The value of volunteering
Scarborough Group celebrates Jocelyn’s 100-year milestone
Members of the CSPA Scarborough Group last year toasted the 100th birthday of their fellow member Jocelyn Lovett. Until a couple of years ago, Jocelyn was an active member of Scarborough Group, travelling 20 miles from her home in Malton by train to meetings. She always took part in discussions about issues such as the digital divide and toilets closing.
Jocelyn celebrated her birthday in her care home with her son Bob, friends and Scarborough Group chair Joyce l’Anson. Her birthday cake (pictured), made by care home staff, featured daffodils as a symbol of her native Wales. It was all edible, even the flowers and the plant pot!
Jocelyn was born in the coastal town of Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, Wales in 1924. Her grandmother’s house was in the ‘Lower Town’ – down a steep hill and by the old fishing port. She visited there often as a young girl to help her gran, who was a
Jocelyn was born in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, but now lives in Yorkshire
Notice of the 2025 Annual General Meeting
This year’s Annual General Meeting will be held on 8-9 October at the Chesford Grange Hotel, Kenilworth in Warwickshire. Groups and branches will be invited to submit motions for discussion at the AGM, as well as nominations to the Executive Council and Standing Orders Committee in due course. The deadline for receipt of motions and nominations is Friday 4 July.
champion Corgi breeder and Crufts judge. One of her weekly errands was to go to the market in the town to buy sheep’s heads her grandmother cooked for the dog! It was quite a trek up and down the hill.
She went on to live in the Cambrian Inn, a pub run by her parents in the main town. It had stables for the horses and traps of the clientele.
Jocelyn went to school in Fishguard, but later moved to Derby just before the outbreak of World War II, where she attended a commercial college and developed a skill with numbers.
In her career, she always had clerical administrative roles. The first job was with the LMS railway company in Derby. It was on the railway that she met husband Ron, as she travelled to Fishguard with her grandmother on a very crowded train. The handsome, uniformed Chief Petty Officer offered his suitcase as a seat as all the compartments were full. The rest is history. They later married in Fishguard.
Jocelyn and Ron moved to Portsmouth where Ron joined the police
force. She had a number of jobs there, including working in the NAAFI responsible for ordering and victualling Royal Navy ships (including monitoring the supply of tax-free cigarettes and rum).
She also worked as a wages clerk, an administrative manager for a newspaper wholesaler, a civil service tax officer and a switchboard operator at a local solicitor’s office. When widowed, she moved to Yorkshire to be close to her son.
At her care home, however, she confuses the residents and staff now and again by speaking in Welsh!
Did you know that your membership of the CSPA gives you access to a range of benefits including:
• Help on any problems with your civil service pension – email: enquiries@cspa.co.uk
• Free support on any personal computer issues – contact BC Technologies’ helpline: 01369 706656 quoting CSPA
• Free initial legal advice – contact enquiries@cspa.co.uk or log onto the
If you have trouble getting access to CSPA member benefits, contact us at HQ
CSPA website at www.cspa.co.uk for details
• Free initial advice on wills and powers of attorney – contact Harvey Howell Solicitors by email: CSPA@harveyhowell.co.uk or telephone: 0330 175 9959
• Access to the CSPA travel insurance scheme offered by the not-for-profit Civil Service Insurance Society (CSiS) – for information visit www.csis.co.uk/cspa or telephone
CSiS on 01622 766960 option 5 for a dedicated line for CSPA members.
If you need help accessing these benefits, please email us at enquiries@cspa.co.uk or call 0208 688 8418.
Taking our message direct to Parliament
The CSPA was back in Parliament in December at a reception to mark the 10th anniversary of Later Life Ambitions, the partnership to promote policies and initiatives for older people. The CSPA is a member of the partnership, along with the National Federation of Pensioners and retired police officers body NARPO.
The evening was hosted by Lord Davies of Brixton and supported by
“It remains imperative we campaign strongly on a raft of policies”
many of our contacts and supporters from across the political spectrum, including Clive Betts MP (Labour, Sheffield South East), Sir Stephen Timms MP (Labour, East Ham), Baroness Altman (Life Peer, non-affiliated), Wendy Chamberlain MP (Lib Dem, North East Fife) and many others.
CSPA General Secretary Sally Tsoukaris spoke at the reception and looked back on 10 turbulent years in politics.
She said LLA had stayed the course and worked positively with the government of the day and across political parties. “It remains imperative that we campaign strongly on the whole
raft of policies that impact people in later life,” she said.
Sally welcomed the preservation of the triple-lock for pensions and called again for a Commissioner for Older People for England and Scotland, in line with those that exist for Wales and Northern Ireland.
Main photo: Sally Tsoukaris From top: Lord Davies of Brixton with David Luxton; Les Priestley, Chris Haswell and Tony McMullan; Sally Tsoukaris and David Luxton with members of NARPO
Listen up!
Would you like to listen to The Pensioner rather than read it? The CSPA is increasing its audio output with podcasts and articles from the magazine available on the website. We also produce an audio
version of The Pensioner. If you’d like to tune in to future editions email enquiries@cspa.co.uk, call 0208 688 8418 or write to us at 160 Falcon Road, London SW11 2LN.
General secretary's Report
Sally Tsoukaris
Christmas seems a dim memory and we appear to be hurtling towards summer at top speed! On the plus side, the days are lengthening and we hope to see our heating bills fall (if only a little bit) as the weather gets warmer.
Local elections in May will indicate whether the polls in favour of Reform UK will turn into election gains.
They will also test the impact of the government’s policies and the extent to which Kemi Badenoch has steadied the Conservative Party ship. With the blow dealt to pensioners by the changes to winter fuel payments, we are wary of the potential for further policy announcements that may adversely affect older people.
Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride continues to claim that the state pension triple-lock is unsustainable in the long term, and we are reading more in the press about
its uncertain future. Our Deputy General Secretary’s report on page 16 looks at this in more detail.
