RPI to CPI: Rally and Lobby of Parliament

This information has been provided by the National Pensioners Convention:

RPI to CPI: Indexation of State Pensions

and Public Service Pensions

Rally and Lobby of Parliament

1 March 2011

A pensioners’ rally and Lobby of Parliament is being organised for 1 March 2011 by the Public Service Pensioners Council (PSPC), National Pensioners’ Convention (NPC), Civil Service Pensioners’ Alliance (CSPA) and Occupational Pensioners’ Alliance (OPA) and supported by Age UK.

The Lobby is to oppose the Government’s decision to change the inflation link for pensions from the RPI to the CPI. This change, which will significantly affect your income in retirement, will apply from April 2011 to State second pensions, public service pensions and some private occupational pensions and from April 2012 to the State basic pension as well.

The Lobby will involve attendees meeting their MPs from 2.30pm. You will be asking MPs to show their opposition to the change by opposing the statutory orders needed to implement the changes.

There will be a “rally” meeting with speakers in the House of Commons between 1.15pm and 2.15pm to provide a focus for the day. Please see overleaf for details of the Lobby and rally.

It is very important that as many members as possible take some sort of action in this campaign to oppose the switch to the CPI. Please see below a list of other actions you can do to help in the campaign – whether or not you can attend the Lobby.

Thank you for your support in opposing the switch to the CPI. We look forward to seeing you at the Lobby on 1 March 2011.

Yours sincerely

ANDREW MORRIS
General Secretary, Public Service Pensioners Council

ROGER TURNER
General Secretary, Occupational Pensioners Alliance

MIKE DUGGAN
General Secretary, Civil Service Pensioners Alliance

DOT GIBSON
General Secretary, National Pensioners Convention

Details of the Lobby and Rally

On the day of the Lobby, MPs can be lobbied from 2.30pm onwards. Lobbying involves members meeting their MPs in the Central Lobby in the House of Commons and then going somewhere (tea room, meeting room or somewhere in the immediate area) to talk.

You will be asking MPs to show their opposition to the change by:

• voting against the Social Security Benefits (Uprating) Order which applies the change to State second pensions; and
• “praying against” the Pensions (Increase) Order applying the change to public service pensions as well.

The first Order will be debated on the floor of the House of Commons in late February or early March, while the second Order will be on the Parliamentary Order Paper during March and MPs can ‘pray against’ it by signing an Early Day Motion (EDM) which will be tabled by a sympathetic MP.

The rally (guest speakers to be advised later) will start at 1.15pm and finish at 2.15pm in Committee Room 6. The mass Lobby will take place following the rally. MPs have been advised of the Lobby arrangements and have been invited to attend the rally.

It is advisable to contact your MP beforehand so make arrangements to meet. A model letter is available for this purpose if you contact us via the website.

The ideal time to see your MP would be some time after the rally has finished but it may be that your MP is only available to meet you before or during the rally. If you do not arrange a time with your MP prior to the Lobby day, you can still attend the Lobby and arrange a meeting under the ‘Green Card’ system but you may have to leave the building after the rally and queue to re-enter.

If you are not able to attend the mass Lobby of Parliament you can still lobby your MP locally at the constituency surgery. If you do this you will still need to arrange a suitable time to meet your MP. So that we can monitor numbers attending please register online at www.publicservicepensions.org.uk

What else you can do!
There are a number of other things you can do to help stop the Government switching the indexation method from the RPI to the CPI.

Please do at least one of the following, although the most effective action you can take is to attend the rally and Lobby of Parliament on 1 March 2011.

• If you can’t attend the mass Lobby, arrange to meet your MP locally at his or her constituency surgery
• Write to your MP to ask them to support our campaign by opposing the statutory orders to implement the changes
• Sign, circulate and return the NPC petition against the change in indexation below
• Ask 5 of your friends to do all of the above!

Further details on these actions can be found at http://www.publicservicepensioners.org.uk/ or by contacting the pensioner organisation of which you are a member.

PCS Membership Survey 2011

The following has been supplied by PCS HQ:

PCS and Unison are launching a joint survey to measure the impact of the austerity measures on members finances The survey is available via the PCS website here and will run until midnight on Sunday 20th February.

The survey forms a key part of our anti cuts campaign. We know that members and their families are struggling to make ends meet. The recent rise in VAT has come on top of price rises on household essentials, cuts in benefits and proposals to increase pension contributions - all at a time when members are being hit by pay freezes, pay cuts and redundancies. In this survey we hope to obtain clear evidence to show the hardship these austerity measures are causing our members.

The survey should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete and we would urge as many members’ as possible to take part in the survey. You will be making an important contribution to the union’s campaign against the cuts.

We will be asking members some quite sensitive questions, but it is information that is necessary for us to be able to calculate the true impact of the cuts on their finances. The information will be treated as completely confidential. The results will provide the Unions with hard evidence that will help us make our case in negotiations on pay and pensions and our campaigning and media work.

