Older patients still 'Hungry to be Heard'
31/08/2010
Nearly a third (29.4 per cent) of nurses are not confident that it would be noticed if a relative of theirs was malnourished when entering hospital, according to findings released today as part of Age UK’s Still Hungry to be Heard campaign. The results spark fresh fears that older people are still being left to go hungry in hospital.
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The pension pitfalls of emigrating to New Zealand
I left the UK over 40 years ago to start a new life in New Zealand. The advertising was magnificent: lovely beaches, nice friendly people, beautiful weather, and a full New Zealand pension after we had worked here for over twenty years.... sadly the promise of a full New Zealand pension was a con. One MT reader shares his experiences.
Spain tops overseas retirement hotspots
Standard Life today revealed the top six retirement hotspots for UK consumers. However, two of the top six countries are unable offer the same state pension benefits that UK domiciled retirees will receive, leaving some ex-pats with only half their potential retirement income.
Feebly constructed 'The Concert' collapses under weight of its themes
In the Concert, Romanian/French Director Radu Mihaileanu revisits the theme and allegorical style of his feature Train of Life with diminishing returns.
In ‘Train of Life’ the Jewish inhabitants of a central European village in 1941 organise a fake deportation that heads for Palestine instead of the concentration camps. At the core of The Concert is a fake Russian orchestra, heading for Paris instead of manual labour under a dictatorship in their communist homeland.
The deceit represents Art’s (the afflicted musicians’) triumph over anti-Semitism, Power, Repression and History. These are big themes and the feebly constructed The Concert, collapses under their weight.
Ex-pat Brits take their pensions case to European court
The International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP) has its day in court today - asking the European Court of Human Rights to judge whether half a million UK pensioners around the world should have their pensions frozen - while as many again retain theirs because they have moved to EC countries
We've had the vision - now can we have our pension please?
Pensions Minister Mike O’Brien’s homily is merely cynical hypocrisy when he writes: "We must begin to free our minds from some of the prejudices about ageing". He must first free the minds of his DWP colleagues from their prejudice against half the expatriate pensioners, 500,000 people overwhelmingly in the major Commonwealth countries who are denied annual uprating, their pensions frozen for all time.
Promises, promises ... the politicians who don't deliver on our overseas pensions
Over half a million ex-pat British pensioners have had their pensions frozen - some by more than £55 a week – because they are now living overseas in Commonwealth countries rather than the EU. But, writes Brian Havard, if UK Government Ministers were to implement the promises they have personally made, our pensions would not be frozen.
Government petition for frozen overseas pensions
The Mature Times has highlighted the unfair freezing of overseas pensions. So I am writing to alert people to the fact that there is now an e-petition on the subject.
Injustice, inequality... we paid our contributions but our pensions are frozen
Jim Tilley has drawn attention to the scandalous situation whereby some pensioners overseas receive fully indexed pensions and others like those of us in Australia do not. We all paid in the same way and there is no just reason why our pensions are frozen.
The scandal of overseas pensions being "pilfered" by the Government
“Our shared aim should be to ensure that pension promises are kept and pensioners are secure in retirement...” But what is Mike O’Brien doing to implement his beliefs? Evidently nothing.
Overseas pensions campaigner slams Government promises
It is appalling that Minister Mike O'Brien fails in his article to mention the penalty with which some pensioners are slugged because their UK age pensions will be frozen if they choose the wrong countries in which to retire.
NI surplus? It's worse than that!
The balance of the National Insurance Fund is predicted to be around £70 billion by 2008, £81 billion by 2009, over £121 billion by 2012 and £136 billion by 2013.
Government's age discrimination targets pensioners
'DWP practises discrimination in denying annual pensions uprating to half a million UK pensioners in the major Commonwealth countries, freezing their pensions at the amount which applied when first they qualified or emigrated as existing pensioners. ' - MT Reader Brian Havard has his say.
I can't afford to emigrate
My only daughter and son-in-law are hoping to emigrate to Australia next year and, as I am their only relative on either side, have asked me to go with them. But I cannot afford to go. The basic pension and pension credit are all I am living on at the moment and that gets cut to £87p.w. the day I emigrate - and frozen at that amount. I do wonder how much we are paying Polish workers for Child Allowance for their children back in Poland who have never been to this country and probably never will?
Demand for help for the world's old and poor
Ahead of the G8 summit on June 6th-8th, Help The Aged is demanding that people living in the poorest countries should be given state pensions as a basic human right.
