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NPC calls Lobby over Budget
Cuts
The Government’s Finance Bill – which includes
the plan to freeze the age related tax allowances for the over 65s
– will be debated on Thursday, 19 April.
It is therefore vital that we get as many
people as possible to lobby their MP on the day to highlight the
unfairness of freezing the allowance, when at the same time giving
a tax cut to those earning £150,000 or more.
It also enables us to raise other concerns
such as:
- The cut to the winter fuel allowance
- The change in pension uprating from the Retail Price Index to
the lower Consumer Price Index
- The plans to exclude those existing pensioners on less than
£140 a week state pension from new proposals
- Raising the retirement age
- Inadequate social care in the community
All supporters are therefore asked to join the
lobby on Thursday 19 April, House of Commons, London (nearest Tube
Station: Westminster). A room for a rally will be organised from
12-1pm inside the Commons and campaigners can then lobby their MPs
afterwards.
Take action now
- Contact your MP and tell them that you wish to lobby them on
that day. Make arrangements to meet them at a set time and place in
the House of Commons if possible
- Let the NPC know if you are planning to attend and we will keep
you updated as to the arrangements for the day as they develop
- Encourage as many people as you can to sign the online petition
at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/31778
- Publicise the lobby and ask others to join us
- Tell your local press that you are taking part in the NPC lobby
and why it is important
We will also produce a briefing paper for the
event shortly which will be available on the NPC website at
http://www.npcuk.org/. This is our
chance to have our say on the Government’s austerity measures.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Sign Arthur’s Petition To Reverse The Freeze On Age
Related Tax Allowances
Britain’s biggest pensioners’ organisation,
the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) is backing a new online
petition started by pensioner Arthur Streatfield, from Bath,
calling on the government to reverse its decision to freeze the age
related personal tax allowances for the over 65s from April 2013.
The petition can be seen at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/31778.
Dot Gibson, NPC general secretary said: “Since
the Budget announcement on Wednesday, we have been inundated by
pensioners like Arthur who are outraged that the chancellor is
giving a tax cut to those earning over £150,000 whilst pensioners
on little more than £11,000 are having their tax allowance frozen.
There has been a lot of nonsense about pensioners having been
cushioned from the austerity measures, but they’ve already seen
cuts to their winter fuel allowance, a reduction of their state
pension increase because it’s now linked to the lower Consumer
Price Index rather than the Retail Price Index, rationing of care
services in the community, closure of day care centres, changes to
disability benefits and caps on housing support. It’s time we came
out fighting and this petition is just the start. The government
needs to recognise that older people are an asset not a burden; and
that we contribute £40bn every year in taxes, unpaid voluntary work
and caring. We not only need to reverse this latest attack, but
also to campaign for higher state pensions, proper care and an end
to fuel poverty.”
Help Save Remploy
Factories
Go to www.remployworkers.info and
sign the petition
Stop the REMPLOY closures National Demonstration Day
Friday 20th April 2012
Lobby The DWP. The campaign to save Remploy
factories continues relentlessly. Stop the REMPLOY closures.
Assemble 12.30 for a 1 pm start outside the DWP Office in Sheffield
(Steel City House) @ the junction of West St. and Church Street and
Tripit Lane, Rally and March to the Town Hall – Speakers to be
announced. All welcome bring your banners.
Guidance for Disabled Badge
Holders
It would be useful for all GMB members who
are currently disabled and in possession of a badge to read the
following, which are the new Rules being introduced by this
government. The tests are obviously going to exclude many of
our members who currently hold badges.
The rules as follows:
1. You automatically get a badge if you
receive the Higher Rate Mobility Component of the Disability Living
Allowance (DLA)
2. Those who become disabled after reaching 65
would not qualify for DLA and therefore fall under the
discretionary criteria. This means that they have to be assessed in
order to decide whether or not they are immobile enough to warrant
the awarding of a Blue Badge. 66% of the 2.5m Blue Badge holders
fall into this category.
As from 1 April 2012 anyone applying under
category 2 above for a new badge or re-applying because their old
one has expired (they last every 3 years) will have to see an
Independent Mobility Assessor. This is likely to be an occupational
or physio therapist who is privately employed by the local
authority.
There are England-wide guidelines for them to
follow, but each individual assessor might view things slightly
differently. Off the record discussions have revealed that before
the assessment even begins - individuals will be viewed arriving at
the assessment centre. If they get out of their car easily or climb
the stairs to the assessment office they will not get a badge. A
crude rule of thumb that assessors will use is to ask whether an
individual can go to the shops on their own. If they can - then it
is unlikely they will be awarded a badge.
A concern for our members is that they may
have received a Blue Badge under the old system (signed off by
their GP) and now find that their badge is due for renewal under
the new system. As a result, they may find they no longer
qualify.
Whilst there is an appeals procedure, it is
difficult at this stage to know how successful these will be.
It would therefore be extremely useful if
affiliates and regions could let the NPC know of any cases where
individuals have been refused an application to renew or apply for
a Blue Badge. If such evidence becomes available, it may then be
possible to raise the matter with ministers and officials at the
Department for Transport and/or local authorities.
Retention of National Bus
Pass
GMB is calling for its members to contact their local MP’s to
encourage them to support this Early Day Motion 2665 in support of
the Retention of National Bus Pass.
Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg has recently called for the
bus pass to be means-tested. David Crausby MP has tabled Early Day
Motion 2665 in response (see below). Please contact your MP and ask
them to sign the EDM as soon as possible.
"That this House is deeply concerned at the Deputy Prime
Minister's suggestion that pensioner benefits, including bus
passes, ought to be means-tested; recognises the tremendous success
of the free bus pass with the increased use of public transport,
reduced car dependency and improvements to the quality of life of
pensioners by allowing them to keep mobile and socially connected;
and calls on the Government to resist
means-testing and to continue fully funding the free national bus
pass scheme for all pensioners."