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Campaigners Draw Up Pensioners' Manifesto

The Guardian

February 10, 2004

Campaigners started to set down a pensioners' manifesto today, in a bid to ensure the "grey vote" is not ignored at the next general election. 

All political parties are being urged to back a set of policies being drawn up by more than 800 groups, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) said. 

A three-month debate, described as "the biggest consultation exercise ever staged amongst older people", will flesh out principles on issues such as pensions and income, health and care, transport and mobility, neighbourhood and community and active citizenship. 

The final document will be endorsed at the "pensioners' parliament" in Blackpool on May 18-20, before being sent to all prospective parliamentary candidates. 

Proposals include calling for the basic state pension to be raised to £105.45 a week for a single pensioner and to £160.95 for a couple from April, as well as wanting means-testing to be stripped from pension payments and benefits. 

The groups are also calling for the state pension to be increased annually in line with average earnings or inflation (retail price index), whichever is the greater, to enable pensioners to share in the growing prosperity of the nation. 

Another suggestion is whether pensioners should be expected to pay increases in council tax bills, which are unrelated to the increases in their state pension. 

A free annual health check and free long-term care and additional state funding for hospices have also been suggested. 

A £200 per pensioner household increase in the winter fuel allowance, plus an extra £100 for those aged over 80, is also proposed. 

The creation of a National Older Persons' Commission to scrutinize legislation and make recommendations to parliament will be discussed. 
Ahead of today's House of Commons launch, NPC president Rodney Bickerstaffe said: "For the first time in the history of the pensioners' movement we will produce a collection of policies that all the political parties will be asked to support at the next general election. 

"In this way we will be able to show which candidates are supporting older people and then pensioners can cast their votes as they see fit. 
"This unique exercise in pensioner power will no longer mean that older people can either be ignored or taken for granted by the politicians." 
Driving the document's creation is the feeling among pensioners that they are being treated as second-class citizens. 

With 11 million people currently over the age of 60 and a very high proportion of them prepared to turn out and vote in elections, the power of the pensioner vote should not be underestimated, the NPC warned. 
The value of basic state pension has been falling, by more than £30 a week for an individual and £50 a week for a couple, since index-linking it to average earnings was abolished in 1980, the NPC argued. 

As a result, millions of pensioners now feel that their contribution to the nation is being ignored. 

Care for the elderly is another major concern. Nearly 800 residential homes have closed in recent years, with a net loss of some 10,000 beds, and evictions and transfers of residents to other locations cause suffering and even deaths. 

The average charge is around £500 a week and every year 70,000 pensioners have to sell their homes in order to pay these bills. 
The quality of life in many homes is "shocking" and often with no serious attempt at rehabilitation, the NPC said. 


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