In the autumn, I wrote to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to convey CSPA concerns about the potential for older people to miss out on vital support and services from their local authorities due to digital exclusion.
I’ve warned that councils’ ‘digital first’ approach will restrict access to funding
Councils have increasingly relied on a ‘digital first’ approach to communicating with residents in recent years, partly in response to year-on-year reductions in the funding received from central government
over the past 15 years. I warned that this digital approach may, in some cases, restrict access to the household support fund to which the government has pledged to add funding to offset the worst impacts of cuts to winter fuel payments.
In January I received a response from local government minister Jim McMahon, outlining the government’s commitment to the UK becoming “a world-leading digital economy that works for everyone”. He added: “We must also enable people in every part of society – irrespective of age, gender, physical ability, ethnicity, health conditions or socio-economic status – to access the opportunities of the internet.”
We have shared our concerns and the letter with the National Pensioners Convention Digital Working Party, who will pick up the campaign by writing to the Local Government Association.
2015 Remedy support
CSPA podcasts have arrived!
We have launched a series of CSPA podcasts on topics ranging from civil service and state pensions to arranging a power of attorney.
We will also record conversations with member benefits providers such as the Civil Service Insurance Society, other partner organisations and Executive Council members.
The podcasts are available via the CSPA website at www.cspa.co.uk, but if you are not online and would like to be sent a transcript, do call us.
We held another successful CSPA webinar on the 2015 Remedy (also known as McCloud) last autumn, including CSPA Vice Chair Roisin Lilley, Pensions Manager Chris Haswell and Cabinet Office and Northern Ireland Department of Finance colleagues. To hear the webinar and questions and answers arising, visit the CSPA website. Printed transcripts can also be posted to members.
In January, we met Cabinet Office representatives to discuss a range of issues, including CSPA members’
recent experiences of the pensions administrator service, the transition from MyCSP to Capita, and progress on the long-awaited 2015 Remedy.
If you retired after March 2015, and qualified under the Remedy, you’ll be given the choice to take your pension for post-March 2015 service either in your legacy scheme or the newer Alpha scheme.
We have been told MyCSP will be sending choice forms to pensioners until 31 March, though those with more complex cases may be later.
For many, the choice will be straightforward. But those with more complicated situations may wish to access the resources we have made available in the Remedy Hub on the CSPA website or on the Civil Service Pensions website at www. civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk.
Explainer: death benefit lump sums
In response to queries about death benefit lump sums, civil service pensions have similar rules to other public sector schemes. A death benefit lump sum may be paid if a person dies within five years of retiring. It is calculated as the difference (if any) between five times the annual pension on the date of death and any pension and lump sum payments already received. Payment
may be made to either the nominated beneficiary or a personal representative. Chris Haswell, our Pensions and Personal Cases Manager, has provided the following example. If a person’s annual pension is £7,500 with a lump sum of £22,500 on retirement, and they die 11 months after retiring, the death benefit lump sum would be calculated like this: Max benefit: 5 x £7,500 = £37,500
Putting CSPA AGM priorities into action
Pensions
and related matters
We maintain pressure on all political parties to preserve the triple-lock and ensure state pensions keep pace with average earnings and inflation. We highlighted this with MPs and peers at our Later Life Ambitions event in December.
The triple-lock has helped align the state pension with average earnings and the cost of living, but there is no room for complacency. We lag behind many European nations on pension spending relative to GDP, and recent years have seen pensioner poverty on the rise again.
The government has pledged to increase state pensions under the triple-lock for the duration of this parliament, but this means the pension will exceed the frozen personal income tax threshold, so all pensioners have to pay tax. This simply doesn’t make sense – shifting revenues from the DWP to HMRC via pensioners!
Commissioners for Older People
We continue to campaign with Age UK, the National Pensioners Convention, Independent Age and others for a
Commissioner for Older People in England and Scotland. Such commissioners in Northern Ireland and Wales have worked to highlight the impact of legislative changes and health and care issues on older people. We raise this point in all our meetings with MPs, and it surprises me how often they say they have not had it ‘on their radar’ before talking to us but establishing commissioners makes sense.
Health and social care
In December, we made an LLA submission to the Commons Health and Social Care Committee inquiry on adult social care reform. The Care and Support Alliance (CSA) to which the CSPA is affiliated, has also submitted written and oral evidence.
The inquiry looks into the contribution of adult social care to the economy and how the government could consider this when working towards economic growth.
Sessions have looked into what happens when a care provider fails, the contribution of unpaid carers, as well as workforce challenges and the impact of vacancies and staff turnover on care users/workers.
Less the benefits already received ie: £6,875 (11 months’ pension) + £22,500 (lump sum) = £29,375 Death benefit lump sum to pay = £37,500 - £29,375 = £8,125 If the person has chosen to take added lump sums, this would also impact any payment to be made and reduce, or possibly even cancel out, any potential death benefit lump sum.
In January, the government unveiled plans to reform England’s social care system. A commission chaired by Baroness Louise Casey is expected to deliver an interim report in 2026, with final recommendations in 2028. This is all part of the government’s vision to create a new National Care Service to address chronic issues in the sector, for which the CSPA and LLA have long campaigned.
CSA member organisations are concerned about the urgent need for supportive interventions in the short term as well. The increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions has meant about £2.8 billion in extra costs for care providers, according to the Nuffield Trust, with little help for local authorities to pay more for the care services they commission. Providers have warned of job losses, even closures, but so far these warnings seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
Changes to our team
In December, we bid farewell to Doreen Parkinson (left) as our Minutes Secretary. We wish her well in retirement. Doreen continues to play an active role in her local CSPA Croydon Group.
We welcome Rose Cooney (right) on board to help us in recording Executive Council meetings and the AGM, and Rose will also help to cover the office when other colleagues are on leave.
