Bothal Ward in Ashington is very similar to many areas across the North-East of England suffering from a post industrial or mining activity past.
People strive to keep their homes in order and the public face they
purport is one of neatness and love for the places where many were born, worked
and lived most of their lives. Its often been said that like homing pigeons
those from the North-East who have left for work often come back to their nest
and family when they retire.
The picture painted with the words above don't illustrate the reality of
life behind the heavy curtains keeping the winter chills from invading bedroom
and living spaces as the problems older people face through Government policy
is about to get worse due to mismanagement and austerity measures doled out by
the bucketful onto those who aren't able to stop nature and have got older.
The Government, hellbent over the last 11yrs on punishing those who rely
on the State to live have now decided that it's easy to form a two tier society
led by ignoring the plight of the elderley as they don't vote in high enough
numbers to affect the spin put out by Tories and therefore don't really matter.
During 2021 the Tories stopped the Triple Lock on state pensions
designed to keep problems of inflation from the doorsteps of Europe's lowest
paid pensioners and 'offered' in the words of the Chancellor an increase in
line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the relevant reference period (the
year to September 2021 to be paid for the financial year 2022-2023) and offer
that always sits behind both time and reality.
This means the basic State Pension will increase to £141.85 per week and
the full rate of new State Pension will increase to £185.15.
Councillor Lynne Grimshaw the Labour Party Town and County Councillor
for Bothal Ward in Ashington is deeply concerned for the residents in the Ward
and told us " What a mess this Government has forced onto pensioners, with
inflation running up towards 11% they open their sweaty palms and give out
three and a half percent. They have caused a deep living standards division
between older and younger pensioners but only publish the top line figure for
new pensioners and rarely engage with the press about the basic pensioners who
currently outnumber full higher rate pensioners by 81%."
" Its dreadful that if you were a man born before 6April 1951 or a
woman born before 6 April 1953 you suffer a differential of £43:30 per week in
comparison with your contemporaries yet you live in the same society with the
same costs and the same rate of inflation but this Government ignores your
plight gives you an increase well under the level of inflation they have caused
through their mismanagement of the economy and have no plan to close the gap
other than to starve you out and on top of that keep new pensioners nailed in
well below what the same Government class as the 'living wage'"
"I'm extremely concerned that in order to put on their accepted
lovely public face, elderly residents in Bothal will suffer and put pride
before food and heating, unfortunately it's built into their DNA. I will be
urging relatives to keep an eye on the elderly and seek help from wider society
and not be too proud to accept help from charities such as Age Concern and
foodbanks and check if yourvrelative is entitled to benefits such as pension
credits".
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