Awarm welcome to the Spring edition of The Pensioner. New year’s resolutions may have been made a little while ago now, but springtime always brings positive energy and the prospect of a fresh start. So, how about trying a bit of volunteering? Our cover feature by Linda Harrison hears how rewarding and important it can be.
She also discovers that the national bank of volunteers is being depleted as more and more grandparents help their family with the increasing costs of childcare.
This issue also looks at the parlous state of social care as a lengthy government-commissioned review begins. Barrie Clement finds out what is being done to tackle a system fraught with challenges.
Also looking to the future, we hear about a major health survey that’s gathering a wealth of evidence and offering free health MoTs.
We have a good array of reports from groups and branches in this edition. If you’re not involved in the CSPA, why not see what members near you are doing and pop along to a social event?
I hope you enjoy this edition of your magazine. We always welcome feedback and letters for publication, so do let us know what you think.
ISSN - 1360-3132
Head Office, Grosvenor House, 160 Falcon Road, London SW11 2LN 020 8688 8418 enquiries@cspa.co.uk www.cspa.co.uk
General Secretary: Sally Tsoukaris sally.tsoukaris@cspa.co.uk 020 8688 8418
Sally Tsoukaris updates on AGM priorities and death benefit lump sums SOCIAL
Adult social care remains a big challenge for government – where are we now? CARER
How the carer’s personal budget can give unpaid carers a financial boost LEGAL ADVICE
Harvey Howell Solicitors offers guidance on wills and lasting power of attorney
DEPUTY
David Luxton ushers in springtime but warns of the challenges ahead
Why fewer people are choosing to support organisations supporting others ABATEMENT
Christine Haswell explains the impact of part-time work on your pension
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Publisher: Gaynor Garton
Advertising sales: Ethan Hall hello@square7media.co.uk
Editorial production: Kate Wheal
Design and art direction: Charlotte Russell
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.
Diagnosing the nation
Alex Causer from Our Future Health reports on one of the world’s largest health research programmes
When Our Future Health launched in October 2022, no one knew how many people would respond to the call for volunteers. But the answer is becoming clear: in October last year, Our Future Health became the world’s largest health research programme of its kind.
It now has more than a million full participants – members of the public who have shared their health information for research purposes. They’ve done so by consenting to share their health records,
This is a key component of the UK government’s focus on preventative healthcare
completing a questionnaire about their lifestyle and providing a small sample of blood for genetic analysis.
Put together, the information creates a detailed picture of the UK’s health. Scientific researchers can apply to access the information, to find new ways to prevent, detect and treat disease earlier.
It’s an important component of the UK government’s new focus on preventative healthcare. Currently, too many people live years of their life in ill health. Often, they suffer from diseases that could be treated if they were caught sooner.
UK by 33% – unlocking a £320 billion rise in GDP over 20 years. The goal is simple: get ahead of disease, so that everyone can live longer and healthier lives.
Public spirit
Dr Raghib Ali OBE, chief executive of the project, says: “To become the world’s largest health research programme of its kind, in just two years, is a fantastic achievement. It’s testament to the spirit of the UK public – proving their appetite for supporting major health research that promises to help improve healthcare for everyone.
“By collecting information from up to five million people, Our Future Health will help to keep the UK at the very centre of the global health research map.
“We are creating a transformative
The Department of Health and Social Care estimates that applying preventative interventions earlier and more broadly could reduce ill health in the Dr Raghib Ali: ‘transformative’ effort
Our Future Health Take part
The Government People Group (GPG), part of Cabinet Office, is pleased to share with readers of The Pensioner the groundbreaking work of Our Future Health, a UK programme aimed at bringing immense benefits to health research.
Our Future Health needs up to five million volunteers to help everyone live healthier and longer lives. Taking part includes answering some online questions about yourself, providing a blood
Our Future Health needs up to five million volunteers to take part
sample and having your blood pressure measured at a local clinic.
If you would like to take part in this innovative research programme, go directly to the Our Future Health website at www.ourfuturehealth.org.uk or scan the QR code below.
If you participate, you will have the option to learn more about your health now, and your risk of developing diseases such as diabetes and heart disease in the future. This will be calculated using the information you provide and an analysis of your blood sample. By signing up you will be eligible for a £10 voucher to recognise the time and effort of volunteering.
scientific resource that the UK can be extremely proud of.”
For health researchers, Our Future Health is already shining a new light on their areas of expertise.
“The dataset is huge and gives important real-world insights, which makes it very powerful. There are so many cool and exciting things to look at,” says Dr Katie Marwick, a consultant psychiatrist for NHS Lothian and a senior clinical research fellow at the University of Edinburgh.
Our Future Health clinics can be found all around the country, to help build a resource that truly reflects the UK population.
Real-world insights
GP, broadcaster, and sports specialist Dr Amos Ogunkoya is one of Our Future Health’s million-plus volunteers. He says he joined Our Future Health to help improve healthcare for everyone.
“Today, health outcomes are dependent on our gender, our race and our socio-economic status,” says Dr Ogunkoya. “We know that some medications and treatments aren’t as effective for people from certain backgrounds, and that some people are more susceptible to certain diseases.”
Prostate cancer is one example, he
By using this QR code, Our Future Health may register your connection to the civil service solely for the purpose of evaluating its campaign strategy. If you don’t want Our Future Health to collect and process this information, you can visit the Our Future Health website without scanning the QR code. For more information on how Our Future Health processes your data, please read the privacy notice, which can be found on the website.
“The results have changed my lifestyle – maybe they’ve even saved my life”
says. Black men have a one in four risk of being diagnosed with the condition –twice as high as the UK average. “Our Future Health will move us towards a point where doctors like me can adjust the advice or treatments we give, based on an individual’s genetics.”
For Miriam Clark, a 67-year-old retired teacher from south London, her appointment with Our Future Health had a personal benefit. Less than 24 hours afterwards, she found herself in A&E receiving treatment to lower her blood
pressure. “It was like something out of a film,” she recalls. “The member of staff handling my appointment told me I needed immediate medical attention for dangerously high blood pressure.
“When I got to A&E, doctors gave me medication to bring my blood pressure down and monitored me until it was lower. Since then, I’ve had an echocardiogram and a 24-hour heart monitor to see what my heart’s doing.
“The results have changed my lifestyle – maybe they’ve even saved my life. Signing up is a great thing to do, whether it’s for your children and your children’s children, for yourself, for people in the future who you don’t even know, or for the NHS.”
FROM TOP: Our Future Health volunteers Dr Amos Ogunkoya and Miriam Clark
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.
A system in crisis
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
Reforming social care remains a huge challenge for the UK government, reports Barrie Clement
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.”
Care for the carers
Helen Nugent sheds light on an often overlooked form of financial support for carers
You might want to sit down for this: every day, 12,000 people in the UK become unpaid carers for a partner, family member or friend. Many don’t see themselves as carers, even though the challenges of looking after a loved one can be overwhelming. But they are not alone. Estimates suggest there are between five and 10 million unpaid carers across Britain.
Accurate statistics are, unsurprisingly, hard to come by. Even a conservative calculation of the value of unpaid care is equivalent to more than £150 billion a year in England alone.
If you’re a carer, or know someone who is, you’ll understand the focus is on the person receiving help. But carers need help too. They rarely put themselves first, and the benefits system is geared towards the individual being cared for, with less thought given to their carer.
Wellbeing payment
Some forms of financial benefits are well known and often in the news. The recent carer’s allowance scandal is a prime example. But there’s a more obscure payment that’s worth considering – the carer’s personal budget, sometimes known as carer’s direct payment.
This is not a benefit – at least, not in legislative terms. It is an annual sum of money paid by a local council to help a carer pay for things that help them in their caring role.
This may sound vague, but it’s a few hundred pounds that carers must spend on themselves. In essence, it’s a wellbeing payment that acknowledges that carers need to look after their own physical and mental health.