Social care
A system in crisis
Reforming social care remains a huge challenge for the UK government, reports
Barrie Clement
Headline-grabbing adjectives are routinely used to describe the state of social care in England. ‘Dire’ was the word chosen in a report commissioned by the Labour government and published in September. Few would disagree with the author, Lord Darzi, a surgeon and a health minister under the previous Labour government. One of the enduring problems faced by the sector, however, is that it will always struggle to win the political and emotional support enjoyed by the NHS, even though this too is underfunded.
Virtually everyone in the UK has reason to be personally grateful for the health service, but not so with the care system. Many people only become animated about care for the elderly – or any other vulnerable group – when it affects them personally or one of their friends or family. So social care will always have to shout loud for a fair share of the cake.
And then there is the question of what constitutes ‘fairness’. Right-wingers will invariably argue that social care is a bottomless pit into which taxpayers’ money can be poured endlessly. Most people with knowledge of the subject, however, would agree that the current level of funding is inadequate and needs to be increased substantially and urgently.
An Age UK report in September put the situation starkly: “In some cases, older people are dying sooner than they should, for want of timely and high-quality diagnoses, treatment, care and support.”
The number of elderly people is increasing and this growth is expected to accelerate over the next decade. When the NHS was set up and our adult social care system established more than 70 years ago, one in two people died before the age of 65, according to the Office for National Statistics. Now just one in seven men and one in 11 women die before they reach 65.
So demand is increasing dramatically at a time when the sector is enduring massive recruitment problems. Skills for Care, the workforce development organisation for adult social care in England, found that in 2023/24 there were around 131,000 unfilled posts – a vacancy rate of 8.1 per cent. There was also a huge and debilitating turnover rate of 24.4 per cent. Any organisation, public or private, would have immense difficulty sustaining a reasonable service under such circumstances.
Skills for Care, along with unions in the sector, attribute turnover and vacancies to a range of factors, including low pay (supermarkets pay more for less stressful work) and zero-hours contracts. Training for new entrants in a service that requires skill and sensitivity is often minimal or non-existent. Many employers rely on migrant labour and some resort to illegal underpayment.
Delayed discharges
The ‘canary in the mine’, as Age UK puts it, is what’s happening in hospitals. A lack of resources in the community has meant that around 13 per cent of hospital beds are occupied by people who could
have been discharged. Not all delayed discharges can be attributed to problems in social care, but most can. So what awaits discharged patients at home and in the community?
John Perryman, policy and public affairs manager at Carers UK, the charity that supports unpaid carers, says the value of their work is a staggering £162 billion a year. According to a presentation he was due to make at the CSPA’s AGM in October but was unable to due to illness, nearly three out of five carers are worried about living costs. And nearly three out of 10 have bad or very bad mental health.
Nearly three million people are juggling paid work and unpaid care across the UK
Perryman estimates that nearly three million people are juggling paid work and unpaid care across the UK – nearly one in 10 of all those in employment.
The charity is calling for a new national carers strategy over the next 10 years, which would give more support and sustainable funding and investment in social care services.
Suggestions that social care becomes more integrated with the NHS may be the way to ensure it gets the resources it deserves. One of the challenges to this is that the two services are funded differently. The NHS is financed primarily through general taxation and National Insurance contributions, while in England, Wales and Scotland, local authorities are legally responsible for adult social care. Funding comes from central grants and local revenue-raising mechanisms such as the council tax.
Lord Darzi and the 2024 report
So, for example, people who have cancer get ‘free’ treatment on the NHS, while those with dementia must pay for support through the means-tested social care system.
I have personal experience of this. My mother-in-law died of cancer, while my father-in-law succumbed to dementia after three years of care in a residential home for which he had to sell his home.
In Northern Ireland, health and social care trusts share responsibility for elderly people in need of support, which could provide a model for the rest of the UK.
The Nuffield Trust points out that the level of the means test, and the treatment received, is on the whole more generous in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland than in England. So while no nation has cracked the problem, the experiences of Celtic countries – both positive and less so – may offer important lessons for policymakers in England.
Kathleen Moore, whose husband receives care support in England, summed it up: “Navigating the system and finding care has been a very frustrating and isolating experience because no one really tells you what support is available.
“The current system is totally disjointed, short-staffing means care assessments are delayed and some workers are treated shockingly by their employers. It shouldn’t be down to luck that you land the right support. It should be guaranteed.”
Labour’s vision
So given the conclusions of researchers in general and Lord Darzi in particular, and the experiences of recipients of social care and their relatives, what does the Labour government propose to do about it?
Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting has expressed his determination to improve pay and working conditions in social care and to create a National Care Service (NCS) as part of a 10-year plan.
Wes Streeting promises a National Care Service as part of a 10-year plan
“We can’t fix the crisis in our NHS without fixing the crisis in social care. And we can’t fix social care without the people who work in it,” Streeting told delegates at the Labour conference last year.
Ministers have since said that the government has already taken steps to improve pay and tackle vacancies, as well as giving councils an extra £600 million for adult and children’s social care.
However, Streeting has recently revealed that proposals on long-term funding are unlikely to be delivered before 2028.
An independent commission, chaired by Baroness Louise Casey, will begin work in April but will take three years to complete its final report. Meanwhile, there is little detail about the NCS and there is known to be nervousness in the Treasury about the billions of
pounds it would take to fix the system.
The CSPA was among organisations submitting evidence in December to the cross-party Commons committee inquiry into health and social care, Adult Social Care Reform: The Cost of Inaction. Sally Tsoukaris, CSPA general secretary, says the increase in employer National Insurance contributions in the autumn Budget will have a significant impact on companies delivering social care because they don’t benefit from public sector exemptions, even if they provide services under contract to local authorities.
She points to widespread unease in the sector about the continued uncertainty over short, medium and long-term measures and the way ahead for the government’s delivery of a new national care framework.
In addition, she says, there are concerns that Streeting’s 10-year plan for social care may be lagging behind the 10-year plan for the NHS.
