrous consequences of the cuts to the fuel allowance this winter. And they will make urgent calls for the government to reverse their decision to end the payments or set out new measures to assist ten million older people who are losing this valuable assistance just as fuel bills are set to rise again.
Jan Shortt, general secretary of the NPC, said: “We are inviting older people to come to our annual convention in Blackpool to show the strength of anger and anxiety felt by millions at this ill-conceived cut by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
“We don’t believe she and the Prime Minister have fully understood the impact this decision will have upon older people who are already struggling to make ends meet, especially now we know the new fuel price cap is going to push up their bills by a staggering ten per cent from October.
“There are already more than two million older people known to be living in poverty, and millions more just above the breadline who regularly must decide between eating and heating their homes.
“If commonsense prevailed, now is not the right time for a cut in vital assistance to our older people and our debates at this year’s annual convention will hear exactly why.”
The event has a packed programme, covering growing pensioner poverty and the need for a strategy on ageing, to overcoming the challenges of our increasingly digital world, and the rising privatisation of the NHS and care services.
We must remember, today’s workers are tomorrow’s pensioners and with more support the NPC will be able to continue to develop its organisation and strengthen its influence as the campaigning voice of both today’s and tomorrow’s pensioners.
Rodney Sadd
Crowland