Emily Holzhausen, director of policy
and public affairs at Carers UK, says: “Carers tend to put themselves at the back of the queue. The carer’s personal budget is a way of supporting unpaid carers that can be highly tailored to a person’s needs. It is really, really valuable. Carers quite often feel guilty asking for help, and it’s important that they can take time to focus on their health and wellbeing.”
Payments range from £50 to £1,500 a year, depending on the carer’s situation
What you get
While it varies from council to council, the carer’s personal budget is paid on a yearly basis following a carer’s assessment. If you qualify for help and the council will pay for some or all of your support, then you are entitled to a personal budget. There is no cap, but amounts range from £50 to £1,500. About £300 to £500 is the norm, depending on your situation. Some local authorities pay directly into a carer’s account, others provide a prepaid card.
Approved spending activities include gym membership, haircuts, gardeners, travel expenses, driving lessons, massages, cleaners, mobile phone bills, education, laptops and short holidays. In most instances, councils will ask recipients to
demonstrate how they have spent their budget, and some will require receipts.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, says: “If you’re a carer, you may wish to approach your local authority for a carer’s assessment. This looks at your support needs – for example, the help you need to maintain your caring role and how being a carer impacts on your day-to-day life.
“The local authority may not agree that your support needs meet the eligibility criteria or, if they do, that your support needs require a direct payment. In some parts of the country, there may also be a long wait for an assessment.”
Case study
Minreet Kaur is a journalist who lives with her two elderly parents. Her mother has a rare blood cancer. “I have to do a lot on my own as a sole carer,” she says. “I have no support, no partner and I’m 44 and it’s really tough. I’ve had to scale back on work.
“I was told about the carer’s personal budget by [cancer support charity]
The Mulberry Centre and Macmillan… Navigating anything like this is hard when you have no support.”
She adds: “It’s good that the money is there, but to be honest, it’s not much at all. I feel that it should be much more than it is.”
Help is at hand
Harvey Howell Solicitors is working with the CSPA to provide free consultations on wills, trusts, lasting power of attorney and care home fees
Lots of things worry members at the moment, but let’s look at two here: care home fees and losing the ability to decide things for yourself.
One big concern is people losing the family home to pay for care. According to Care Home UK, the average cost in a residential care home is £60,000-£100,000 a year depending on where you are in the country. So, it doesn’t take long before the value of the family home is lost to fees.
Sir Andrew Dilnot’s report in 2011 suggested a cap on care fees. The last government opted for an £86,000 cap, due to come in during October 2025, but the current government has shelved that plan and it seems no decision will be made until at least 2028.
Tweaking your will
Sir Andrew himself, speaking in 2024, estimates that four out of five of us will need care in the future.
There are legal solutions to help; the simplest by tweaking your will. Let’s take as an example a married couple with children. Lots of couples – if they have a will – have a basic one leaving everything to each other and then to the kids. Those wills are a problem – we don’t recommend
them. Why? Because when you are both alive and one of you goes into care, the local authority cannot take your house because the spouse needs to live in it.
But when the first dies, leaving everything to the surviving spouse, and that surviving spouse goes into care, they own everything – so it can all be taken to pay for their care.
We advise that your new wills say that the first to die does not leave everything to
Your new will should say the first to die does not leave everything to the survivor
the survivor. Rather, the first to die leaves, say, their half of the house (in trust) to the kids – they don’t get it then. We protect the surviving spouse with provisions saying they can live there, downsize, have full control for the rest of their life.
But the essential thing is, if the survivor goes into care, they only own half the house – so the full value of the house cannot be taken.
So, with a £200,000 house you will have saved £100,000 of the kids’ inheritance –just by changing from a basic will.
Harvey Howell offers members a free telephone or virtual legal consultation to discuss your circumstances. If you would like to take advantage of this offer, please email CSPA@harveyhowell.co.uk or telephone 0330 175 9959 to make an appointment.
Losing capacity
Another worry is that members can become so ill that they lose what lawyers call ‘capacity’ – the ability to decide for yourself – due to, say, an accident, stroke or dementia.
According to Dementia UK, someone develops dementia in the UK every three minutes, and the Stroke Society says someone suffers a stroke every five minutes. And this can mean our loved ones can face real problems as no one can deal with your property, your bank accounts, your direct debits – or your home.
Similarly, no one can speak for you about your treatment or care – where you are cared for, how and by whom. No one has a voice.
A clear and obvious solution is a lasting power of attorney (LPA). When you have capacity, you sign a very simple document to say that in the event of something bad happening to you, a named and trusted loved one or loved ones can take over – a lasting power of attorney. They have your voice. There are two types of LPA: one for property and financial affairs; one for health and welfare.
These are just two issues, and there are many more to consider.
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.”
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
FACING PAGE: FareShare volunteers FROM TOP: Brenda Marsh, Moorfields’ volunteer of the year; Coram Beanstalk reading helpers; Hope Hub users
Partial retirement or return to work?
You should take a few things into account, says Chris Haswell
Some CSPA members may be thinking about partial retirement or returning to work if already retired. There are lots of advantages to working part-time, be it in a new role, the same role or doing something totally different. It gives you time to enjoy life and prepare for full retirement. The salary can top up your pension. And you have time for family and hobbies, and generally doing what you want in your mature years.
Many people currently working in the civil service or related employers, and who are around 60 years old, may consider stepping down from full-time work.
Pension age
The normal pension age (NPA) for the traditional Classic scheme is 60. This means the pension can be taken unreduced from this age. Premium pensions start at the same age.
The NPA for Nuvos is 65, and for Alpha – the scheme that everyone has been in since 2022 or earlier – there is an NPA link to state pension age. Taking pensions earlier than their NPA means the amount paid is reduced proportionally.
For people in their early 60s or younger, the state pension age will be 67 from April 2028. Many don’t want to retire a full seven years before they can claim state pension, and their Alpha pension would also be reduced for early payment.
They may still want to cut down their hours or move to a lower grade, less stressful job. For many, partially retiring with the same employer is an attractive proposition, particularly when you can draw down your Classic pension and work part-time, building up your Alpha pension. There is no automatic right to partially retire. It is down to the employer and
‘business need’. You must reduce your salary by at least 20%.
In the civil service, employers do consider requests and in several departments it is very popular – some benefit offices have a high proportion of part-time staff in all age groups. In other departments, however, it is more difficult due to the nature of the work.
But there are several issues to consider. One of the main ones is job design. Some people find their employer will agree to reduced hours but still expect you to do the same amount of work or keep asking you to pick up extra days here and there. While you may be amenable to this, it can have financial consequences.
This also applies to someone returning to work after retirement. In both cases, partially retiring or returning to work, abatement may apply.
What
is abatement?
Abatement is where your pension is reduced proportionally by anything in excess of your salary and pension combined, where that figure exceeds your previous final salary.
So, salary + pension = final salary at the time of retirement. Anything more is taken off. This earnings figure is known as your ‘salary of reference’.
The level of pension used by administrator MyCSP, and how your ‘salary of reference’ is defined, depends on your scheme. The ‘frequently asked questions’ on the Civil Service Pensions website (https://tinyurl.com/2rw9bwd7) explains this in detail.
Alpha pensions are not subject to abatement. This may affect how you want to take your Remedy benefits.
If you are planning to keep working, then taking more service in Alpha could be advantageous. Check your figures. Abatement could apply if:
• You continue to work after taking partial retirement
• You are reemployed in the civil service having previously fully retired
• You access a preserved pension for an earlier period of service, while still employed in the civil service
• You have taken an annual compensation payment
• You had a compulsory early severance package that included a reserved rights top-up payment and continue to work for a civil service employer.
Check carefully
Abatement does not kick in for annual pay rises or overtime, but it will for promotion. This is something you need to look into in detail before you make a decision. If you find abatement kicking in after you have made a decision and you reduce your hours further, the salary of reference will be your part-time recent salary. For some people with long service, it can’t work practically, but check your details before taking the leap.
• Chris Haswell is the CSPA’s Pensions and Personal Cases Manager
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.