In its report, Age UK is in little doubt that shifting the focus of services for older people out of hospital and into the community is the central strategic challenge for health and social care over the next decade. It highlights the strength of support for this among experts including Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England.
As the report concludes: “The Labour government has committed to a health mission, but it won’t deliver it unless and until [care in the community] happens.”
Your help matters
Linda Harrison on why fewer retired people are becoming volunteers – and the impact this has on charities
Twice a week at 7.30am, you’ll find Brenda Marsh walking the ward of Moorfields Eye Hospital. Brenda is a hand-holding volunteer in the London hospital’s operating theatres, meeting and greeting patients. After finding out how they’re feeling, she asks if they’d like a hand to hold throughout their operation.
“This usually breaks the ice, then they open up and I can find out how stressed and anxious they are,” says Brenda. “I meet a lot of very scared patients.”
Brenda started volunteering at the Friends of Moorfields charity in May 2022 after retiring and finds it very rewarding. “I cannot believe how much just a simple gesture of holding someone’s hand through an operation can help and mean so much to patients,” she says. “And how grateful they are for this act of kindness.
“I absolutely love volunteering and I take a lot of patients home in my heart. One lady after surgery thanked the surgeon for looking after her eyes, and me for looking after her soul. It is a very humbling job that feel privileged to be able to do. Anyone of any age can – and should – as the rewards are truly amazing.”
However, while many people still give up their time to help others, volunteering is at a record low. A recent government Community Life Survey found that just
16% of people in England take part in formal volunteering at least once a month – compared with around 28% in 2013.
Moorfields itself has a healthy number of older volunteers, including former patients like Brenda. But many other charities are struggling to recruit older volunteers in the numbers they’ve previously relied on. So, what’s behind the change?
FareShare Midlands
FareShare Midlands is one charity affected by this. In partnership with FareShare UK, it rescues good-quality surplus food and redistributes it to more than 800 local charities and community organisations, reaching 83,000 people weekly.
Paul Akroyd, FareShare Midlands’ head of volunteering and employability, says: “We receive surplus food from supermarkets, farms and food suppliers into our three depots. There it is sorted, stored and redistributed… This includes [to] food banks, children’s clubs, homeless shelters and community kitchens.
“We rely heavily on volunteers, the vast majority of whom are older and semiretired or retired. We were at a point last year when we almost had to stop making deliveries to our members – local charities and community organisations – as we had no volunteers to drive delivery vans.”
There are various reasons for decreasing volunteer numbers, not least the cost-ofliving crisis. Paul explains: “Many charities have found that rising numbers of older volunteers who had been able to live comfortably on their pensions – potentially 10% across the UK – have found they’ve had to return to some form of paid work.
“An even greater number of senior volunteers – potentially 60% – have adult children who are parents themselves. The current economic climate means that frequently both parents have to work, and childcare is costly. Therefore, older people who might have been willing and able to afford to volunteer are not doing so as they are supporting their children by providing free childcare.”
This is a growing trend in the sector.
In Greater Manchester and Birmingham, the charity Home-Start has experienced a huge drop in volunteers in recent years because rising childcare costs mean more people are looking after grandchildren.
The charity helps young families by offering emotional and practical support in their own homes for anything from poverty to illness, disability or bereavement.
Volunteers offer a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on and practical help. Retired or older volunteers, once the core of HomeStart’s home-visiting volunteers, now
have little time free for volunteering. It’s a similar situation at national charity Coram Beanstalk, which helps children in schools who need extra support with reading through one-to-one support. More than 80% of its volunteers are aged 55 and over. In 2024, the charity saw a 20% decline in applications to help – 49 schools are currently waiting for volunteers.
Amy Lewis, who leads Coram Beanstalk, says volunteers today are looking for
Rising childcare costs mean more people are looking after their grandchildren
different types of roles. “Many seek shorter term or micro roles to better fit with other commitments,” she explains.
“I’ve worked with the charity for over 13 years and have seen it become more difficult to find suitable volunteers for our role to help children become readers. Historically, we were able to find people who could commit twice a week, which was really appreciated by schools. We can no longer do this and have had to adapt our role to weekly visits.
“Care for grandchildren has impacted on the time people can give, but also many are looking after parents who are living longer and unable to access suitable care. In the past year, we lost 14% of our volunteers due to family commitments.”
Technology is also a barrier to volunteering. Making Space is a national health and social care charity that runs services such as extra care housing schemes, carer support groups and mental health services. It currently has around 70 volunteers, most aged 70 to 90. Volunteer coordinator Antonia Pike says: “Time constraints mean our volunteering
How to volunteer near you
• Consider what you enjoy, your passions and interests, and how you might use your own life experience to help others. Research local charities and find one that sits well with your own values.
• Be realistic about how much time you can commit, and make sure it can fit into your routine.
• Look for organisations offering structured roles and good support.
• Don’t worry about qualifications or work history – it’s your life experience that makes you a valuable volunteer.
• Not online? Call in to your local volunteer centre (most towns have one), which can match you to an opportunity.
opportunities are generally now only advertised online. So if an older person doesn’t have access to the internet, they may not find out about us.”
Value of life experience
Making Space is seeing more applications from 16 to 18-year-olds – many as part of their T Levels (practical A Levels), others who want to improve their CVs. But this also presents challenges. Antonia explains: “These younger volunteers bring energy, enthusiasm, academic skills and expertise in IT and social media, but often lack the communication skills and confidence we’ve come to expect from older volunteers. They can be reluctant to pick up a phone or chat to people they don’t know. There’s no beating a bit of life experience.”
Many charities are reacting by trying to make volunteering more flexible. Amy says: “We try to minimise time needed for learning and development by offering a range of ways to connect, including online group sessions and a resource portal.
“Volunteering can bring new purpose to people’s lives post-retirement – schools value the life experience and patience older volunteers bring to children; and volunteers say the time spent with children keeps them young!”
