Seniors Network

 

Campaigners criticise plans for
pensioner only funded care　

Britain’s biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) has reacted angrily to the suggestion from health secretary Andrew Lansley that pensioners should be made to fund the care of other pensioners – rather than having the cost shared amongst society as a whole.

On coming to power the coalition government appointed Andrew Dilnot to consider how care should be funded in the future. One of his proposals was to make all pensioners pay tax or special national insurance to cover the additional care costs – something which the government says it is now considering.

Dot Gibson, NPC general secretary said: “The current care system is in crisis, yet the Dilnot recommendations that the government is now considering won’t go anywhere near putting that right. The suggestion is that older people should be made to pay for the care of other older people – yet in every other part of our welfare system we share the costs amongst society as a whole. Given that these proposals fail to tackle the fundamental problems of unfairness, poor standards and complexity in the care system many older people and their families will feel that a golden opportunity to improve the way in which some of the most vulnerable members of our society are treated has been missed. Instead we need urgent plans to introduce a National Care Service funded through general taxation.”

Can we fix our attitude to the elderly?
Channel 4 News
Neil Duncan Jordan, National Pensioners Convention Neil Duncan Jordan is National Officer at Britain's biggest pensioner group, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC). He told Channel 4 News that there are philosophical problems with the British ...

National Pensioners Convention | financingfinances.com
The National Pensioners' Convention (NPC), which has 1.5 million members, has criticised the government's Warm Home Discount (WHD) scheme in the wake

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Shadow minister for older people is a 'thorn in the side' of the coalition
The Guardian (blog)
Shadow minister for older people Liz Kendall. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA Archive/Press Association Ima Labour leader Ed Miliband's appointment of a shadow minister for older people marks a growing recognition that more has to be done to respond to ...

New technology employed to get more people taking about older people's issues
STV Local
By Rebecca Gordon 25 October 2011 08:00 BST A national conference for older people in Edinburgh will take on the technology associated only with younger generations. The third annual Scottish Older People's Assembly will use Facebook, Twitter and a ...

 

951 cities join protest against corporate greed

MADRID: Protesters launched worldwide street demonstrations on Saturday against corporate greed and biting cutbacks in a rolling action targetting 951 cities in 82 countries. Inspired by America's " Occupy Wall Street" and Spain's "Indignants" , people ...

From coast to coast and North to South, the Occupy Wall Street protest against corporate greed that started out with a few young people in a lower Manhattan park grew to vocal thousands with weekend rallies in about two dozen states and supporters joining in from Canada and overseas.  4196 related articles

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A 67-year-old man goes for a physical. All of his tests come back with normal results. The doctor says, 'Dave, everything looks great. How are you doing mentally and emotionally? Are you at peace with God?'

Dave replies, 'God and I are tight. He knows I have poor eyesight, so he's fixed it for when I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, *poof*!, the light goes on. When I'm done, *poof*!, the light goes off.'

'Wow, that's incredible,' the doctor says.

A little later in the day, the doctor calls Dave's wife. ' Glenda ,' he says, 'Dave is doing fine but I had to call you because I'm in awe of his relationship with God. Is it true that he gets up during the night and *poof *!, the light goes on in the bathroom, and when he's done, *poof*! the light goes off?'

'OH MY WORD!' Glenda exclaims. 'He's peeing in the fridge again!!!!'

More Jokes at www.seniorsnetwork.co.uk/humour/

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Elderly Couple become internet sensations!! An elderly couple trying to learn how to use a laptop with a webcam unaware that it was being recorded!!
click!! Its a gas! 

