Gransnet manifesto

All the extra benefits pensioners get have variable take-up, whether it is bus passes, tv licences, even Winter fuel allowance, for a significant number of people the WFA is surplus to their needs and they give it back or donate it to charity.

This is one of my biggest complaints about these benefits. I cannot use a bus pass, even if I want to because I get travel sick on short route stop start buses. Others cannot use them because their community doesn't have a bus service. I do not get the benefit of free prescriptions because I am not on any medication.

The answer, as I have suggested before, is not to roll the value of these into the basic pension but to replace them with a massive hike in the Pension credit limits, so that those on really low incomes and those above it get the benefit of extra money, including a significant number that get nothing now while better off pensioners, which will include me, simply lose the benefits completely.

I can see where you are going with the Pension Credit Limits FlicketyB and I can see you could raise them further and faster than raising the pension for all. I have always been wary of all the Credits though, both because of means testing and the cost of administration.

The thing that seems to annoy most of the people who are just outside it (and there will always be some just above the level) is that it is an automatic gateway to other benefits - free dentistry for example. Would that continue do you think?

I confess I have not thought through the minutae, but if you have benefits there will always be a cut-off point, I know no way round it. However the cut off point will be much higher than it is now so many more would qualify for free dentistry than get it now.

It is something I have found people complaining about on other forums. They don't mind the Pension Credit but they do mind the "extras". I know the government is getting rid of the Pension Savings Credit (the one for people with very small pensions that just take you over the Pension Credit level) for people on the new single tier pension. There was a brief suggestion, attributed to the Lib Dems I think although I don't know if it came from them, that everyone should get a Citizens pension, getting rid of Pension Credit (because it would be high enough). I'm not sure how that would work though.

The idea of the single tier pension is to set the rate high enough for pension credit not to be necessary and the rate it is to be set will exceed the Pension Credit level, but not by very much. It will also be paid on an individual rate, not a single and married rate. This will disadvantage married women who haven't worked but benefit those married women who have worked throughout their marriage or whose non working years were years when they either had young children or were carers for old or disabled people.

Those of us already drawing a pension on the old basis will remain on it and will not be transferred to the new flat rate pension.

It is interesting FlicketyB. As you say the idea seemed to be to get rid of Pension Credit and yet it is obvious now that that will not happen although, as I said, Pension Savings Credit will go for people on the single tier. The transitional arrangements seem mightily complicated too.

As you say this will not affect those of us already receiving pensions.

Your criticisms of me get more and more ludicrous, Gracesgran.
I said I made sure they worked enough hours to pay NI so they would get pensions and sick pay. I did not say I made them work long hours. It wasn't to suit me; it was to get them benefits.
Of course I duscussed it with them and they were all in agreement.
Are you aware that it costs the employer as the employer pays NI on top of the NI that the employee pays?
Many employers make sure that people work less than the number of hours needed to pay NI. Why do you think there are so many zero hours contracts?
For your information, I had a list of people who wanted to work for me if anyone left.

Flickety, the pension credit system is too complicated for many people, and £5.5 million is not claimed, so any system which does away with pension credit is to be welcomed. My parents hated the idea of someone going through their savings accounts so much that they refused to claim again after the first year they filled it in. They only received a few pounds anyway, and they did not have much in savings.
I much prefer the system of having a high enough pension so that nobody needs to claim, and then having the extra clawed back through tax.
Of course, that would mean reemploying lots of tax people who have been made redundant, so that makes it even better.

Be thankful, Flickety, that you take no medication. I more than make up for you since last year. Sorry about that, but that's what the NHS is for. If I had to pay for medication I'd have to choose which were more important. I have already whittled my prescription down to just six different medications a day.

I confess I haven't read all these postings so please excuse any repeats that I do here. I'm sure most people what a good, safe, cost effective NHS. Today I heard the Health Minister saying that in their next Parliament (if elected) they will be working on ensuring access to 7 day a week GP services. That is going to cost big time. What I would like to see is a more targeted service based on early diagnosis and detection and greater emphasis on realistic health education which enables people to understand their bodies better and to recognise what does and does not need to be seen by a doctor. Additionally I feel that GP services stand in great need of 'talking therapies' based in the surgery as a number of studies over time have demonstrated that folk who attend the GP regularly in the absence of a clear diagnosis are looking for emotional and mental health support. I feel that just chucking a wad of cash at GPs and telling them to open 7 days a week wont improve general health in the population. I have sat through many GP surgeries whilst doing various courses as a nurse- most recently as a prescribing nurse so can uphold my assertions first hand.

That is going to cost big time.

The thing that annoys me TeeTime is that it may or it may not. It could be that the savings on A & E and hospital admissions not only pay for the additional opening times at the GP Surgery but there are other positives we don't know about.

I believe there have been some trials - have we been told the costs, the knock on effects, etc.? I certainly haven't seen any.

My GPs do a 7 day week. It has just taken me two weeks to get an appointment with my GP.
We never get told the costs of any trial, or any NHS scheme. All we are told is how much it is costing and how much needs to be cut. Our NHS trust has to get rid of 350 staff.

