North East Older Persons’ Conference
Nick with Pensions Minister Angela Eagle and NEOPAG Chair Elsie Richardson
Nick Brown today spoke at a conference at the Assembly Rooms organised by the North East Older People’s Advisory Group. More than a hundred elder citizens gathered to tell Nick and Pensions Minister Angela Eagle what more the Government can do to make their lives easier and better.
In 2007, for the first time ever, there were more people in Britain over the age of 65 than under the age of 16. By 2020, over half the adult population will be over 50. Making plans now to take care of our older citizens will be to the benefit of us all.
This Government has a decent record on protecting our pensioners. The Government recently set aside a new £33m fund for making sure that council houses are properly equipped for older residents. Labour’s ambitious plans for a National Care Service, to work alongside the NHS, will mean more older people will receive free personal care in their own home.
Targeted measures such as the Winter Fuel Payments, free bus passes and Pensions Credit have made a real difference to people’s weekly budgets. Over 100,000 pensioners in our region have been lifted out of relative poverty in the past ten years, and pensioners in the North East are now less likely to live in relative poverty than the national population as a whole. In total the UK now spends £13bn more per year on pensioners than if the policies of the last Conservative Government had carried on after 1997.
