Annual Convention 2024 ‘Emergency Sessions’ Outcome
NPC calls on all members to urge MPs to vote against Winter Fuel Payment cuts in Commons
Plus: NPC plans National DAY OF ACTION on 7th October
The NPC is calling on members to urge their MPs to vote against the government’s cuts to universal Winter Fuel Payments in a crucial Parliamentary debate next Tuesday.
The move follows the NPC Annual Convention ‘Emergency Sessions’ this week on the Chancellor’s decision to end the £200-£300 energy bill allowance for 10million older people from October.
Almost 300 NPC delegates packed our Blackpool Convention venue to hear grim evidence about the impact on older people if the fuel allowance cuts are allowed to go ahead.
Now the NPC - the UK’s largest campaigning organisation run for and by older people - is urging everyone to write, call or email their MPs this weekend to insist they vote against the cuts in a special debate in the House of Commons this Tuesday.
The emergency sessions also resulted in a call for a Day of Action to coincide with an NPC parliamentary lobby in the House of Commons on 7th October.
NPC General Secretary Jan Shortt said: “We are grateful to Rachel Maskell MP for Tuesday’s Commons debate on the government’s plan to remove the winter fuel allowance from anyone not in receipt of pension credit – because there is no doubt if it goes ahead it will put lives at risk.
“We heard evidence from our expert speakers and impassioned pleas from our members on the impact of the fuel allowance cuts at the NPC Annual Convention emergency sessions this week.
“Now we are asking every single one of our members – and the NPC has around one million across the UK - to ask their MPs to vote against the secondary legislation to remove the winter fuel allowance from anyone not receivimg pension credit. “
Where is the humanity?
This decision ‘feels unforgiveable.’
Heléna Herklots CBE,
Commissioner for Older People, Wales.
Jan added: “It’s a simple fact that lives will be lost as older people – already struggling to makes ends meet – will turn off their heating and stop eating hot meals to save money.
“Parliament never intended to scrutinise the Chancellor's decision – there has been no consultation or assessment of the impact of the allowance cuts - but thanks to Rachel Maskell MP we now have that opportunity on Tuesday. (10th September).
“Withdrawing the winter fuel allowance from 10 million older people was not in the Labour Party Manifesto. Why on earth have they announced this now? They keep saying ‘but we’re keeping the Triple Lock rise on the state pension.’ But that won’t be paid until next April – at the end of the winter! Plus, they forget that not every older person is on the new, higher state pension – that vast majority are not, so the triple lock increase will be much smaller for us.
"As for pushing a campaign to increase uptake of Pension Credit by the 880,000 still not receiving it – there is no way they will be able to implement this in time for this winter!”
The Convention heard speeches by experts including the Commissioner for Older People in Wales, Heléna Herklots CBE who is leaving the position after a successful six years in post. She commented: “Part of my anger at what the government has done is over the levels of anxiety so many older people are facing because they don’t know how they will get through the next months. For me that feels unforgiveable.
“Where is the understanding, where is the empathy and where is the humanity? Because there is no way the government doesn’t know this is going to hit some of the people who can least manage. They have said it is about the broadest shoulders bearing the brunt - but it doesn’t feel like that. We need a strategy for an ageing society.”
This year's NPC Annual Convention was held at The Imperial Hotel, Blackpool Promenade FY1 2HB, on Tuesday, 3rd and Wednesday 4th September.
The packed programme covered: growing pensioner poverty and the need for a strategy on ageing; the challenges of our increasingly digital world; and the rising privatisation of NHS and care services. There was also a debate on how older and young people must work together to tackle climate change.
Full reports of all the discussion sessions will follow shortly, and we will be posting audio / podcast recordings of each session on our website: www.npcuk.org
Many thanks to all our speakers including:
· Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, Chair, British Medical Association-England GP Committee
· Bryn Davies, Lord Davies of Brixton, Labour Peer
Commissioner for Older People in Wales, Heléna Herklots CBE
· Eorann Lean, Senior External Affairs Manager, Age UK
· Morgan Vine, Director, Policy and Influencing, Independent Age
· Dr Bob Gill, Director, The Great NHS Heist
· Diarmaid McDonald, Director, Just Treatment
· Phoebe Sleet, Policy Officer, Digital Poverty Alliance
· Caren Evans, Officer, Unite the Union
· Nav Hussain, Stakeholder Manager, BT Digital Voice
· Tina Rothery, co-founder, Nanas Against Fracking (Blackpool/Lancs)
· Jenny Sims, Chair NPC Digital Working Party
· Owen Sloss, Campaign for Better Transport