This is a very interesting website. It's not just about GPs but about the outside interests of doctors It's voluntary to put informationon it.

www.whopaysthisdoctor.org/doctors

Teetime, here's a response from doctors about the announcement on 7 day opening for GPs.It makes interesting reading.

nhap.org/camerons-plan-7-day-week-gp-access-empty-populist-pledge/

Cameron is going to say he will protect the NHS from cuts.
Do we believe any promises he makes on the NHS?

www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/01/david-cameron-nhs-budget-pledge-2015-election

I do think that the GP problem could be solved by training more people to take up general practice - they could start by talking to youngsters about why they are not attracted to the job.

Getting selected for medical school is extremely difficult and the training arduous and expensive.

Not sure of the source but I just read that the NHS is made up of 51% admin/other and 49% medical staff.Surley there is something very wrong there.

I agree gilly every NHS so called shake up has involved more and more non clinical admin staff and procedures. Its a vastly overbureacratic system and some of these salaries are eye watering.

* FlicketyB* I have just had another look at what they are saying will happen with the new single tier pension and Pension Credits. As you say the amount is slightly above the Pension Credit level which means no one who gets the new pension and has paid the full number of qualifying years will get Pension Credit. The "bit above" seems to be to account for the Pension Savings Credit which will disappear straight away in the new system.

Looking at the graphs in the government document it looks as if currently nearly 40% of pensioners are eligible for Pension Credit. This would have reduced even under the old system to just under 15% by 2050 but, with the introduction of the single tier it is expected to reduce to only 5% being eligible by 2050. I presume this will just be people who have escaped full contribution either credited or paid for.

Back to NHS matters (and it does!) I have a clinical NHS job. If I had to do all the various admin and clerical tasks that my job throws up I would only see a fraction of the patients that I can see now. The red herring of too many non clinical staff is just that. Should clinicians have to spend hours trying to organise room bookings, parking permits, form filling and the thousand and one time consuming tasks that someone has to do? Should it be me or would it make sense to employ someone with the time and skills to do this sort of thing efficiently and well thus enabling me to do what I can do well?

Jane - well said. And it's true both at primary and secondary level. A good practice manager and well trained admin staff in a GP surgery make a huge difference. As for hospitals, they are even more complex and need more non- clinical staff.

High on the list in my manifesto would be the proper prioritizing and funding of music in schools, so that every child is engaged in a musical activity every day. every child gets the opportunity to learn an instrument at a cost that their families can afford and every school has at least part time specialist music teaching input.

The civilizing influence of this and the positive influence on cooperative skills and on learning in the rest of the curriculum has been proven over and over again - it just needs a government who will take this on board and act.

Our tiny primary school (of which I am a governor) has done it: every child plays the ocarina or recorder for 10 minutes every morning, we use the Pupil Premium to fund instruments and lessons for those in need, and we employ a music specialist one day a week who also runs a choir which is very popular. I am fund-raising for outdoor musical instrument installations. It is about determination and school attitudes; and all it needs is a bit of injection of funds from central government and their encouragement and so much could be achieved to the benefit of us all..

mishap positive change always comes about due to motivated individuals or groups of them taking practical action. This is just what you have done. However, its hard to turn these individual projects (excellent though they are) into statutory action. What may seem a brilliant idea to you in your area may seem one of lower priority in another. e.g. in a deprived inner city area money might be thought to be better spent on paying for breakfast clubs so children are adequately nourished to get some useful learning out of their school day. That could seem a daft idea to impose on your area. So I suppose my thinking would be for Govt to enable the development of localised relevant activity. I entirely agree about the civilising influence of music btw but my feeling is that other things might need to be in place first before this could work.

Last month there was an article in the i about privatisation.
A company called Abellio was granted the ScotRail train franchise. Abellio is Dutch and owned by the state.

EDF has been given approval to run Hinkley Point Nuclear power station.
EDF is owned by the French state.

Two French companies are bidding for Britain's 40% stake in Eurostar, even though the French government owns 55%.

Deutsche Bahn, the German government, took over Arriva four years ago.

The only rail company owned by the state in this country is the East Coast mainline, which last year paid £220m to the government. However the coalition government want to sell it again before the next election to a French-government controlled company in a joint bid with Eurostar.

Why is it that this government thinks it's okay for foreign governments to own our infrastructure but not our government, even though it wants out of Europe?

This is a case for renationalisation of the railways and utilities.
This is high up my manifesto list, just behind the NHS.

As Jane said, there is often an assumption that administrative and management staff are doing pointless jobs or are under-employed. But in any large and complex organisation, such as a general hospital, there is a great need for admin support staff - secretaries, ward clerks, receptionists, appointments clerks, purchasing, accounts and HR staff - and managers with overall responsibility for the various departments.

Aside from specific policies, I would like to see MPs foregoing the right to take on other paid duties and directorships whilst they are in office. I wonder if it's also possible for there to be an end to - or at least more control of - professional lobbying of MPs and ministers. Of course, individuals should be able to alert their constituency MPs to general matters of concern or to seek help, but these professional lobbyists have the sort of influence on government policies that a mere voter could never dream of.

Have you noticed that government ministers have said that the worst thing they ever did was to the NHS?
Have tried to find out who said it, but cannot do so. Apparently Cameron had no idea what Lansley was doing to his beloved NHS.
He'll be asking for us to vote for him next so he can put it right.
He hasn't sacked Lansley or Hunt, though.