A brief history of the 
Pensioners Movement 

National Committee of Organised Labour on Old Age Pensions

At the Browning Hall, London, as long ago as December, 1898, a conference put forward a demand for Old Age Pensions, following on discussions between Trade Union representatives and the late Charles Booth, head of a Liverpool shipping firm of Booth Brothers and author of " The Life and Labour of the People of London."

Among those who attended were Margaret Bondfield,  Will Crooks, and George Barnes, who all played a great part in the Labour Movement.

Following the Browning Hall Meeting, many others followed in London,  Newcastle, Durham, Leeds, Manchester & Birmingham. The Newcastle meeting was attended by 37 delegates from Trade Unions, 29 Co-ops, 3 Trades Councils and Visitors. There was unanimous demand for a Universal and non contributory pension to be funded out of general taxation.  The Leeds meeting argued that unemployment a more pressing issue, but pension argument held the day.  The Manchester meeting was attended by 29 Trade Councils, 12 Trade Unions, & Co-ops and 3 Friendly Societies. They agreed to support Universal pensions funded out of General taxation.
The Glasgow meeting was attended by over 200 Delegates. Large meetings were held in Birmingham and Bristol.

As a result of the London conference other conferences were held, and out of them rose, in May, 1899, the National Committee of Organised Labour on Old Age Pensions. The Rev. F. Herbert Stead, the Warden of Browning Hall, who had worked ceaselessly for years on behalf of old people, became the Honorary Secretary. Frederick Rogers, of the Vellum Binders' Union, who had been the first Chairman of the Labour Representation Committee, out of which the Labour Party grew, was appointed Organising Secretary in the following July.

The Trades Union Congress, the Labour Party Conference, and the Co-operative Congress, actively supported the movement. It made rapid strides, and was later backed by the Friendly Societies.
The National Committee's demand was a very modest one. It asked for a non-contributory State Scheme to provide a pension of not less than 5s. a week for everybody at the age of 65. At that lime, of course, the 5s minimum demanded represented purchasing power considerably higher than it did in later years. Nor must we forget that in those days employers themselves regarded workers of 65 as being at the end of their industrial usefulness.
The full pension was then 5 shillings weekly but two persons living together in the same house each received 3 shillings and 9 pence. It was means-tested.

National Conference of Old Age Pensions

Towards the end of the First World War, poverty in old age became the focus of campaigning again. It was led by the National Conference of Old Age Pensions (an alliance of Friendly Societies, Co-operative Societies, the Free Church Council and trade unions). They argued against means-testing.

National Spinsters' Pensions Association

The National Spinsters' Pensions Association was established 1935 by women textile workers in Bradford to demand contributory pensions at 55. Annie Marienne Marsland (1899-1989) was their Treasurer from 1935 to 1945. By 1938 the organisation had 125,000 members in 97 branches and produced a monthly journal entitled 'The Spinster'. They also collected 1 million signatures for a petition for their aims and were successful in lobbying for a parliamentary commission for pensions of unmarried women. This reported in 1939 and as a result the age for unmarried women's eligibility for a state pension was reduced to 60 in 1940.  Margaret Gertrude Hartley was also involved in Spinsters' Pension movement. She was a leading figure at the Albert Hall rally and Hyde Park demonstrations in London.

National Federation of Old Age Pensions Association

At the beginning of the Second World War, the first Petition was presented by the National Federation of Old Age Pensions Association. It asked for a doubling of the basic pension to ?1.00 and 2 million signatures were collected in six weeks of local activity. It later changed its name and became the National Federation of Retirement Pensions Association and its magazine Pensioners Voice. While it aimed to improve the living standards of older people, its local branches were mainly social.  In 1948 it presented its 4th petition with 2.3 million signatures.

Joint Committee of London Old Age Pensioners

The return of Labour Governments in the 1960s and 1970s renewed the possibility of influencing pensions policies and that led to the formation of the Joint Committee. 