Rebuilding Britain?
Later Life Ambitions is keeping pensioners’ concerns on the political agenda
The Labour government is grappling with the task of turning campaign promises into realities. Its rhetoric of rebuilding Britain was compelling enough to win a general election, but Labour’s early record has raised doubts –particularly among those in later life.
Labour came to power on a bold plan for change, pledging to build 1.5 million new homes, revitalise the NHS and transition to a greener economy.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner introduced local planning reforms and empowered councils to make housing decisions. While the steps were significant, the pace of progress has been slow.
For many older people, accessible and affordable housing can be the difference between security and ongoing struggles to downsize or adapt their home.
The housing shortage is not just about bricks and mortar but also social stability. For many pensioners, the lack of suitable housing forces tough decisions. Staying in homes that no longer meet their needs can lead to isolation or health issues.
Labour’s plan for 1.5 million new homes by the end of the current Parliament is ambitious, but without visible progress, confidence in these promises will erode. And confidence has already taken a knock, with the National Planning Policy Framework failing to enshrine lifetime homes standards. How much of the new stock will suit older people?
Healthcare also remains a concern.
Labour campaigned on improving NHS services, but long waiting times and chronic staffing shortages continue.
The announcement of a National Care Service commission is a welcome step towards addressing systemic issues in adult social care. But with recommendations not expected until 2028, many pensioners worry about the immediate issues. The NHS is at breaking point and Labour’s credibility as a governing party is inextricably
intertwined with its ability to make tangible improvements in this area.
Measures to tackle workforce shortages and reduce waiting lists are urgently needed, but progress here, as with housebuilding, has been slow; many feel disillusioned.
The cost-of-living crisis has further complicated the government’s position. High energy costs have left many struggling to make ends meet – a situation exacerbated by the scrapping of the universal winter fuel payment.
For pensioners on fixed incomes, rising bills can be devastating. The decision to scrap the winter fuel payment, combined with unresolved dissatisfaction over compensation for WASPI women, has deepened frustrations for older voters.
Voter dissatisfaction
The English local elections in May will provide an early indication of the public’s response to Labour’s progress since July 2024. Pensioners have been a reliable voting bloc, so their concerns must not be overlooked. Labour’s ability to demonstrate tangible results will be crucial in maintaining trust.
Despite these challenges, there is significant potential for progress. For pensioners, government promises must translate into actions that deliver real improvements. Affordable housing, accessible healthcare and financial stability are not just campaign pledges; they underpin the wellbeing of millions.
Pensioners rightly expect to see increased funding for social care, protections against rising energy costs and reforms to ensure fair treatment in housing. Without these efforts, the rhetoric risks becoming empty words. Holding the government to account is
Later Life Ambitions (LLA), the coalition of the CSPA, the National Association of Retired Police Officers and the National Federation of Occupational Pensioners.
LLA has engaged parliamentarians through letters, meetings and discussions with figures including Work and Pensions Committee chair Debbie Abrahams and transport minister Lilian Greenwood, and bodies such as the Fabian Society and the National Federation of the Blind. LLA has also contributed to consultations on bus services.
In December 2024, LLA marked its 10th anniversary with an event sponsored by Lord Davies of Brixton, attended by politicians including Priti Patel, Kirsty Blackman and Steve Darling, as well as new MP Neil Duncan-Jordan, formerly with the National Pensioners Convention.
The event highlighted LLA’s achievements, introduced its Pensioners’ Manifesto and raised awareness about its work, including an upcoming rally in Parliament in support of the widows/ widowers pension campaign.
Though Labour’s focus on long-term solutions is commendable, today’s needs must not be ignored. With quick wins alongside broader ambitions, Labour can build the trust and momentum to secure its position.
Pensioners want a government that listens, understands and acts. If Labour can rise to this, it will not only strengthen its standing but improve the lives of millions. LLA will do its utmost to ensure your voices are heard and the government is held to account.
• Matthew Boyd is a senior account executive at the CSPA’s public affairs consultancy, Connect.
Our mission continues
Angela Saunders reports on a busy schedule for the Civil Service Lifeboat Fund and the RNLI
After a whirlwind 2024 supporting the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in its 200th anniversary year, 2025 has also started at pace.
Peter Sparkes joined the RNLI as its chief executive last year from his lead civil service role in the UK Hydrographic Office, a maritime safety organisation that is part of the Ministry of Defence.
Around the time you read this, another civil servant with service in several government organisations, Dr Sarah
Davies, will assume the RNLI’s new role of chief finance officer and corporate services director.
As Peter and Sarah take the RNLI into its third century of saving lives at sea, we look forward to building new relationships. We’re well aware that public service and RNLI values are highly compatible. The Civil Service Lifeboat Fund itself awaits a new chair now that civil service head Simon Case has stepped down.
We are also getting excited about our
new appeal. When I reflect on the range of support we’ve given the RNLI over recent years, it’s heartening to consider the variety of projects we have helped bring about to assist our beneficiary.
Some requirements for life-saving at sea might not sound as exciting as fundraising for a new vessel. But supplying specialist equipment, lifejackets and training or refurbishing lifeboat stations can be crucial for saving lives and protecting the crew when every second matters.
Historical progress
How things have moved on from the 10-oar wooden boat we donated back in 1866. The state-of-the-art Shannon, our most recent major donation (big thanks to CSPA members for splendid support), was an entirely different proposition.
Electronics feature significantly in RNLI life-saving systems these days. That’s an area we may help with going forward. But we never forget that none of this would happen without the brave men and women
How things have moved on from the 10-oar wooden boat we donated in 1866
who take on perilous rescues, heading out to save those they do not know. Pulling a freezing soul to safety from the sea in itself owes nothing to technology.
Readers who formerly worked in HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions will be interested to know that The Lifeboat Fund now has a healthy cohort of senior trustees from these organisations.
One of our DWP trustees plans to run the London Marathon in April in aid of the cause. Like the wide range of vital support we stand ready to fund, wherever it’s needed by the RNLI, the variety of fundraising activities that elicit donations is also remarkable – from sponsored sports challenges to cake sales.
The Lifeboat Fund looks forward to its new website launching in 2025, so we can
Big thanks to CSPA members for their splendid fundraising support
develop that communication channel. We also hope to supplement fundraising activities with regular giving – by direct debit or payroll – which is easier to sustain given the pace of office life.
But all support, through whatever channel, is hugely appreciated – by this charity and our beneficiary, the RNLI.
Why this matters
I’ll end with a short tale of why this matters. I love reading about rescues by vessels we have funded. And here is news of the Atlantic 85 lifeboat Charles Dibdin, Civil Service No. 51 at New Brighton, where Andy Lawler serves as crew. Andy is the son of CSPA Executive Council member Michael, who is a Lifeboat Fund trustee.
While the Charles Dibdin was on exercise, she was required to join the Hoylake hovercraft to rescue a female casualty and her dog who had been cut off by the tide. The two were located and helped on board, receiving checks to ensure they were safe and well.
DONATION FORM
RNLI hovercraft commander Matt Pownall-Jones said: “The tide around the Wirral coast can flood in very quickly and is especially treacherous in the dark. If the alarm hadn’t been raised, the casualty and her dog would have been in greater danger with the beach around them soon covered by the tide.”
No one who visits the beach expects to get into difficulty, but thousands do every year. That’s when RNLI crews and lifeguards are indispensable.
We want to help these lifesavers, and your support makes a big difference. To support The Lifeboat Fund, donate by bank transfer to: The Lifeboat Fund, HSBC account: 40-25-06 10232491 or through www.thelifeboatfund.org.uk, or complete the form below. Many thanks!.
• Angela Saunders is a Scottish government Lifeboat Fund trustee and UK director of fundraising
Registered charity numbers: 248421 (E&W) and SC041904 (Scotland)
Patron: HRH The Duke of Kent
Please return the completed form to: The Civil Service Lifeboat Fund, c/o Department for Work and Pensions, Digital Group’s Chief Operating Office, 2 St Peter’s Square, Manchester, M2 3AA. If you would like more information about the charity, please ask; we will be delighted to hear from you.
