Pensioners’ Parliament opens
Blackpool is set for an influx of some 2,000 pensioners as the 13th annual pensioners’ parliament opens.
The three-day event, organised by the National Pensioners Convention, will address the pensions crisis as well as wide ranging subjects such as healthcare and transport for the over 65s.
The NPC is to proffer a pensioners’ charter demanding a decent state pension and access to free long-term care, a well-heated home and free nationwide travel on public transport.
Delegates will hear calls for the basic state pension to be linked to average earnings.
The conference, which is expected to be attended by Pensions Minister Stephen Timms, begins with a march by about 1,500 pensioners.
Yesterday, the NPC unveiled its Age Audit which claimed 2.2 million pensioners still lived below the poverty line, the same figure when Labour took office in 1997, while 1.5 million of them remain malnourished or at risk of malnourishment.
The NPC reported the same number had said their homes were too cold during winter. It is estimated 22,000 people died as a result of the cold last year.
George Henderson, vice-president of the Transport and General Workers Union’s Retired Members Association (RMA), affirmed his union’s support for the pensioners’ charter.
“The general election has come and gone but the concerns of Britain’s 11 million pensioners still remain,” he said.
“The creation of a pensioners’ charter will ensure that all politicians start getting the message that pensioners deserve to live in a warm and comfortable home free from fear of poverty and receive all the care and attention they need regardless of their income.”