An elderly couple struggling to learn how to use a webcam have become viral video sensations after their granddaughter posted the fumbling footage online. Bruce and Esther Huffman, of McMinnville, Oregon, captured close to three minutes of themselves making faces at the camera and trying to navigate their new laptop. But they didn't realise until the very end they were being recorded as she tried to take a picture. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2037451/Webcam-101-Seniors-Bruce-Esther-Huffman-viral-sensations.html#ixzz1Y2YlIZM4

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Pensioners 'worried' about inflation  BBC News
The rate of Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation rose to 4.5% from 4.4% in July, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure increased to 5.2% from 5%. The elderly and people on a fixed ...

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NI fuel poverty 'becoming severe'

BBC News - ‎One third of elderly clients in a Citizen Advice Bureau (CAB) survey have had to make the choice between heating and other essential items such as food. A new report from the CAB shows a desperate picture of fuel poverty in ..

 

 

Coach travel cuts "disastrous" for elderly and disabled
Coach travel cuts disastrous for elderly and disabled. ... such as the statutory national concession, which offers free travel on local bus services.

• Care Minister agrees to speak at rally Care Minister, Paul Burstow MP, has agreed to speak at the NPC’s Decent Care for All rally in Sutton on Saturday 29 October. This is the first time Mr Burstow has agreed to attend a NPC event since becoming a… See more ›

  State pension age to be lifted to 67 a decade earlier than planned
  Telegraph.co.uk Steve Webb said the male pension age hadn't changed for a century. 'How much has life expectancy improved in a century?' Photo: CLARE KENDALL By Robert Winnett Ministers will bring forward a planned increase in the state retirement age to 6

  TUC: Unions to ratchet up pressure on pensions and pay BBC News The government wants to cut £2.8bn a year off the annual cost of public sector pensions. Talks with unions started in the spring.

 

Pensioners and disabled to lose half-price coach travel in sneaky Tory-led ...
Mirror.co.uk
She added: “Many pensioners with free bus passes will no longer have a bus to use them on.” Andrew Cleaves, managing director of National Express coaches, said the move “appeared to run counter” to David Cameron's pre-election promises. ..

Full circle: the social network for older people
Telegraph.co.uk
The Circle's aims and achievements were championed by David Cameron in his 2009 Spring Conference speech for providing 'a vastly improved care service for less money designed by elderly people for elderly people using local social networks to bring ...

This is a great idea - get cracking!!

Positive thinking makes for happy old people
Los Angeles Times
Older people are, well, old. They are in declining health, confronting death and may already be losing some of the people closest to them. So why do many seniors seem so happy? Research shows that the golden years are often the happiest. ...  Very True!!  Read our Positive Thinking

COPE Wins Round One With The Payments Council!
www.cambridgecope50.org

Cambridgeshire Older People’s Enterprise are delighted to report that the Payments Council have today emailed COPE to announce that they have cancelled the target date to discontinue cheques in 2018.               Age UK has also congratulated COPE and Diane Andrewes of the Eastleigh Older people’s Forum for what was said by us in Westminster last month at the Age UK’s launch of the “Way We Pay” research, as they clearly believe that our contribution was the final push that caused the Payments Council to change their minds.
However COPE members and the public still need to persuade their banks to re-issue cheque guarantee cards to those of us who wish to continue to use chequebooks.  So COPE urges it’s 2,887 members and the public to write to their own banks to ask for a Cheque Card. We have bailed them out, perhaps they will do what their customers ask? 

OVER-50S ARE 'TOO OLD' FOR TRAVEL COVER
Express.co.uk
By Sanchez Manning HOLIDAYMAKERS over 50 are being denied travel insurance by companies because of their age, it was revealed last night. The discrimination affects around 1.5 million older travellers, alarming new research shows. ..

Burstow: pensioners will have to pay for their own elderly care
Telegraph.co.uk
By Tim Ross, Social Affairs Editor Paul Burstow, the health minister, said he expected a public outcry when detailed plans for the future funding of the social care system in England are announced next week, as he ruled out an NHS-style free national

David Cameron declares war on women with double-pronged pension assault

Scottish Daily Record - Torcuil Crichton - ‎

DAVID Cameron was last night accused of declaring war on millions of women with a two-pronged assault on their pensions. The Prime Minister refused to budge on plans to make 500000 women work up to two years longer. And the Con-Dems will hammer up to ... See all stories on this topic

Home care 'neglects basic rights' of elderly
Home-care providers are monitored by the Care Quality Commission, which was recently asked to perform an urgent investigation after evidence of systematic ...