Mollie Prendergast, a Founder Member, remembers: 
"Some Engineering Union members were coming out of their Branch Meeting one night when they saw an old lady, very cold and miserable. Len Lonsinger and Peter James were two of them. They were concerned and stopped to speak to her. She told them that had she done something wrong she might be in Holloway Prison, where at least she would be warm and get some food. There and then, Peter and Len decided that something should be done for pensioners. They appealed to other trades unionists and socially minded people to join a pensioners' organisation. 

Scottish Pensions Association (formerly SOAPA)

The Scottish Old Age Pensions Association (SOAPA) was the first organisation of its kind to be established in the  UK, and was treated out of need to show that the way pensioners were being treated was unacceptable. The Pensions Act of 1908 to a degree lessened the shadow of the Workhouse that hung like a cloud over the elderly. Those over 70 years were to receive 5 shillings a week; married couple 7 shillings and sixpence, but the wife had to be over 70 as well. In Scotland there was also the added complication of the established Church, which generally argued that pensions should be left t small enough so that the virtues of thrift and self-help were encouraged. Pensions were fixed at a maximum rate of 5 shillings and awarded after a means test to those whose a yearly income did not exceed ?31.00 and 10 shillings. It was almost 30 years later that the first official meeting of SOAPA took place, well the 16th February 1937 m, to be exact, within the British Legion at Halls in the Canongate, Edinburgh. It was the culmination of a general "right to live" demand by many branches.

SOAPA has been at the forefront of the pensioners struggle ever since as a self help, self advocacy organisation which for the last 66 years has attempted with much success, to influence Social Policy affecting older people at local and national level. Many notable successes have been achieved , along with a self organised Branch Structure which enables the members to progress their aims and objectives. The highs, and lows are clearly documented in the history of the Association, but throughout all those years, with no paid officials, staffed entirely by volunteers, SOAPA has stood tall and played a major role in the pensioners movement..
At the Annual Conference in the year 1999 it was overwhelmingly agreed to drop the two words "OLD AGE" from the title as inappropriate in today's world when people are retiring much earlier than their predecessors, and to encourage anyone in Scotland, regardless of age, who is in receipt of or requires information relating to a State or private pension to join, or to seek support and information from the Association.

British Pensioners and Trade Union Action Association 

It took until 1972 (and a split in the Federation) before the British Pensioners and Trade Union Action Association BP&TUAA was formally established. 

Whilst the British Pensioners & Trades Union Action Association was consolidating its position the Greater London Pensioners Association (set up in 1973) affiliated to it and became its London Region. 
There was a steady flow of around 70 affiliations to the GLPA by Trades Unions and Retired Members Associations and about 90 pensioner organisations, covering almost every Borough, also affiliated. The campaigning of the Action Groups was greatly heightened.

National Pensioners Convention

In the run up to the founding in 1979 of the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), the Joint Committee of Senior Citizens was set up by Jack Jones. The support of the TUC was gained and a mass demonstration in Trafalgar Square was held. The NPC brought together the Federation, BPTUAA, Age Concern, Help the Aged, the TGWU Retired Members Association and the Post Office and Telecom Pensioners in a move towards uniting all the different organisations claiming to speak for the pensioners and it used its declaration of intent as a unifying statement. 
The declaration called for "pensions to be not less than one-third of average earnings for a single pensioner and half for a married couple".

In 1997 Jack Jones led a team of 12 pensioners from many parts of Britain in putting a well argued case to the Government's Pensions Review. The key demand in the NPC submission to the review was to restore the link between pensions and wages. When dealing with the issue of Second Pensions, he said he was speaking in the interest of all pensioners, todays and tomorrows, following the long-standing policy of the NPC: "Solidarity between the Generations".

Strathclyde Elderly Forum

Greater London Forum for the Elderly

Set up in 1988, the Greater London Forum for the Elderly (GLF) is an 'umbrella' organisation for Forums which have been set up in all the London Boroughs. London-wide organisations such as Age Concern and the Association of Greater London Older Women are also members. It provides a support and information service for the 33 Forums and makes representations on their behalf to other relevant bodies on London-wide issues such as health and education.  The GLPA affiliated to the NPC and many of its members attend the Pensioners' Parliament that the NPC has organised each year since 1992.