UK Election Battlelines – Timing on treating symptoms?

News 18 11 2009: Labour bid to help needy pensioners. With less than seven months before the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />UK must go to the polls, Gordon Brown is to use the Queen's Speech to present a series of populist bills designed to set out the battlelines for the forthcoming election campaign. Of the centrepiece to the Government's final legislative programme before the next general election is the Social Care Bill that would enable tens of thousands of the neediest pensioners to remain in their homes along with schooling as well as a crackdown on "risky" Bank bonuses. One unnamed minister has already been quoted as saying that it will be "the most political Queen's Speech in 12 years" while Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader in the House of Lords, warned that peers could block much of the legislation in the upper chamber. "We all know that this Queen's speech is all about better electioneering and politics rather than the better governance of the country," he told The Guardian. "If these measures were so important they would have been in the legislative programme last year rather than being left to the last moment of the fifth term.

 

Opinion: Logistically Lord Strathclyde raises a very good point indeed and if the Nation were so minded to ponder about heightened Political Battlement at Election time they may query why it be so necessary that a Government in Power has a need to project future promises when its efforts be measurable through achievement over its recent term(s) in Office. Mr Brown pledged fundamental reform to “Social Care” some 18 months ago (News 12 05 2008) and one cannot help but notice how price rises after price rises have escalated profit yields to which few can now little afford to survive in the Economic Climate, this against a backdrop where the Gov itself “offshores” work because it can ill afford to employ British Worker salaries. At some stage the Government will have to admit that it has allowed itself to become a Business well and truly “wedged” between Privatisation for Competition, in providing for a Nations needs, while devising new methods [Laws] by which more and more taxes be collected in feeding the Bonus culture. Interestingly – to Civil Servants Bonuses at some £26m (News 17 06 2009 ) Lord Oakeshott said: "Top civil servants get a very good salary averaging £1,500 a week and an excellent index-linked pension. Why do they need £200 a week extra just to get out of bed in the morning - more than many pensioners?"

 

 

Old news: Elderly and Pensioners

01 05 2008 Labour braced for backlash. Gordon Brown faces his first major electoral test at 2008 local elections. Mr Brown acknowledged yesterday the Government got it wrong in his most contrite comments to date. "I'll be honest about it, we made two mistakes: we didn't cover as well as we should have that group of low-paid workers and low-income people who don't get the working tax credit; and we weren't able to help the 60-64 year olds who don't get pensioners' tax allowance," he said.

 

12 05 2008 Brown pledges social care reform.Gordon Brown has pledged fundamental reform to social care of the elderly and disabled in England as the Government warned that the system is facing a £6 billion funding gap within 20 years. Mr Brown said he "fully" understood people's anxieties over the issue of social care. "We can - and must - look to give people the opportunity and the support to save for their old age in a way which insures them and protects their houses and their inheritance," he said.

 

20 05 2008 Quality of life for elderly 'worse'.A fifth of people over 65 in the UK feel their quality of life has worsened in the last year. One in four older people say they have become so worried about their future that it is affecting their physical health, the study for the charity Help the Aged showed. The poll by ICM also found that 23% of people aged 65 and over avoid heating their bedroom, bathroom or living room because they are worried about the cost. The charity also says that in the past 12 months an estimated 200,000 extra pensioner households have been plunged into fuel poverty.

 

31 05 2008 DATA PROTECTION ACT DENIES PENSIONER AID.Government moves to help pensioners cope with soaring fuel prices have been dismissed as inadequate by campaigners. Chancellor Alistair Darling was forced to defend the aid package from accusations that it was a "sticking plaster to cover a catastrophe". Under the plans unveiled, Whitehall data on people with low incomes is set to be shared with energy companies so they can be offered better deals. Energy minister Malcolm Wicks conceded that households were likely to be paying annual power bills of £1,000-plus in future, but insisted pensioners would get help. "Frankly, its intolerable that any elderly person could be cold in winter," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "The problem has been that because of data protection laws we haven't always been able to say to the electricity or gas company 'This is the person that needs that help'."

 

31 07 2008 Anger at dividend payout as Gas prices rise some 35%. British Gas parent Centrica announces a 16% jump providing some £144.6 million dividend payout for its shareholders and a day after hitting millions of customers with a record 35% jump in gas bills. Chief executive Sam Laidlaw defended the dividend as a "purely mechanical" payout based on the company's strong performance during the previous year. But the move comes as the average dual fuel customer's annual bills have gone up more than £400 to £1,317 since the start of the year

 

01 08 2008 Calls to end pensioner poverty。The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) said nearly one in four retired people lived below the official poverty line of £151 a week, the same number as when Labour first came to power in 1997. It said rising food and fuel costs, combined with the continued decline in the purchasing power of the basic state pension, were pushing increasing numbers of older people into financial difficulties. The NPC president, said: "It is a shocking indictment that after 100 years of the state pension, we still have millions of older people living in poverty and many more struggling to make ends meet." Mervyn Kohler, special adviser to Help the Aged, said guaranteeing take-up of means-tested benefits would lift 500,000 pensioners out of poverty overnight, and a further 500,000 out of deep poverty.

 

10 02 2009 £5bn pensioner benefits 'unclaimed'.Pensioners are failing to claim up to £5 billion of benefits they are entitled to every year, a charity has said. The charity is calling on the Government to automatically pay benefits to those who are entitled to them, rather than forcing people to go through the "convoluted claims process". It said 80% of older people thought the Government should pay their benefits to them without them having to submit a claim. Each year up to £1.51 billion in council tax benefit and £770 million in housing benefit goes unclaimed, with people also missing out on £2.81 billion of Pension Credit. A further 350,000 older people are also not claiming housing benefit.