We are inviting members to volunteer to be interviewed to look at their situation in more depth. In doing so you are not committing yourselves to sharing any more information than you would be completely comfortable in doing.

We are also hoping to get some volunteers who would be willing to have their story told (either named or anonymous) to highlight the plight of members’ personal circumstances in our campaigning and media work.

We know that the cuts are going to bite over a number of years. The survey is intended to be the start of a longer process of tracking the impact on members. We would like to be able to return to members in six or twelve months time to see how the cuts are affecting them. If you would be willing to provide an email address to allow us to contact you in future, we would be extremely grateful.

Government Ignores Fitness Test Promises

The following details have been supplied by the TUC:

A Government claim that the 'vast majority' of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants should not be receiving the benefit, contradicts the evidence and its own admissions just two months ago, the TUC has charged. The government said official statistics show most ESA claimants are either being found fit for work after undergoing a Work Capability Assessment or stop their claim before they complete the application process. It added that this demonstrates 'why ministers are determined to reform the welfare system' and to reassess all those currently receiving the 'old style incapacity benefit.' Employment minister Chris Grayling: 'We are determined to get the medical assessment right and provide the necessary help for those that need it, however these figures show just how many people are found to be fit for work and not entitled to ESA.' The government said its figures, based on an assessment system that was found to be seriously flawed two months ago by the government-commissioned Harrington review, showed 39 per cent of claimants were 'fit for work' and a further 39 per cent did not complete their claims. TUC's Richard Exell said the government's plans did not sit well with the findings of the Harrington review. 'This said that 'there is strong evidence that the system can be impersonal and mechanistic', that Jobcentre Plus advisers 'often do not have or do not appropriately consider additional evidence submitted to support a claim for Employment and Support Allowance' and that 'some of the descriptors used in the assessment may not adequately measure or reflect the full impact of such conditions on the individual's capability for work'.' He added: 'At the time the Secretary of State not only welcomed Prof Harrington's report, he went out of his way to say that the government 'fully endorsed' its recommendations. Now, just two months later, the DWP uses results from the same test to justify their plans. The government should call a moratorium on extending the WCA to existing Incapacity Benefit claimants until the recommendations of the Harrison review have been implemented.'

Save Our Forests

The following information has been supplied by 38 Degrees:

MPs will vote on a motion demanding a rethink of plans to sell our national forests. The fact this vote is happening shows that MPs have noticed our campaign. But we're not done yet.

MPs will have by now opened newspapers to see full-page adverts showing the number of people who’ve taken a stand by signing the Save Our Forests petition. The more of us that sign the petition, the more pressure MPs will be under.

Right now, the petition is nearly 450,000 strong, and every name counts. Will you take a moment to spread the word right now?

Please sign the petition and share this link: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests

So many of us have joined this campaign because we all understand something the government doesn’t seem to get yet: that our woodlands and forests are priceless, and once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.

We know that places like the Forest of Dean, the New Forest, Grizedale, Thetford and Alice Holt are national treasures. We know that they belong to all of us, and we will do whatever we can to keep them in public hands and protect them for future generations.

That’s why thousands of 38 Degrees members have chipped in to pay for these adverts in the first place - and it’s not too late for more of us who care about our woodlands to be heard.

Every new signature adds weight to our message.

Preston Against the Cuts

Public Outcry!

Public Rally

12th February at 12.00 noon

Preston Flag Market

A society is measured on how well it treats its young, its old, its sick and most vulnerable.

We should never forget that it was the banking sector that caused the recession, and is ultimately responsible for the huge debts that the UK has amassed. Despite causing the crisis, the banking sector has escaped any significant regulation, and bankers are again awarding themselves huge bonuses.

• We call on the County Council and the Borough Council to refuse to make cuts
• Lobby your MP against the cuts
• Attend the Rally for the Alternative in London on March 26th
• Write to the papers, send messages to internet sites, and phone into radio and television stations condemning the cuts and telling them how you will be affected
• Shout as loud as you can that the cuts are unfair, unjust and unacceptable.

Cuts will cost lives!

Find out more at http://www.prestonagainstcuts.org.uk/ and facebook search "Preston against cuts".

Also look at http://www.falseeconomy.org.uk/.

For more information please email: Prestonagainstcuts@gmail.com.

This Rally is sponsored by Preston and district Trades Council and supported by community organisations, including:

Details of the Blackpool events can be found here and here.

Blackpool Against the Cuts - Saturday 26th February

Blackpool Against the Cuts have organised a rally at the Blackpool Customer First Centre on Saturday 26th of February at 11am. The demonstration is against the massive cuts planned locally that will decimate public services. For more information click the picture of the BATC flyer below.

Details of the Preston event can be found here.

Blackpool Against the Cuts - Friday 18th February

Blackpool Against the Cuts have organised a rally at the Town Hall in Blackpool on Friday 18th of February at 10.00am - the day the council vote on implementing the massive cuts locally. For more information click the picture of the BATC flyer below.

Details of the event in Preston can be found here.