I would like to give £35 £20 £10 Other £ to The Lifeboat Fund
Please make cheques payable to “The Lifeboat Fund”
Name
Address
Postcode Phone
E-mail
If you qualify to use Gift Aid, you can make your donation worth more: for every pound you give us, we get an extra 25 pence from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). You can do this provided you pay an amount of income tax and/or capital gains tax in each tax year at least equal to the tax that the charity will claim from HMRC on your Gift Aided donation. Just tick here: It’s that simple.
Your help is greatly appreciated by The Lifeboat Fund, and by the RNLI volunteers whose brave work we support through our fundraising!
In Your Area
ENGLISH REGIONS: GREATER LONDON
Hillingdon
Here is our half-year report. Our last report covered the period up to March 2024.
April was our usual AGM. This year we had a very comprehensive discussion on the level of group subscriptions: £7; £4 for associates; £1 for refreshments.
There was an update on the regional secretary’s efforts to clarify members remaining in London groups, thus maintain groups in the region.
David Owen and Rose White visited the group for the May meeting. David gave an update on his EC work, in particular resolving membership records at HQ and attending groups. Rose also spoke on her EC work plus her thoughts on the then pension situation for women, which was most enlightening.
In June we had a comprehensive talk by the Cabinet member for health and social care, another enlightening talk on the activities of our council, which covers both adults and childrens services.
Moving on to July, our visitor was a trading standards officer from Hillingdon, who gave a comprehensive talk on his current case work protecting residents.
The chair attended a meeting in Watford with a view to assisting members who
might be interesting in reforming their group or joining up with adjoining groups; Hillingdon being one group.
August gave an opportunity for members to consider a venue for our winter lunch, to be held in the new year. There was an update on the then regional meeting and plans to assist region and HQ in encouraging more new members to join the CSPA, and to try to strengthen groups within the region.
There was the hope that members in adjoining boroughs who were not already allocated to a group might be interested in being assigned to Hillingdon Group.
Cracking on to September, speakers from HS2 ventured into our midst with a comprehensive video-illustrated talk on construction of the infrastructure within our borough, which is expected to be finished shortly.
October resulted in an open meeting covering a range of topics concerning pensioners and the government’s action on finance. November was a little closer to
Hillingdon members enjoyed a winter lunch in December at the Red Lion
home with the return of a past speaker giving a resume of the rebuilding of his garden, plus a history of the ancient lane onto which his garden fronts.
In December, we had our winter lunch (pictured below) and considered ideas for visitors next year. Feedback on the overall results of the CSPA AGM was also given and discussed.
Chairman: John Echlin, 1 Brentford Close, Yeading, UB4 9QG
Tel: 020 884 20324
Croydon & District
Welcome to the former ‘no group’ members within Croydon’s recently expanded area. You now have the opportunity to participate in the CSPA’s democratic processes via your new group. If you wish to, you can also participate in our other activities.
You should have received a printed copy of our group’s January 2025 newsletter, which includes our main 2025 programme. You will also find it on the CSPA’s website in the London Region section.
We realise that not all of our members are able to travel to our meetings in Croydon, or participate via the Zoom stream of our AGM and mandate meetings. To address this position we will be holding
Croydon
occasional outreach meetings in each of the new areas to enable you to come along for a chat and let us know your views. Longstanding Croydon members are also welcome to attend if you are free. The meeting details are as follows:
• Thursday 3 April, 11am, The Moon on the Hill (JD Wetherspoon), 9 Hill Road, Sutton SM1 1DZ – Sutton station is only 400 metres away. TfL buses SL7, 80, 164, 280, 470, S1 and S3 pass through the town centre.
• Wednesday 30 April, 11am, The Watch House (JD Wetherspoon), 198-204 High Street, Lewisham SE13 6JP – Lewisham station is 1,100 metres away. TfL buses 208, 227, 320, 354 and 358 run nearby. At the end of 2024, our group significantly expanded to include Lewisham, East Southwark, Bromley and other parts of Sutton not already covered. A new year newsletter welcomed new members and outlined the services and programme of meetings and events we hope to be providing for 2025.
Our group continues to meet on the second Tuesday of each month at Ruskin House, Coombe Road, Croydon CR0 1BD, starting now at 11am to accommodate those travelling extra distances.
The usual discussion of CSPA and wider pensioner-related issues is followed by a speaker. Illustrated talks during the year include predatory birds, the realm of the polar bear, country churches and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. There will also be occasional outreach meetings in the areas of former groups.
The group’s AGM will be on Tuesday 8 April at Ruskin House, commencing at 11am. Among items for discussion will be
a change of name for the group to reflect our wider south London membership. Group Secretary: John Hickey, 244 Demesne Road, Wallington, Surrey SM6 8EL Tel: 020 8773 0496 Email: johnphickey1954@gmail.com
Croydon has expanded in Lewisham, Southwark, Bromley and Sutton
Southend-on-Sea & District
Our group meets monthly except January, normally on the second Monday of the month. About two or three times a year this is at the SAVS Centre, 29-31 Alexandra Street, Southend-on-Sea. Meetings at SAVS are 2.15pm to 4pm. Refreshments are available. In the intervening months, meetings take the form of lunch or other outings and venues and times may vary. Meetings for early 2025 include:
• Monday 10 February – meet 2pm to 3.30pm for a tea or coffee, a nice cake and a chat at Patisserie Valerie in the high street
• Monday 10 March, Spring Lunch – meet 1pm at Sunflower Bistro, 75 Queens Road, Southend SS1 1NL
• Monday 14 April, local group AGM – 2pm for 2.15pm at SAVS
For more on our group, meetings and outings and becoming a member, email Betty Anderson at iandbanderson@ btinternet.com or call 01702 466335 or mobile 07804 948954.
Are you missing meetings in your area? Come along for a chat and an exchange of views at The Furze Wren, 6 Market Place, Broadway Square, Bexleyheath DA6 7DY on Friday 16 May at 11am. Bexleyheath station is 1,200 metres away. And TfL buses SL3, 89, 96, 99, 229, 269, 401, 422, 486, 492, B11, B12, B13, B14, B15 and B16 all run nearby.
Greater London regional representative: David Owen
Twickenham & District
Our group meets on the second Friday of selected months in the Parish Hall of St Mary & St Alban, Langham Road, Teddington, starting at 11am and finishing at 1pm.
The hall is near St Alban’s Church, which is also the Landmark Arts Centre, the impressive church at the river end of Teddington High Street near the junction with Kingston Road, Manor Road and Ferry Road.
The 281, 285 and R68 buses stop here. Langham Road is off the high street at this point.
The meeting room we use is the Mina Hogan room on the ground floor, which is accessed by the wheelchair ramp on the side of the building. Tea and coffee will be available. Dates for 2025 are:
• Friday 14 March: AGM
• Friday 13 June: Ian Franklin, talk about Hampton Court Palace
• Friday 12 September: Michael Peacock, part 2 of his talk about London Transport
• Friday 12 December, details to be confirmed.
Secretary: Mr R Monk, 40 Park House Gardens, Twickenham TW1 2DE
Email: mrbobmonk@yahoo.co.uk
Inner London
We meet on the third Friday of each month except August at PCS headquarters, 160 Falcon Road, Clapham Junction, London SWl l 2LN. The area is well served by buses 35, 39, 87, 156, 170,219, 337 and 345 and Clapham Junction station is only five minutes’ walk from the building. The area also has good pubs and there are numerous coffee shops in the station forecourt.
Our social activities include a visit to a place of interest during August and Christmas dinner at the Civil Service Club in December.
Our December meeting is a social, with bring-and-share food followed by a raffle and an auction of items donated by members.
Attendance has not yet returned to the pre-pandemic levels. Any members of closed groups are therefore most welcome to join us.