 

Age UK publishes damning report on the care crisis

30 May 2011 ... Age UK publishes a damning report, which shows the depth of the crisis in social care and its consequent human cost.

 

Wealth - Cuts and Poverty
by Ken Savage GLPA

Pensioners stage Question Time demo
Belfast Telegraph
Pensioners' rights activists braved heavy showers and strong winds to picket the filming of current affairs programme Question Time. The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) is protesting against what it has described as "ageism' by the BBC in not ...

UK 'ostrich generation' neglecting pensions -HSBC
Reuters
By Cecilia Valente LONDON, May 26 (Reuters) - Britons fear a cash-strapped retirement but fail to plan for their old age, while Asians look forward to bumper pensions for which they are actively planning, a study by HSBC (HSBA. ...

Britain's bill for elderly care 'to cost a fifth of GDP' by 2050
Daily Mail
By Daniel Martin Britain will be hit with one of the highest bills for elderly care in the developed world, an international study warns. By 2050, the UK will spend more than a fifth of its entire national output on services for the elderly

Help!! - I will be 115 then and will need all the care I can get!!

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The new flat-rate universal state pension is apparently to be £155 pounds per week, possibly starting as early as 2015. Thats the good news.

The bad news for anyone who is retiring before that (or has already retired) is that it wont apply to us/you. We poor devils will still be stuck with on the old system in which the basic payment is £97.67 with a lot of complicated means tested top-ups.

So, after 2015, we will have a new lot of 65 year olds collecting one hundred and fifty-five pounds a week with no questions asked, alongside the much older, more vulnerable proportion of the population stuck on a meaner pension. Can we let this happen????

Come on IDS! You will be guilty of age discrimination - have a re-think on us older people.

 

 

click here
Amazing Grace - Sung beautifully

The new flat-rate universal state pension is apparently to be £155 pounds per week, possibly starting as early as 2015. Thats the good news.

The bad news for anyone who is retiring before that (or has already retired) is that it wont apply to us/you. We poor devils will still be stuck with on the old system in which the basic payment is £97.67 with a lot of complicated means tested top-ups.

So, after 2015, we will have a new lot of 65 year olds collecting one hundred and fifty-five pounds a week with no questions asked, alongside the much older, more vulnerable proportion of the population stuck on a meaner pension. Can we let this happen????

Come on IDS! You will be guilty of age discrimination - have a re-think on us older people.

Couples will get £300 a week in pensions shake-up  Daily Mail -

Couples emerged as the big winners of a radical shake-up of the state pension as ministers last night revealed they will be paid more than £300 a week. Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith unveiled plans for a new ..
 

Winter fuel payment cuts criticised
shropshirestar.com
The Chancellor has been accused of betraying pensioners after it emerged he is cutting the winter fuel allowance despite rising energy prices. The National Pensioners Convention expressed outrage that the Government was scrapping the temporary increase ...

Just received my Which report today - looked at the gardening section and discovered that whilst all areas in England were mentioned, there was no mention of Scotland, Wales or Ireland - so I promptly cancelled my subscription!

The British Wedding Cake
I am working on a new documentary for BBC2, charting the history of the British Wedding cake.  At the moment I am looking at how the wedding cake has changed its form across the centuries and how during world war two sugar rationing meant many couples had artificial wedding cakes made with plaster of paris. Ideally we would like to interview couples or an individual who had a cake like this or perhaps feature a human interest story such as the local neighbourhood donating their rations so that the couple could have a cake?  please contact me on 0207 067 4874  Sophie