A HAPPY and PROSPEROUS CHRISTMAS for SOME

While millions of our pensioners in poverty are ignored by this GOVERNMENT which pays millions in bonus's for FAILURE and this in one of the richest countries in the world.

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The 2.5 million pensioners battling to stay warm

by

Steve Doughty

[Daily Mail - Social Affairs Correspondent-Tuesday, November 13,2007]

A FIFTH OF THE OVER -60's spend their winter living in a single room because they cannot afford to keep their whole house warm, it was revealed yesterday.

The shocking figure means that 2.5 million older people limit their heating costs in this way.

A survey also revealed  that one million have to cut back on food to enable them to pay their

HEATING BILLS.

The study for the charity

HELP THE AGED

highlighted the scale of deprivation among the elderly and the reasons

WHY SO MANY OF THEM DIE OVER THE WINTER.

It says that the complexity of many

STATE BENEFITS

 makes it hard for them to claim the cash, compounding

THEIR POVERTY

Help the Aged said

£4.5 billion

worth of pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit

GOES UNCLAIMED

It is also estimated that 25,000 die in winter because of illnesses linked to cold and hypothermia. According to the charity's research. Large numbers of the over 60's resort to wearing gloves, overcoats while indoors to avoid having to pay

HEATING BILLS.

A million go to public libraries, coffee shops or malls just to find somewhere warm and more than a million and a half go to bed in the daytime to find warmth under blankets, it said.

Older people have been the poorest section of society for nearly a

DECADE

[Thanks a lot! -New Labour -

WE DON'T THINK SO]

Single mothers who used to be the poorest group, have shot up the income scale thanks to Labour's tax credits and other benefits.

BUT THE ELDERLY - who are supposed to be  buoyed up by GORDON BROWN'S pension credit system -  OFTEN FAIL TO CLAIM OR ARE MISSED OUT OF THE SYSTEM.

The Daily Mail's

DIGNITY for the ELDERLY

CAMPAIGN

has highlighted the way many are

CHEATED

by the means  when they need a place in a care home and how vital home help that allows them to stay in their own property is being cut back by councils.

[Of course those who have already secured their gold-plated pensions by working for the GOVERNMENT and who have themselves an opportunity of obtaining special bonus's are unforgiving about those unfortunate beings THE ELDERLY who are looked on as an unnecessary expenditure which they could do without whereas any politically correct hair-brained schemes always seem to attract the necessary funds without restriction. We have members of parliament on upwards of  £250,000 with their upper limit always rising but the pensioners who have given good service to their country having at their time of lives to pass the pension credit hurdle which was so designed that any self-respecting

LEGISLATIVE CHAMBER

WOULD HAVE BEEN DONE AWAY WITH ON ITS FAILURE TO DO THE JOB OF REDUCING POVERTY IN THE ELDERLY]

The complexity of making a claim for pension credit and other benefits is often cited as one reason why they are not taken up. Another is that the elderly are reluctant to claim means-tested benefits, seen by many as demeaning handouts.

The charity which conducted its survey with British Gas, called for greater state efforts

TO REACH THOSE WHO NEED HELP.

(11.4 million pensioners in Britain)

'Each year over 25,000 older people lose their lives to a preventable cold-related illness,' said Anne Pearson of

HELP the AGED.

'The GOVERNMENT IS NOT DOING NEARLY ENOUGH TO END FUEL POVERTY.

It has a potential jack-pot of

£4.5 billion

waiting for older people, but it dangles this vital cash behind a complex maze of means-tested benefits and, as a result, money continually

FAILS TO REACH THOSE WHO NEED IT TO SURVIVE.

The survey, taken by ICM among 1,171 over 60's last month, indicated that more than

2.5 million

of the country's 11 million elderly live in one room because of the

COST OF HEATING THEIR HOMES.

Almost as many -2.2 million -turn off their heating entirely at some times because of the cost. Around two million wear out-door clothing indoors.

The charity said benefit advice services were unhelpful, with one in three older people left with no idea how they can claim state aid.

Pension credit tops up the income of a single person to

£119.05 a week

and a couple to

£181 a week

Most pensioners are also entitled to winter fuel payments. Those under 79 get between £100 and £200, depending on their circumstances, while those over 80 or over get up to

£300

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[Font Altered-Bolding & Underlining Used-Comments in brackets]

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Britons have the worst state pensions in the EU

by

 Sean Poulter

[Daily Mail-Consumer Affairs Editor-Tuesday, November 13, 2007]

PENSION MISERS

State pension as proportion of average working pay

Greece ---------    95.7%

          Luxembourg  ---------   88.3%                      

         Netherlands ----------    81.9%                    

         Spain     ---------  81.2%          

       Denmark   ------------ 79.8%             

         Italy  ------------    67.9%       

      Sweden  ------------      62.1%           

      EU average ------------ 60%               

         France------------   51.2%       

          Germany -----------  39.9%          

            Estonia -----------   32.9%          

      Ireland ----------      32.5%    

              UK -----------  30.8%

MILLIONS of Britons are being condemned to POVERTY in OLD AGE

by the worst state pension in the EU, a study shows.

TO BE CONTINUED

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[The early signs are are that the coming months will be decidedly colder so that the conditions outlined above will be much deadlier to the pensioner living alone. There are many organisations who have contact with the elderly who by their observations and action could well reduce those who will die of the cold this

SEASON of CHRISTMAS of GOOD WILL to ALL. 

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