We meet in the lounge of St Mark’s Church Bournemouth, a pleasant modern venue with excellent facilities, good disabled access and toilets. Our varied programme includes talks on:
• A Year in the Countryside
• A local photographer’s beautiful slides of the Dorset countryside
• An illustrated talk, Dressed for Detection – our speaker has published several historical mysteries. Would the clothes of their time hinder the detectives from solving crimes? Or would it be possible to manage, corsets and all?
We have many other wide-ranging topics lined up. At our AGM, 25 March, the guest speaker will be CSPA General Secretary Sally Tsoukaris. All details will be in our local newsletters. We would love you to come and join us, especially if you haven’t been before.
Meetings are held on the fourth Tuesday of every month (except August and December) at St Mark’s Church (lounge), Wallisdown Road, Talbot Village, Bournemouth BH10 4HY. They start at 10.45am and end at 12.30pm, with tea/coffee and biscuits included. There is plenty of free parking at the church and a bus stop right outside. It is situated almost opposite the university, and the public can travel on any university bus.
We now need to charge £4 entry towards the cost of hall, speakers and refreshments, but this is still cheaper than most other local talks.
The Midlands Region has four active and four closed groups:
• Birmingham Group is active and meets at St Michael’s Church, Moor Street, Birmingham B4 7UG, less than 10 minutes’ walk from New Street railway station. Its AGM is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 12 March at 10.30am. All are welcome, including members of the adjacent closed Coventry & Warwickshire Group.
• Gloucestershire Group is also very active and meets at the Cotswold Area Civil Service Sports Association clubhouse, Cheltenham GL51 9SL. Its AGM is to take place on Thursday 20 March at 10.30am.
• Leicestershire & Rutland Group is active and meets at the Royal British Legion Club, Oadby, Leicester LE2 5QA. Its AGM is set for Monday 31 March at 1.30pm and will include Geoff Harris, who will give a “light and amusing” retelling of some of his experiences working as a toastmaster at a variety of UK venues.
• North Staffordshire Group is currently inactive. But if any CSPA member from that area would like an informal meeting with their regional representative and other interested members, please feel free to contact me using the contact details at the end.
• Nottingham & Derby Group is not formally active but starting to hold meetings again. John Perry, former chair, is keen to hear from anyone interested in restarting the group. The
next meeting is to take place on Tuesday 1 April at 11am in The Roebuck Inn, Nottingham NG1 6FH. The venue is central and close to bus and tram stops. I will be there, providing an update on CSPA campaigns and other news.
• Oxfordshire Group is not formally active, but a few members continue to meet. Mike Warner is keen to hear from anyone interested in getting the group restarted. The next meeting is Wednesday 9 April at noon in the Wig & Pen, George Street, Oxford OX1 2AU. I will be present at this meeting too to provide a CSPA update.
• West Mercia Group is active and meets in Worcester and Hereford. Its AGM will take place on Monday 17 March at 2pm in the Quaker Meeting House, 1 Sansome Walk, Worcester WR1 1UG. The chair and other members normally meet for lunch at the Crown pub (JD Wetherspoon) before the meeting. All are welcome.
If you would like more information about these groups or meetings, please contact me. I’ll be very pleased to hear from you.
Regional representative: Kevin Billson Email: kevinbillson@ntlworld.com Tel: 07827 320 413
Gloucestershire
The group met quarterly over the past year, with attendances of between 25 and 30, and we welcomed some new members, which is very encouraging. Chairman Alastair Goldie represented
Burford, Oxfordshire
the group at the AGM and was able to put our point of view over in the general debates. The General Secretary outlined the proposals for a ‘one member one vote’ setup instead of the group structure we have at the moment. This is necessary as there are fewer and fewer groups, which is disenfranchising members not in a group.
This restructuring will be the subject of much debate and at our first meeting of the year, our AGM on 20 March, no doubt our guest speaker DGS David Luxton will explain more. We will also be electing a new committee and we really would like new members to step forward.
We had a very enjoyable outing on the Boadicea last year and members
Our outing to the National Perry Pear Centre will see the pear blossom at its best
have asked for another outing. We have been able to arrange one to the National Perry Pear Centre in Hartpury (www. nationalperrypearcentre.org.uk), just outside Gloucester. We will have a short introduction and explore the orchard, where the pear blossom should be at its best, ending with tea and cake. This will be Thursday 3 April and details and how to book will be issued by email nearer the time (ensure I have your email address).
The trend at last year’s meetings was on life in old age. The secret of a happy one
NORTH WEST REGION
Greater Manchester
The Greater Manchester Group meets at the Methodist Central Buildings on Oldham Street, Manchester M1 1JQ. All meetings commence at 11am and finish at 1pm. The scheduled meetings for 2025 are:
• Wednesday 26 March (AGM)
• Wednesday 18 June (conference motions)
• Wednesday 17 September (mandating meeting)
• Wednesday 15 October (conference report)
seems to come down to exercise, a varied diet and meeting people – which can be as simple as talking to the person sitting next to you at a meeting or in a queue. Why not try it the next time you are out.
The theme of this year’s programme is local activities. The meeting on 20 June is about the A417 Missing Link. The Air Balloon pub has been demolished, huge swathes of the countryside swept aside by gigantic trucks and diggers and a whole raft of new roads to be built to avoid traffic jams and lorries going up Crickley Hill. Carolyne Ferguson of Keir Construction will explain how the new road system will work and how the countryside will be restored and even enhanced.
Still in that part of Gloucestershire, on 4 September a speaker from the Ullenwood Star Centre will speak about its good work helping young people take on jobs outside the centre. I believe she will also extol the virtues of its excellent café.
At the last meeting of 2025, a member of the Cheltenham Camera Club is giving a show. The subject has yet to be decided but if anyone would like to suggest a topic, we can put it to the club for the meeting on 4 December.
Please put these dates in your diary. Looking forward to seeing you at the AGM on 20 March. As usual the meetings will be held on Thursdays at 10am for 10.30am at the Civil Service Club, Tewkesbury Road, Cheltenham GL51 9SL.
The group continues to meet at the Raffles club Mutley Plain, Plymouth on the second Tuesday of alternate months at 1pm. Lunch and coffee are available at very reasonable prices. Our next meeting will be our AGM on Tuesday 11 March at 1pm. It is imperative that as many members as possible attend as the group is in grave danger of closing down. Everybody accepts that medical appointments and family problems take priority, but please make an effort to attend as Plymouth & District is one of only two functioning groups in the South West region.
• Wednesday 17 December (Christmas lunch, 12 noon)
If anyone is interested in holding office within the group, please let me know. The posts available are: chair, secretary, treasurer, membership secretary and social secretary and will be voted upon at the AGM on 26 March.
We also hold a quarterly social event in Stockport, at the old Rectory, on the first Thursday of each quarter. In 2025 these are 6 March, 5 June, 4 September and 4 December, commencing at 12 noon.
We raise funds locally by two methods
– by direct donations and through our 200 Club, in which a quarter of what we raise goes to group funds and the remainder is given in prize money.
The new annual cycle starts in March at £12 for the full cycle, with a monthly prize. Donations can be sent to me at 46 Severn Way, Holmes Chapel, Crewe CW4 8FT.
Contact: Harry Brett Tel: 07999 874864
Email: h_brett@sky.com
North West continued overleaf
NORTH WEST REGION (
Liverpool & District
We meet at 11am in the Central Library, William Brown Street, L3 8EW.