Volunteering can also boost older people’s confidence and sense of worth, help with fitness and mental wellbeing, and reduce isolation and loneliness.
“It’s about what you can give, but it’s also about what you get back,” says Antonia. “For many older volunteers, it can be a way to rediscover their identity and interests.”
Further information
• National Council for Voluntary Organisations: www.ncvo.org.uk
• Doit: www.doit.life/
• The Big Help Out: www.thebighelpout.org.uk/
• Making Space: www.makingspace. co.uk/get-involved/volunteering
• Moorfields Eye Hospital: www.moorfields.nhs.uk/
• FareShare: www.faresharemidlands.org.uk/ volunteer
• Coram Beanstalk: www.corambeanstalk.org.uk
• Home-Start: www.gmhomestarts.org.uk www.homestartbirmingham.co.uk
FACING PAGE: FareShare volunteers FROM TOP: Brenda Marsh, Moorfields’ volunteer of the year; Coram Beanstalk reading helpers; Hope Hub users
A hard day’s night...
Spring is in bloom, says David Luxton – but no signs of growth yet except in household bills
s the first buds appear, we know spring is almost upon us after a long, cold winter. Perhaps not as long or severe as the winter of 1963, you may recall, but long and cold nevertheless. There’s no doubt sunshine and shoots of daffodils and bluebells will lift our spirits.
March also begins with the Brit Awards on ITV, recognising the best in British pop. Surprisingly, The Beatles, who hit fame in that harsh winter of 1963, have been nominated for best song of the year, Now and then, featuring all four Beatles but only released last year. Clearly, they weren’t going to Let it be even after 55 years of retirement…
But will our lifted spirits last through April? We already know big increases in household bills are coming from 1 April: council tax bills up 5% in almost all areas, rising to an average of £205 a month for a typical household; gas and electric bills stabilising but still high, with the price cap set to be £1,780 and monthly energy bills £148; and water bills up by £10 a month. All of which eats into pensioners’ income.
Spending review
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will be revealing the outcome of her spending review in April – not the review of how much she and Sir Keir spent on glasses and suits (that
was at someone else’s expense), but of departmental spending. And it’s not going to be good news.
To stick to her fiscal rule of not borrowing for day-to-day expenditure, and with monthly borrowing at record levels, the Chancellor is likely to announce significant cuts in public spending – or risk having to raise taxes again.
Her last Budget in October didn’t go down too well on that front. The elusive chase for economic growth is the
Surprisingly, The Beatles have been nominated for 2025’s song of the year
Chancellor’s priority, but until that starts to happen, the options look politically uncomfortable. And that will have an impact on longer term decisions about funding social care, the NHS and taxation policy, all of which will affect pensioners.
Also in April, civil service pensions increase by a disappointing 1.7%, based on last September’s Consumer Prices Index. But with inflation now running at 2.5%, much of that pension increase will be eroded by price rises already in the pipeline and the impact of the income tax
threshold remaining at £12,570 for the next three years. That figure should have been about £15,275 had it been index-linked from April 2021.
The average civil service pension in payment is around £10,000 a year, so the gross increase from 7 April for the average pensioner will be around £15 per month. All of that will be wiped out by higher council tax and water charges, as well as other price increases.
Is there any good news? Well, due to the triple-lock, state pensions will rise by 4.1% from 7 April based on annual earnings growth averaged over May to July 2024. Most pensioners (and CSPA members) are on the basic state pension (pre-2016), which will rise by £6.94p per week (£361 pa) from £169.50 per week (£8,814 pa) to £176.45 per week (£9,175 pa). The new state pension will rise by £9 per week (£470 pa) to £230.25 per week (£11,973 pa). So now the cash difference between the basic and new state pension amounts to £54 a week.
To explain the reasons for this difference, the CSPA has arranged a podcast featuring CSPA pensions officer Chris Haswell and respected pensions expert Lord Bryn Davies of Brixton. You can listen to this in the members area of the CSPA website at www.cspa.co.uk.
Triple-lock under threat
The triple-lock has been a key safeguard to protect the value of the state pension relative to earnings and inflation since it was introduced in 2011, but is under threat. There has been growing media speculation that the policy may have to be ditched due to the projected growth in the number of pensioners and the growing cost relative to the size of the economy.
The Office of National Statistics forecasts that an extra 1.7 million people will be claiming state pension by 2032, rising to 15 million by 2047, even allowing for the planned increase in the state pension age to 67.
Jonathan Cribb from the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said: “Ultimately, the triple-lock will be considered at some point unsustainably expensive to keep.”
A House of Commons paper, Pensions: international comparisons, published last year, states the UK “is providing a lower level of pension than most other advanced economies, relative to average earnings”.
The Labour government has pledged to maintain the triple-lock for the remainder of this Parliament. But commitments are not always kept, as we know from 2022, when Boris Johnson suspended it, causing a 5% reduction in the value of the state pension relative to earnings.
We must maintain pressure to protect this safeguard, which is as important for younger people and their wellbeing in later life as it is for existing pensioners.
Enjoy the spring
In the next few months we face a spending review, an increase in household bills, and fiscal drag pushing more of your pension into the income tax thresholds.
But on the plus side, we can enjoy the nostalgia of the Beatles in the Brit Awards and our pension increases. And most of all, there will be lighter evenings for walks and time to enjoy the blooms of nature. All the best things in life are free; we just need to look for them. Here comes the sun!
WASPI women betrayed
One group of people who do feel betrayed by politicians are the WASPI women – Women Against State Pension Inequality.
These are women born between 6 April 1950 and 5 April 1960 who were affected by the increases in the state pension age from age 60 to 65 and subsequently to 66. The substance of the WASPI claim is that they were not given sufficient notice of the changes to the state pension age to be able to plan their finances.