 

17 06 2009 Civil servants paid £26m in bonuses.Senior civil servants were awarded "bonuses" totalling £26 million last year, it has been reported. Lib Dem treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott, who compiled the figures from answers to parliamentary questions, said that he was "amazed" at the scale of the awards. Lord Oakeshott said: "Top civil servants get a very good salary averaging £1,500 a week and an excellent index-linked pension. Why do they need £200 a week extra just to get out of bed in the morning - more than many pensioners?"

 

04 07 2009 Pensioner bankruptcy level soaring. The number of pensioners being declared bankrupt has soared by 164% during the past five years, research has shown. A total of 2,595 people aged over 65 went bankrupt during 2008, up from only 983 in 2004, according to accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy. Pensioners typically spend a higher proportion of their income than other age groups on essentials such as food and energy bills, the cost of which have soared during the past year.

 

14 07 2009 Elderly to take out care insurance – proposal. Older people in England could be asked to take out insurance to pay for long-term care in their old age. Under the present English system anyone with a home or savings of £23,500 or more is not given state funding for a care home, or help from social services. This means that thousands of pensioners each year have to sell their homes or use their savings to fund their long-term care, which critics say is unfair and unsustainable.

 

30 07 2009 Pensioner poverty is 'unacceptable'. The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee said it was "unacceptable" that two million pensioners remain in poverty, with 1.1 million of them surviving on less than half the average income. And the MPs called for the Personal Expenses Allowance (PEA) paid to around 250,000 pensioners in residential care to be nearly doubled to £40 from its current level of £21.90 a week, which the report found "does not allow pensioners to live in dignity".

 

06 08 2009 Free OAP bus travel – proposal to scrap. Free bus passes for all pensioners is an "inefficient" use of public money which would be better used by "targeting" it at those most in need, according to a report. The findings of economics consultancy Oxera in the report, commissioned by town hall chiefs, appeared to urge the scrapping of free bus travel for all over-60s and a move to means-tested bus concessions. Free bus passes for the over-60s were introduced by the Government last year.

 

14 09 2009 'Executive pay up despite crash'. The pay of executives at the helm of Britain's top companies rose 10% last year despite their organisations suffering huge losses on the stock market, it has emerged. The full and part-time directors of the FTSE 100 companies took home more than £1bn between them last year, according to The Guardian's annual survey of boardroom pay. But taking into account bonus payments, share awards and the value of perks ranging from cars and drivers to school fees and dental work, the average pay package rises dramatically, the newspaper said. Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, said: "The recession has done nothing to stop the gap between top directors and the rest of their staff getting wider every year.It is even more offensive when the Institute of Directors has called for spending cuts that would hit pensioners, the poor and low-paid public sector staff.

 

04 10 2009 Tory elderly care plan criticised.The Tories are under fire over plans to end the plight of tens of thousands of elderly people forced to sell their homes to pay the cost of residential care. The Conservatives insisted that their proposal of a guarantee to pay people's care home fees for life in return for a one-off payment on retirement of around £8,000 was fully self-financing. Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said the scheme would end a "major injustice" which each year saw an estimated 45,000 elderly people in England forced to sell their homes to pay for residential care. "It is an immense injustice that every year, 45,000 ordinary elderly people are being forced to sell their family home and lose their life savings to pay for care when they are at their most vulnerable," he said.

 

06 10 2009 Care Homes - Medicine errors.Campaigners have slammed the "shocking" treatment of elderly people living in care homes after research revealed 7 out of 10 had been given the wrong drugs or doses. Overworked staff, poor teamwork and a lack of training were leading to mistakes that could result in discomfort, pain and even death, according to the report. The study found that staff lacked knowledge of what medicines should be given with food, did not always know how to administer inhalers and did not order adequate supplies of drugs. Researchers from universities in Leeds, London and Surrey examined data from 256 residents in 55 care homes across England. Each resident was typically taking eight medicines each. In some cases the medication was mislabelled while in others patients were given the wrong doses or no dose at all. Almost a third (30%) of the drugs which should have been monitored for potentially harmful side-effects were not. Researchers also carried out interviews with residential care home staff, doctors and pharmacists, finding evidence of doctors who were not accessible and did not know the residents, a high staff workload, a lack of training, drug round interruptions, lack of teamwork, inefficient ordering systems and inaccurate medicine records. The report said: "It was clear from the interviews that no one took responsibility for the whole system. Peter Walsh, chief executive of Action Against Medical Accidents, said the study was evidence of "age discrimination" and called for the tighter regulation of nursing homes, with regular doctor-led reviews of patient medication and more training for staff.

 

21 10 2009 OAP fuel payments 'unsustainable'. The Government's £2.7 billion-a-year budget for winter fuel payments might be better spent on lagging, insulating, reglazing and modernising the homes of pensioners who cannot afford to heat them properly, suggested the local government spending watchdog. In a report entitled Lofty Ambitions, the Audit Commission said that improvements in domestic energy efficiency can play a big part in meeting the government's legally-binding target of 80% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. My opinion: The money is to help pensioners survive but is this to be redirected to save Gov face in meeting its legally binding target ?

 

23 10 2009 HM Revenue and Customs upgrades computer systems to pay pensioners. 1.5m pensioners 'pay too much tax'. The NAO said errors occurred because the tax situation for pensioners was often more complicated than for the rest of the population and HM Revenue and Customs struggled to cope. A spokesman for HM Revenue and Customs said "During the last few months we have significantly upgraded our computer systems to improve accuracy and deliver a better serviceto older taxpayers. Some 1.5 million older people over-paid income tax due to processing errors, while about 3.2 million were failing to take up their allowance entitlements, the watchdog found.