The 2025 schedule is as follows:
• 3 March – AGM
• 16 June – conference motions
• 15 September – mandate delegates
• 8 December – Christmas lunch. Nominations are open for chair, secretary, treasurer, membership secretary and social secretary. The elections will take place at the AGM. Our Christmas lunch at Lime Street Central on 9 December was attended by 12 members. Thank you to all who donated to group funds – greatly appreciated. To make a donation please send to Harry Brett at 46 Severn Way, Holmes Chapel, Crewe CW4 8FT or pay direct to CSPA Liverpool: Lloyds Bank, sort code 30-99-50, account 16487962. Chair: Gillian Hill, 07746 036797
Secretary: Sue Munro, 07790 933326
Restarting groups
I have not given up hope of restarting groups in the North West. I will be at the venues below from 12 noon to 2pm for a drink or meal to see if I can persuade anyone to be more involved:
• Blackpool – Thursday 3 April, The Counting House, 10 Talbot Square FY1 1NG (Blackpool & Fylde Group)
• Preston – Thursday 10 April,
NORTH EAST REGION
Scarborough & District
The group met in June and September. Joyce I’Anson, Richard Kilsby and James Howie also represented the group at the North East regional meeting in June.
Any member who wishes to receive HQ communications digitally should send their email address to enquiries@ cspa.co.uk or call 0208 688 8418.
Members and friends enjoyed Christmas lunch at the Park Manor Hotel at the end of November. Joyce
• Lancaster – Thursday 22 May, The Three Mariners, Bridge Lane, LA1 1EE (Morecambe Bay Group).
Contact Harry Brett using the details on the previous page.
Chester
We meet at Festival Church, Queen Street, Chester CH1 3LG on the second Monday of the month (no meeting in August), from 2.15pm to 4pm. The schedule for 2025 is:
• 14 April, David Mitchell, town crier
• 12 May, Keith Allen, history of St John’s Church
• 9 June, meal at The Mill, Chester
• 14 July, history of the Manchester Ship Canal
• 8 September, AGM agenda
• 13 October
• 10 November
• 8 December, Christmas lunch. New members would be very welcome. Refreshments are served at the start of meetings.
Paul Wilks Tel: 07367 999885 Email: pwilks47@gmail.com
SCOTLAND BRANCH
Member meetings continue be held in Glasgow at The Griffin Public House, 266 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 4JP, opposite the King’s Theatre. There is an entrance to the private room in Elmbank Street for those not wishing to go through the bar.
Meetings are held on the first Thursday of February, May, September and November, starting at 1.30pm. The branch AGM will be in the Maldron Hotel, 50 Renfrew Street, Glasgow G12 3BW on Thursday 10 April, commencing at 11. For catering purposes, please advise Michael Kirby no later than 1 April if you wish to attend, using the contact details below.
If you wish to update any membership matters, such as change of address, also contact Michael Kirby.
arranged the gathering and Ray Pollin provided place cards – very useful for waiting staff. The group meets again on 28 April (AGM), 23 June and 27 September at 11am in the Belle Vue Room, Westborough Methodist Church, Scarborough YO11 1T.
Please do try to come to our meetings. You can be assured of a warm welcome, and swapping ideas and information is always useful.
Branch newsletters have helped keep members informed of matters of interest, especially those in remote areas who cannot attend meetings or have no internet access. Word of mouth is one of the best ways of recruiting new members, so if you know anyone who would like to join, please contact Michael Kirby to see if they are eligible.
Email: Michael.Kirby@cspa.co.uk
Tel. 07969 405263
The Scotland Branch AGM will be held on 10 April at the Maldron Hotel, Glasgow
Free legal advice
Please note, this service is provided by Scottish solicitors for Scottish CSPA members. For more information and assistance, email Thompsons Solicitors at advicecentre@thompsons-scotland.co.uk or call 0800 801 299. Consultation is for a maximum of 30 minutes and members will be required to provide their membership number prior to advice. As there is a new national database, please contact Michael Kirby, who can verify your up-to-date membership number.
Apologies
Apologies to any Scotland Branch members who have not received previous copies of The Pensioner magazine or branch newsletters. Members reading this notice who know of anyone still not receiving these, please ask them to contact head office on 020 8688 8418 to report it, giving your name, address and, if known, membership number.
Scotland reports
All groups in Scotland have closed. Should any members wish to enquire about creating a new group, please contact: Christine McGiveron, 12 Benmore, Prestwick Ayrshire KA9 2LS
Tel: 01292 891033
Email: Christine.McGiveron@cspa.co.uk
Members are also reminded to check out the Scotland Branch website at: www.cspascotland.org.uk
NORTHERN IRELAND BRANCH
The CSPA NI Branch AGM will be held on 7 May in the Presbyterian Assembly Buildings, Fisherwick Place, Belfast, at 2pm. A hot buffet lunch will be served from 1pm. The guest speaker will be CSPA National Chair Les Priestly. It would be great to see old and new friends there.
CSPA NI newsletter
Issue 6 of the branch’s full-colour newsletter was posted to members in mid-November. It included articles on the winter fuel payment, the NI Programme for Government, annual renewal changes, rates relief, the CSPA national AGM and pension increases in 2025, along with our Quick Quiz, an update on the Specsavers deal and the new CSPA/ CSIS travel insurance deal.
interviewed on the same show to express a view on the Department for Communities’ offer of a one-off payment of £100 to pensioners who lost out.
In January, Tony was a member of a panel that was asked to consider the extreme pressure being experienced by Northern Ireland’s A&E departments. He was asked to comment on the impact of the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance on the significant rise in the number of elderly people catching flu.
Specsavers scheme
Since our report in the Winter edition of The Pensioner, a further 24 members have taken out a Specsavers voucher. This means a total of 254 members have received a voucher, saving members £5,080.
CSPA national AGM
Some members have asked to receive the newsletter electronically rather than on paper. Discussions will be held with the newsletter publisher. So watch this space.
Commissioner for Older People
Commissioner for Older People Eddie Lynch stood down after two very successful periods of employment.
CSPA NI was invited to a reception before Christmas to recognise Eddie’s commitment to Northern Ireland’s older people. At the time of writing no successor had been announced.
Radio interviews
CSPA NI secretary Tony McMullan was interviewed on the Nolan Radio Show in late September about the Chancellor’s decision to withdraw winter fuel payments from most pensioners. He urged the NI Executive to use some of the extra money provided to them to ensure pensioners didn’t go without this winter.
In mid-November he was
The AGM in October 2024 was a big success for the branch. Roisin Lilley was re-elected national vice chair and two of the branch’s motions were unanimously carried. The NI delegation included branch delegate Harry Baird, EC member Tony McMullan, national vice chair Roisin Lilley and chair Stan Blayney as an observer.
LLA 10th anniversary
Later Life Ambitions organised another successful event in Parliament in December. The branch was delighted to be offered a place on the CSPA team. Branch secretary Tony McMullan attended.
Regrettably none of NI’s 18 MPs turned up. However, Tony did raise issues with Lord Davies and Kirsty Blackman (SNP).
Tony (left) and Chris Haswell at the LLA event, with Lord Davies
Glenfinnan Monument, Inverness-shire,
Your views
GET IN TOUCH
Write to us at CSPA head office, 160 Falcon Road London SW11 2LN or email editor@cspa.co.uk
… inviting letters, comments or contributions, which may be edited to fit the space available
POOR MYCSP SERVICE?
Last year, I wrote to CSP explaining that I had cancelled a voluntary monthly deduction from my pension with the recipient and supplied all of the necessary details for them to identify my account. I asked for confirmation that no more deductions would be taken from my pension.
I had thought this SIMPLE request would be swiftly dealt with. It wasn’t. A month later I had heard nothing (not even an acknowledgement), so I emailed MyCSP asking for a response. I got no response for a long time, and I take offence at being ignored.
Have other members experienced this appalling service from MyCSP and is this indicative of their competency to administer our pensions? If fellow members have endured experiences like mine, I would be very grateful if they could let me know of any formal effective complaint route(s) that I can pursue.
John Dennis Nisbet OBE, Whickham, Tyne and Wear
The CSPA replies:
The CSPA has picked up the issues at MyCSP. We understand there are pressures at MyCSP due to an increasing number of retirements (around 4,000 a month), increasing work due to the Remedy and an industry-wide shortage of pension administrators. However, we are concerned about the service that members are receiving.
We are meeting the Cabinet Office, the scheme’s manager, and liaising with the unions about how we work together to get the situation improved.