Their case was investigated thoroughly by the independent Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Last April he announced that in his view there had been maladministration by the Department for Work and Pensions in not sending out letters in time to those who would be affected by the phased move to equalise the retirement age to 65. His report recommended that all the women affected should be awarded compensation for the
Although the WASPI debate continues, trust in politicians has diminished
maladministration.
On 16 December, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall announced there would be no compensation, but apologised for the maladministration and the 28-month delay in letters being sent to the women affected. She said lessons would be learnt. Yet many on the front bench, including the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and Ms Kendall, had been photographed supporting the WASPI campaign when in opposition.
On 7 March, there will be a second reading debate in the House of Commons on a Bill, introduced by the SNP following pressure from MPs on all sides, calling for compensation for all women affected by the increase in state pension age.
Although the WASPI debate continues, trust in politicians has diminished. And if politicians choose to ignore the findings of the ombudsman, faith in our parliamentary system will be further undermined.
In the words of perhaps the best known Beatle, John Lennon: “What we’ve got to do is keep hope alive, because without it we’ll sink.”
In Politics
WESTMINSTER
By David Hencke
Works and pensions secretary Liz Kendall has blocked any compensation for 1950s women who waited six years to get their pension, in a move that led to widespread criticism in a later debate by MPs.
In an oral statement to Parliament on 17 December, Ms Kendall admitted there had been maladministration over 28 months in sending out letters to inform the group of 3.6 million people, as outlined in the report by former Parliamentary Ombudsman Sir Robert Behrens. She apologised for this.
But she would not accept that any of the people deserved financial compensation because, she said, they were not directly affected and receiving a letter was not the only way people had been informed of the change.
“We cannot accept that – in the great majority of cases – sending a letter earlier would have affected whether women knew their state pension age [SPA] was rising or would have increased their opportunities to make informed decisions.
"These two facts – that most women knew the SPA was increasing and that letters aren’t as significant as the Ombudsman says – as well as other reasons, have informed our conclusion that there should be no scheme of financial compensation to 1950s born women.”
For the DWP to set up a scheme and ask 3.5 million women to give details would
take thousands of staff years to process, she said. “Even if there was a scheme where women could self-certify that they weren’t aware of changes to their SPA and have suffered injustice as a result, it would be impossible to verify the information.”
In an oversubscribed debate in January there was wide condemnation of the move, but MPs were not united on the solution.
The debate, initiated by Tory MP Sir John Hayes, pointed to ethical and moral issues in refusing to implement the ombudsman's recommendations to compensate the 3.6
million. Focusing on the WASPI case for compensation, he urged more discussions between government and campaigners.
Rebecca Long Bailey, independent MP for Salford and chair of the all party parliamentary group (APPG) on state pension inequality, made it clear an apology from the government was not enough and called for a financial remedy.
Sir Julian Lewis, Conservative MP for New Forest East and a member of the APPG, made it clear the government
should not ignore the recommendations of the ombudsman and accused them of trying to deny his findings. John McDonnell, Labour’s former shadow chancellor, went further, saying the ombudsman’s recommendations were not good enough; he sought mediation on behalf of all 50s women. As shadow chancellor, he had recommended paying them £58 billion to settle the case.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, now an independent MP, was more critical. “I think I am right in saying that it is unprecedented for the government to reject in its entirety an ombudsman’s report and offer absolutely nothing," he said. “Those women were led up the garden path in the last election, and before that by people saying compensation was going to be paid. The minister needs to explain why the government is simply ignoring the plight of those women.”
New pensions minister Torsten Bell, however, stuck to his civil service brief and insisted that most women knew about the change and the women would benefit from the extra £22 billion being spent on the NHS.
The debate ended with Sir John Hayes accusing the minister of deceit.
The issue is not going away. The APPG is meeting various 50s women groups, including WASPI and CedawinLaw, which wants mediation to take the case further. And the Commons Work and Pensions Committee has launched an investigation into the government’s decision.
SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT
By Christine McGiveron
It was announced in December that people will get appointments and treatment more quickly in Scotland’s health service as a result of the Scottish government's latest Budget.
A record £21 billion allocated to health and social care aims to ensure the journey from diagnosis to treatment to aftercare is as stress-free as possible. If approved, the 2025/26 Budget will provide funding to:
• Enable patients to get treated faster by increasing appointment capacity and cutting waiting times
• Help people live healthier lifestyles by supporting GPs to deliver more services aimed at preventing illness
• Transfer patients from hospital to more appropriate settings more quickly, with an extra 600 Hospital at Home beds
• Improve the availability of procedures where backlogs exist
• Allow treatment closer to home with more resources in the community. Visiting the Linlithgow Medical Practice in West Lothian, health secretary Neil Gray emphasised the difference the funding would make. “Most of the stories I hear about people’s experience of the NHS are positive… But I know some people are waiting too long and finding appointments hard to come by. We want everyone to have a positive experience of the NHS, so we have listened and are taking action."
By March 2026, no one will wait longer than 12 months for a new outpatient appointment, in-patient treatment or day case treatment, with more than 150,000 extra patients treated as a result. The additional Hospital at Home beds aim to help people get out of hospital and support them at home.
The £100 million funding set out in the 2025/26 Budget to tackle delayed discharge will make Hospital at Home the “biggest hospital in the country”, if approved by Parliament. The service, which offers a safe alternative to admission to an acute hospital, will grow to 2,000 beds by December 2026, alleviating pressure on health and social care settings. The money will also ensure that all A&E departments in Scotland have
The aim is to make Hospital at Home the biggest hospital in the country
frailty units directly linked to community care settings, with an increased focus on collaborative working to improve patient experience. It is part of a £200 million package to clear the majority of new outpatient and treatment time waits and renew the NHS.
Social care minister Maree Todd visited Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline to outline measures to reduce delayed discharge and learn about services that can be replicated across Scotland, such as Discharge to Assess in Fife.
She said: “More than 96% of all hospital discharges happen without delay but we are working with local health partners and local government to find solutions for those that don’t, and address the variation we are seeing across Scotland.
