RETIRED MEMBERS' GROUP

• Getting involved
• How we organise
• National Pensioners' Convention 2008
• The Pensioners' Charter
• Right to Care Campaign
• Basic State Pension
• Links to relevant sites

• Pensioner poverty
• Health care and age discrimination
• Isolation and mobility issues

We believe our union should reflect the society we live and work in. There are more than 10 million elderly people in the UK. Retired and working members have a shared interest in obtaining decent incomes in older age, a universal health service and the creation of a civilised society.Today's workers are tomorrow's pensioners and UNISON's members work in public services on which many older people rely.

UNISON RETIRED MEMBERS CONFERENCE 2008 - Glasgow 14th-15th October more details here

Getting involved

This branch has a retired members group, meeting on a regular basis. You can enjoy social events and outings, keep up to date with UNISON campaigns and support issues of concern for older people.

UNISON retired members enjoy all the benefits of UNISON membership including:

• Legal advice
• Welfare support
• Special discounts and offers on a wide range of financial and other services

If you've been a UNISON member for at least two years on the day you retire and have either received state pension age or get a pension, you can become a retired member.

Membership is either free or you pay a one-off £15 subscription, depending when you joined UNISON.

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How we organise

UNISON is unique among British trade unions in having a Retired Members Organisation. Our structure mirrors that of the working members. This means that retired members can participate in UNISON's democratic machinery at all levels.

UNISON organises retired members at every level of the union. Retired members can attend branch meetings and have representation on the branch committee and regional council. You can also send representatives to National Delegate Conference.

Retired members committees are also represented on regional councils and able to feed views to the rest of the union. Furthermore, a National Retired Members' Committee meets regularly.

Each year our retired members conference enables retired members from branches to debate the issues important for them and submit two motions to the agenda of the National Conference.

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NATIONAL PENSIONERS’ CONVENTION 2008

For a full report on the 16th National Pensioners Convention which took place at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool 3rd - 5th June 2008 click here to download Many thanks to Ken, Sheila and Beatrice for attending on behalf of the branch.

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Right To Care

UNISON is campaigning for the Government to provide free personal and nursing care - as recommended by the Royal Commission on Long Term Care of the Elderly. We believe it is unacceptable to charge older or disabled people for essential personal care. UNISON wants to see an end to means-testing which penalises people with assets such as their own home.

Click here for more on the Right to Care campaign

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The Basic State Pension

The best guarantee of security in older age is a decent non means-tested pension linked to earnings. Pensioners should be able to share in the prosperity of the UK, the fourth wealthiest country in the world.

A decent pension is vital not only to avoid poverty but also social exclusion. Pensioners should be entitled by right to a healthy diet, material security, social participation and a sense of control.

Retirement should be a time to look forward to but unfortunately for many it is not. No one should have to rely on means-tested benefits in later life and lead a lifestyle geared to survival and essentials with little room for positive and active ageing.

UNISON is pursuing the objective of a "living" pension through the following policy:

• A minimum income guarantee for all those in retirement of £150 a week
• Compulsion on all employers to contribute to a pension for their employees
• Restoration of the earnings link to the Basic State Pension (BSP) and uprating to the level it would have been at if the link with earnings had not been originally broken
• All employer and stakeholder schemes to provide a minimum income at retirement based either on a proportion of final earnings or a career average

The link with earnings

The 2001 Budget included a number of pension proposals intended to provide an income of at least £100 a week by 2003. However these proposals did not restore the link with earnings and the increase is largely dependent on the means tested MIG.

Pensioners do not want to have to make application for what they are entitled to. This is highlighted by the fact that the Government launched a £15million advertising campaign to persuade 500,000 eligible pensioners (1 in 5 of those who qualify) to claim MIG.

The Government claims that it would be too costly to restore the link with earnings yet, by 2001, it had spent £6.5 billion on pensioners since the 1997 election, £2 billion more than if the link had been restored.

UNISON continues to campaign for a restoration of the link with earnings to ensure a decent BSP because:

• In an increasingly uncertain market place it is an important source of retirement income for both current and future generations
• It is the last defence against pensioner poverty and increased reliance on means-tested benefits which have low take-up and penalise savings

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LINKS TO OTHER SITES

The list below are links to web sites that might be of interest or relevance to members of the Retired Members' Group. If you are aware of others, please e-mail us with details.

• UNISON Retired members section of national website
• British Pensioners' Trade Union Action Association
• National Pensioners' Convention
• Nottingham and District Pre-Retirement Council

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