Chris Haswell, CSPA Pensions and Personal Cases Manager
FIGHTING TAX RULES
I would like to invite anyone else who is lucky or unlucky enough to have retired before 6 April 2006, and drawn a “pre-commencement pension” but continued to work in a pensionable capacity, to contact me if they are now affected by a quirk of the tax rules that will hit them when they take their further pension. Please email me at: steibelt@btinternet.com.
The Lifetime Allowance rules were “abolished” following the 2023 Budget over a two-year period. I use the word in quotes because through a shambolic process, the legislation has not been repealed but instead amended in three attempts so far but still leaving anomalies.
One of these is the determination of how much “tax-free” lump sum allowance is left for pensioners who took pensions before 2006, out of an overall limit of more than £250,000.
You might think that if you have the actual figures from when you retired – as all of us will have from
I will be fighting HMRC over this perverse interpretation
UNFAIR PAYMENTS
There is a built-in unfairness in the removal of the winter fuel payment, which I haven’t seen anyone mention. Pensioner A has low income (x) plus pension credit (y) total income (z). Therefore gets the payment. Pensioner B has income too high to claim pension credit but not as high as (z). Therefore they do not get the
CSP – this would be straightforward maths. Sadly, no.
HMRC have decided they will do their own sums by revaluing an existing pension at a grossly inflated multiple [25 x ] and then presume a deemed tax-free sum was taken equivalent to 25% of this sum.
In reality, pensions have risen significantly with inflation over the last 18 years. But pensioners affected will be at least 18 years older, such that the residual actuarial value of their pension rights is significantly less than 25 times their annual pension.
Note that this situation is peculiar to those retiring before 5 April 2006. Any lump sums taken after this date are taken at face value in HMRC’s calculations.
To put into context, if your current CSP is £45,000 pa, you will have exhausted your tax-free allowance, and any lump sum you might now be expecting will suffer tax at your marginal rate.
I can’t be the only person hit with this, but I will be fighting HMRC over this perverse interpretation of Parliament’s intentions and am happy to report my progress to any other unfortunates.
Martin Steibelt, Tunbridge Wells
winter fuel payment. So B does not get winter fuel payment although his total income is lower than A’s total income. This surely cannot be fair. It probably only affects a small number of people but still unfair.
It does not affect me as my pension is too high to receive anything.
Derek Wholey, Bristol
CLIMATE FACT CHECK
Clearly, I cannot continue to endlessly debate in your columns the overwhelming scientific evidence of human-induced climate change. However, I would like to address certain points made in Mr Slatter’s letter (Letters, Winter 2024).
One: the 1% of current emissions he mentions is confined to the UK’s territorial emissions and excludes emissions produced elsewhere in the world arising from, inter alia, imports, flying abroad etc.
Two: this figure glosses over the UK’s role as the fifth biggest historic emitter of heat-trapping gases since the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Three: on a per capita basis, the UK is the 13th biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Four: if every country with current 1% territorial emissions dragged their heels, as Mr Slatter suggests the UK should, the cumulative effect would be disastrous for the planet, the only planet that all nations and peoples inhabit. All countries need to play their part and no individual country should receive a get-out-of-jail card based on selective and incomplete calculations of their greenhouse emissions.
BREXIT GAINS
Stan Jonas (Letters, Winter 2024) states why he does not like Brexit. He is of course free to raise the entire issue, but if he looks at previous letters, he will see there was originally a challenge to describe any freedom we have gained after Brexit rather than provide an extensive critique.
My “idea”, as he puts it, was that
Five: just because some politicians are hypocritical in their behaviour by flying around the globe does not invalidate the scientific facts of climate change.
Six: Professor Brian Cox is known for his robust debates challenging climate change deniers and ‘downplayers’, such as the well-known Australian climate denier Malcolm Roberts. Prof Cox’s message to politicians is particularly pertinent: “The more we get up there, just to take a little glimpse, that five-minute trip to see the Earth, the better chance of success” in protecting it and addressing threats such as climate change.
Finally, as I have previously alluded to, I have no wish to wear a hair suit or return to cave dwelling. It’s precisely for these reasons that humanity needs to be serious in weaning itself off its reliance on fossils fuels and invest heavily in the sustainable alternatives to prevent ecological collapse and generate future growth and development.
In the meantime, I remain resolute and steadfast in my support of workers in the oil industry as the transition to the green economy gathers pace.
Stephen McBride, North Ayrshire
we now have the freedom to change more directly those who make our laws. I pointed out I could not vote against EU Directives in the way I can respond to Acts passed in Parliament. The reason I made no reference to the Council of Ministers is it does not propose EU Directives. Stan might well think that at its level it responds to voter representations, but I prefer the
IMAGES MATTER
Is it just me or is anyone else annoyed by the constant portrayal of the elderly as a disembodied hand clutching a walking stick, or a foot stuffed in an old-fashioned slipper. Once you pass a certain age, do you cease to possess a body, a face, a smile?
If the media asked the people concerned, I’m sure they’d be delighted to waive any anonymity and be seen in their entirety when news items arise.
With the winter fuel allowance, social care and overloaded hospitals so frequently on the news, we are treated to more and more of these seemingly independent extremities. Which raises another matter: are the elderly not permitted to have fun? I haven’t seen a single hand clutching a gin and tonic, smartphone or channel changer. Whilst we’re on the subject, perhaps we could spare a thought for the obese – they are reduced to rear view pictures of wobbly buttocks and headless side view beer guts.
Hilary Hall, Brittany
opportunity to have a direct vote. Yes, we had an extensive body of domestic regulation, and generations of voters had their say... until EU Directives appeared which we were obliged to put into our law. Brexit placed matters back squarely in the hands of the UK electorate.
John Davidson, Armadale, Scotland
Legal advice
Love thy neighbour
Bernard Seymour has some top tips for handling disputes with neighbours
Neighbour disputes come in many guises and can be distressing, and they appear to be on the increase. Problems with a neighbour was the most frequent query on our helpline in 2024.
Issues often arise when a new neighbour moves in and starts renovating a property or garden. I thought it would be helpful to set out some general guidance.
When you should be notified about proposed work?
You should be informed – two months to a year before the work starts – if your neighbour plans to:
• Build on/at the boundary of your two properties
• Work on an existing party wall/structure
• Dig below and near to the foundation level of your property.
This type of work might include: building a new wall; cutting into a party wall; making a party wall taller, shorter or deeper; removing chimneys from a party wall; or knocking down and rebuilding a party wall.
How should you be told?
It would be best if your neighbour spoke to you first to explain the work they want to do. They must then put in writing details of the proposed work. Once you receive notice in writing, you have several options:
• Give consent in writing
• Refuse consent, which will start the dispute resolution process
• Serve a counter-notice requesting extra works be done at the same time. You must let your neighbour know in writing within 14 days if you consent to the work. If you wish to serve a counternotice, you must do so within a month of the first notice.
Contact Affinity Resolutions
Affinity Resolutions offers a helpline/ signposting service on legal matters, which is free to CSPA members. The helpline is operational during normal business.
What not to do
Do not ignore the notice. If you do, this could give your neighbour the impression that you have no objections and you could lose the opportunity to serve a counternotice. If you do not respond, it will mean the dispute resolution process is triggered.
Who pays for the work?
Your neighbour will need to pay for any building works that start on a party wall. You may have to meet a share of the cost if the work needs to be done because of defects or lack of repair. You will also need to pay if you ask for additional works to be done that will benefit you.
What happens if you cannot agree?
You must appoint a surveyor if you and your neighbour cannot agree. You can do this together or appoint your own. The surveyors will then agree on a ‘party wall award’ – a legal document that says:
• What work should happen
• How and when it will be carried out
• Who will pay for which part and how much will be paid (including surveyor fees).
If you do not agree with the award, you can appeal against an award at a county court within 14 days of receiving it.
When works begin
When carrying out building works, your neighbour must:
• Avoid causing unnecessary inconvenience
• Protect your property from damage caused by the works, and fix or pay for any damage caused
• Give you 14 days’ notice if contractors need access to your property, except in an emergency.