“Our Budget, if approved, will provide £200 million to help clear waiting list backlogs, improve capacity and remove blockages that keep some patients in hospital longer than necessary.
“Once someone has been assessed as well enough to be discharged from hospital, the best place for them to be is at home, supported by a bespoke care package. This can be delivered by services for older people such as Hospital at Home."
Ms Todd continued: "Evidence shows that those benefiting from it are more likely to avoid hospital or care home stays for up to six months after acute illness.
“We want to expand that service to make it the biggest hospital in Scotland,
providing the very best care, in the comfort of a patient’s own home or homelike setting.
“We have a plan to renew our NHS and the Budget’s record funding for the health service will ensure that 150,000 extra patients are treated, deliver additional support for GPs and invest in new hospitals at Belford and Monklands.
"The NHS needs Parliament to unite behind this Budget.”
As part of the £21 billion investment in health and social care, the draft Scottish Budget includes more than £2 billion for social care and integration.
According to figures from Health Improvement Scotland, Hospital at Home has over the past year become the "eighth largest hospital" for older emergency inpatients.
The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow (pictured) is currently the biggest hospital for bed capacity, with Public Health Scotland data in November showing it had on average of 1,581 staffed beds from April to June 2024.
WELSH PARLIAMENT
By Martin Shipton
In the aftermath of the UK government’s decision to end the universal payment of the winter fuel allowance to all pensioners, Older People’s Commissioner in Wales Rhian Bowen-Davies has been pushing the Welsh government to mitigate the loss in its Budget for 2025/26. While the welfare and benefits system is not devolved to Wales, the commissioner has suggested a number of measures:
• Focusing resources on alleviating poverty, including fuel poverty, among older people by allocating funding to local authorities to improve the take- up of pension credit; providing a fund to help older people who are struggling but do not meet the criteria for the discretionary assistance fund
• Ensuring the Budget factors the issue of digital exclusion into all relevant policy areas and provides consistent funding to ensure older people and other groups who want to get online can do so
• Providing resources to the national action plan to prevent the abuse of older people and the Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategy to ensure these areas of work can have the impact needed
• Maintaining health and social care funding as a priority, including funding for prevention and community-based support, recognising the need for
greater parity between social care and healthcare, and ensuring the third sector can continue to play its essential role.
• Continuing to provide ringfenced funding for local authorities to support the ongoing development of agefriendly communities.
• Undertaking and publishing equality impact assessments on the combined impact of spending decisions in the Budget that are likely to have a negative effect on older people, to ensure that policy and decision-making have not been impacted by ageism. As the poorest of the four UK nations, Wales has some worrying statistics relating to older people. Nearly one in six live in relative income poverty (16%), rising with age to 17% of those aged 65-69 and 75-79, and increasing further to 18% of 80 to 84-year-olds and 20% of those aged 85 and over.
Around 50,000 people in Wales do not claim the pension credit to which they are entitled, meaning that every year more than £117 million is left unclaimed rather than reaching those who need it most. This year, those who fail to claim what they are entitled to are also missing out on up to £300 in winter fuel allowance. While the Welsh government’s discretionary assistance fund (DAF) plays an important part in helping people in crisis, disproportionately few older people access it. In June 2024, only 160 people aged over 70 accessed an emergency
payment, while for people aged 6069, the equivalent figure was 810. This contrasts with 3,997 people aged 40-49, for instance.
The commissioner argues that while work should be undertaken to highlight the DAF to older people, and to advise workers and others who are likely to be in contact with those who could benefit, there is also a need for a support fund specifically for older people who are not in crisis but still need support.
This includes older people who are ineligible for pension credit as a result of being above the qualifying threshold by a very small amount. Such a support fund could help with energy bills in light of the loss of the winter fuel allowance.
Rather than solely relying on older people to claim, routes such as payments
A support fund was called for to help older people not in crisis
to older people living in lower band council tax properties could be explored.
Digital exclusion is another area of concern, with large numbers of older people in Wales not having access to the internet and so unable to access some services as easily as younger people.
Some 31% of over-75s (95,069 people) do not have access to the internet at home and 33% of over-75s do not use the internet, including smart TV and handheld devices, compared with 13% of 65-74s and 0% of 25-44s. This means that around 101,200 people aged over 75 do not use the internet.
The commissioner argues that with the Welsh government contract for digital inclusion support via Digital Communities Wales due to end in June 2025, it is important that funding for digital support is maintained.
NORTHERN IRELAND
By Tony McMullan
The Assembly all party group on older people, on which CSPA NI has an observer seat, met online on 21 January – though there were six apologies from elected MLAs, including the chair and vice chair. However, a wide variety of older persons organisations present were told of research on issues such as the impact of dementia and environmental factors such as pollution and climate change.
Helen McLoughlin made a presentation on research into ways to stay healthy, covering issues such as getting around, access to health and social care, activities, public spaces and loneliness and isolation.
A wide variety of evidence highlighted the importance of transport, digital exclusion, recreational spaces, public toilets, lunch clubs, distance to GPs and hospitals, closure of banks, post offices and shops, particularly in rural areas.
The meeting also considered the final piece of research from Eddie Lynch, former Commissioner for Older People, on the impact of domestic violence on older people in Northern Ireland.
The Department for Communities (DfC) has launched a three-month consultation on the development of a fuel poverty strategy, and CSPA NI is consulting members on a response.
Eddie Lynch’s two terms as commissioner ended in June 2024. He was asked to stay in post while a replacement was found, but in December said he was leaving to take up employment elsewhere.
In January, CSPA NI wrote to the Executive Office asking when the post would be filled. It indicated the process was at an advanced stage and they hoped to make an announcement soon.
Following Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s decision to withdraw the winter fuel allowance from all but the poorest pensioners, increasing pressure has been exercised by the CSPA nationally
and locally as the matter is devolved. In September, DfC minister Gordon Lyons indicated that while he and the NI Executive were strongly against the decision, they could not continue to pay it as the Westminster government had withdrawn funding.