This guidance sets out what to do if it is clear where the boundary of the property lies. The situation is more complex if there is confusion or a dispute over where the boundary is. In England and Wales this is often not recorded, especially on older properties.
How to identify a boundary
The boundary can be boundary walls and fences or the garden boundaries. There may not be a specific structure in place. If you are unsure where your boundary lies, there are several steps you can take:
• Look at your title deeds to see if there is a title plan with the boundaries marked. A copy of the title plan can be obtained from the Land Registry
• Decide with your neighbour to draw up a boundary agreement. This will prevent future disputes, although I would advise taking legal advice
• Ask the Land Registry to record your boundary on the title plan. This is a complex process and you will need a solicitor to help you. Your neighbour can also object to your application.
My column is for guidance only. However, I hope that you and your neighbours continue to live in harmony.
To access the service, the member first needs to register online at: www.affinityresolutions.co.uk/join/ We are aware that a number of members do not have internet access, and in those situations we will always help without registration. The link takes members to the joining page and to our FAQs. If a member needs further advice, we work with a number of organisations that can provide this. Helpline tel: 03300 55 25 30 or email: hello@affinityresolutions.co.uk
Helpdesk
Grant Emery from BC Technologies explains how Windows 10’s end of life will affect you
As technology continues to evolve, software companies periodically update their systems, phasing out older versions. This year, the end of life for Microsoft Windows 10 will be in October.
For those not familiar with operating systems, understanding what this means and how to prepare is crucial to ensure your computers remain safe, functional and easy to use.
When an operating system reaches its end of life, Microsoft will no longer provide support for it. This includes security
After
October, Windows 10 will
no
longer receive updates to stay secure
updates, without which it becomes easy for viruses and other threats to endanger your machine. And if you have a problem with your PC, Microsoft will no longer help you if your PC is still using Windows 10 after its end of life.
Windows 10 will officially reach its end of life on 14 October. From that date, it will no longer receive the updates it needs to stay secure.
Why is this important?
Using the most up to date operating system is essential to ensuring the safety and security of your device. Here are some important considerations.
Once Windows 10 reaches its end of life, any vulnerabilities discovered after that
date will not be fixed by Microsoft. This can leave your computer at risk of malware, scams and other cyber threats. These risks can be particularly concerning if you use your computer for banking, shopping or staying in touch with loved ones.
Many modern applications, websites and software updates will eventually stop supporting older versions of Windows. If your system is running Windows 10 after October, you might find that new programs or online services won’t work properly, limiting your PC’s usefulness.
To avoid these issues, upgrade to Windows 11, which offers improved security and enhanced performance. The upgrade process can be straightforward, especially for those using relatively new computers; older devices might need extra attention. If your computer does not have powerful enough hardware to run Windows 11, you may have to buy a new one.
An easy way to check this is to download and run the Microsoft PC Health Check app. This will scan your device to determine its hardware strength and age, and inform you if your PC is capable of running Windows 11.
Benefits of upgrading
The idea of upgrading may sound like an overwhelming prospect, but there are many benefits to moving to Windows 11: 1. Improved security: Windows 11 includes enhanced security features such as better encryption and protection from malware – important for older users. 2. Simplified interface: Windows 11 has
Free computer support
To contact BC Technologies for free advice and support, telephone 0330 800 1010, 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, or email cspa@bc-group.co.uk at any time. Please quote ‘CSPA’ when contacting BC Technologies to assist them in dealing with your query.
a streamlined, modern interface with larger icons and more accessible settings, making it easier to use.
3. Better performance: The new system is designed to be faster and more efficient, offering a smoother experience, especially on newer devices.
4. Better accessibility features: Windows 11 offers magnification tools, voice recognition and easy-to-read text options, which can be helpful for people with visual impairments or other accessibility needs.
October might seem a long way off, but it’s important to prepare now, especially for older users needing extra support. Upgrading to Windows 11 or buying a new computer can help keep your system secure, functional and easy to use. And you don’t have to navigate this alone – reach out to family members or tech professionals to help you continue enjoying the benefits of technology safely and confidently.
MEMBER QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
When I send emails, I would like to know if the mail has been opened. Is there a program I can use to achieve this?
This depends entirely on your mail client. For example, Yahoo
mail does not have this feature. However, you can use the Microsoft Outlook program if you have your email address signed into this app.
If you click ‘New Email’, then go to Options, you will see the checkbox for a
read receipt. The recipient of your email may need to approve the read receipt before you’re notified – and getting a read receipt doesn’t always mean the recipient read your message either.
WIN £50
of M&S vouchers
PER PUZZLE
SUDOKU
Closing date: 14 May 2025. The judge’s decision is final. The winner will be notified by phone and announced in the next issue. If you don’t want your name published please let us know.
Complete the sudoku and send with your contact details to: Prize Competition, CSPA, 160 Falcon Road, London SW11 2LN.
You can enter the prize draw for both the sudoku and the crossword (overleaf) if you wish.
The winner of last issue’s sudoku is Mrs VM Jones, Wareham, Dorset
CROSSWORD
Closing date: 14 May 2025. The judge’s decision is final. The winner will be notified by phone and announced in the next issue. If you don’t want your name published please let us know.
Complete the crossword and send with your contact details to: Prize Competition, CSPA, 160 Falcon Road, London SW11 2LN.
You can enter the prize draw for both the sudoku (previous page) and the crossword if you wish.
The winner of last issue’s crossword is Eddie Griffiths, South Shields
Across
1 Essential amino acid found in proteins (6)
7 King of Sparta who perished in the Battle of Thermopylae (8)
8 ___ Ryan: singer in boy band Blue (3)
9 Lead ore (6)
10 District of London (4)
11 SI unit of frequency (5)
13 White fur originally from squirrels used in ceremonial costumes (7)
15 US term for an unnamed woman (4,3)
17 Spiro ___ : 39th US Vice President (5)
21 S-shaped moulding (4)
22 The second of the ‘Five Good Emperors’ of Rome (6)
23 Cape ___ : peninsula near to Martha’s Vineyard (3)
24 Dear ___ : song by the Beatles (8)
25 Salt water area separated from the sea (6)
Down
1 Dr Frasier Crane’s ex-wife (6)
2 Pete ___ : US folk singer (6)
3 Young eel (5)
4 The North Star (7)
5 German wine grape (8)
6 ___ du Maurier: English novelist (6)
12 Decompression sickness, informally (3,5)
14 Canadian dish containing potatoes, curd cheese and gravy (7)
16 Rabbit of a long-haired breed (6)
18 Papal envoy (6)
19 Book by Henry David Thoreau (6)
20 Dev ___ : actor who starred in Slumdog Millionaire (5)
The CSPA may wish to send you membership-related information by email in the future. If you are happy to hear from us for this purpose, please tick this box: You can change your mind at any time. We will not pass on your data to third parties. To view our privacy policy visit: https://www.cspa.co.uk/privacy-policy/ Last issue’s solution
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.
Contact us
CSPA head office
160 Falcon Road, London SW11 2LN 020 8688 8418 www.cspa.co.uk
General secretary
Sally Tsoukaris sally.tsoukaris@cspa.co.uk
Deputy general secretary
David Luxton david.luxton@cspa.co.uk
Digital campaigns manager
Verity Morrish verity.morrish@cspa.co.uk
National treasurer
Michael Sparham m.sparham@cspa.co.uk
Pensions and personal cases manager
Christine Haswell christine.haswell@cspa.co.uk
Editor, The Pensioner
Christine Buckley editor@cspa.co.uk
PRESIDENT
Brian Sturtevant
1 Harmans Drive, East Grinstead, RH19 3XY 01342 325245 brian.sturtevant@cspa.co.uk
VICE-PRESIDENT
Mike Lawler
7 The Creek, Wallasey CH45 3NW 0151 345 7207 mike.lawler@live.co.uk