CSPA NI secretary Tony McMullan appeared on the Nolan Radio Show on BBC Radio Ulster to describe the impact this would have. After the autumn monitoring round, when Northern Ireland received £600 million, he was asked onto the show again and argued that some of
The new Programme for Government made no mention of older people
this should be used to pay the winter fuel payment, anticipated to cost £43 million.
On 19 November Gordon Lyons announced £17 million had been found to pay all NI pensioners a one-off £100. While welcome, it clearly doesn’t go far enough. The minister has indicated people should receive the payment by March, but CSPA NI has urged him to get the money to pensioners before then.
After waiting for the Programme for Government (PfG) since the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly in January 2024, the agreed PfG proved exceptionally disappointing for older people. It made no mention of older people and their issues, concerns and ambitions.
Claire Sugden MLA, chair of the all party group on older people, raised these concerns with First Minister Michelle O’Neill, who lamely replied that the benefit
of a consultation exercise was that Claire and others could raise their issues.
This is simply not good enough, either for each of the four parties in the coalition government or their many advisers or Assembly staff. Surely somebody should have spotted the complete absence of any issues relating to this fast-growing section of the community.
In their response to the consultation, CSPA NI have made it clear this should not happen again. With the birth rate falling and older people now living much longer lives, politicians must tackle this.
There was an urgent need to plan for more hospital beds and places in residential and nursing care for older people. Equally, there should be a dramatic increase in care packages for older people who need support but can remain in their own homes.
CSPA NI urged the NI Executive to address the shameful decision of the Westminster government to withdraw the winter fuel payment, and for the warm home discount scheme – which pensioners in England, Scotland and Wales have received for over 10 years – to be extended to Northern Ireland.
They also said age discrimination legislation for goods and services – also applied in England, Scotland and Wales for years – be made law in Northern Ireland. We need equality of treatment: the days of NI pensioners accepting second class status are gone forever!
Finally, CSPA NI said that not all NI pensioners are ill or poorly informed. Many are still keen to work if the hours and job suit. The government should draw on their broad experience to benefit all in society.
Something else that annoys me…
History used to be old and interesting, fulminates Chris Proctor. How things have changed...
You used to know where you were with museums. You went there and they had old stuff in them. Suits of armour and torture implements; old dresses; books with unintelligible writing; stones pretending to be ancient arrow heads. Proper old swag.
Though I must say I have my suspicions about the stones. They claim to be stoneage daggers or needles or razors. But how do we know? No one’s seen the original owners stabbing or stitching or shaving. You could pick a gum wrapper off the street and declare it “Mesopotamian cuneiform script”. Who’s to know apart from a passing 5,000-year-old Iraqi?
I don’t want to appear overly suspicious, but I once visited several museums along the Loire, every one of which had a sack of Marie Antoinette’s hair. If it was all genuine, she’d have looked like Rapunzel or a member of Led Zeppelin.
Anyway, none of this is relevant. My complaint is if you look in a dictionary (if you can find one these days) a museum is defined as a building containing historical objects. Well, half of them don’t. It’s false pretences. Blatant duplicity. Porky pies.
I went into a ‘museum of the home’ the other day to escape the rain, and the first thing I saw was a tin of Capstan Navy Cut Tobacco. Three complaints: (1) it was empty; (2) it’s obviously not old – my Uncle Ernie always had one; (3) it alleged on an adjoining notice that the exhibit dated back to “before 1970”. Before 1970?! Are they trying to tell me that “before 1970” makes it an object of historical interest? If so, what does that make me?
I skipped out of there sharpish before I found myself in a glass case being
I
boggled at by day-trippers. I mean, take a look at the picture of me on this page. You think: “Bloke in garden.” You don’t think: “Oh look, an historical artefact.”
Local history museums in small towns are generally a couple of rooms full of junk between betting shops, so I can see they are desperate for custom. One in Yorkshire tried to entice me with a poster that asked: “Where can you see an original Blue Peter badge?” You’d think someone in a museum would know that Blue Peter is not old. It only started the other day –1958 to be precise. I was alive in 1958. Therefore, by definition, it is not history and has no right to be in a museum.
Besides, the answer to the question about where I can see a Blue Peter badge is actually: the top drawer of my bedroom dresser.
In the back room of this socalled museum in Yorkshire was a kitchen. I assumed I’d taken a wrong turn to the private staff facilities, equipped with coal-burning stove, fire-guard, flat iron and mangle, and turned to leave. Which is when I divined that what I considered a perfectly normal room was masquerading as an exhibit. In a museum. It’s like me opening up my flat for the public to poke around: “Look at this Fairy
saw one exhibit dated back to “before 1970”. Before 1970?! Are they
trying to tell me that that makes it an object of historical interest?
Liquid bottle. Isn’t it fascinating? It’s over a week old. Be careful with it: it’s a certified antique.”
And it’s not only local museums that have gone off the rails, as I discovered when I went to visit the Museum of London. It was shut. Has been for three years. Why? Because some smart Alec wants to build a new one in Smithfield Market. And while they’re putting up some modern monstrosity (though I haven’t seen it yet), they are pulling down the 850-year-old meat market.
Pardon me, but aren’t museum curators supposed to like old things such as historic markets? As opposed to flattening them?
The other day one of my daughters caught my wife saying to me that she was going to have a bath, and asking if she should leave the water in it for me.
Cue outrage. Horror. Disgust. “Leave the water in the bath for someone else!! What is this – the olden days?” howled my daughter. I didn’t know how to react. It’s not as if we were proposing to set up in the front room, levering ourselves into a tin contraption from which we’d just emptied the coal.
I asked rather icily what she considered to be “the olden days”. She shrugged: “Dunno, I didn’t do history.” Well, if she changes her mind and decides to study this there’s no point in her going to a museum.