Dear Colleague
We hope this finds you well.
You will find herewith updates on the following, which we hope will be of interest to you;
1. Campaigns –
i) LLA Manifesto – ‘Standing up for Pensioners’ – 2024 Election Toolkit
ii) Pensions Update – State Pensions ‘Triple Lock’ 8.5% Increase, Update
on Civil Service Pensions and Winter Fuel Payments
iii) Future Service Providers for Civil Service Pensions Administration
iv) Proposed Station Ticket Office Closures – Government Reconsiders
v) “How to avoid the 12 Scams of Christmas” – free Abilitynet webinar on
12th December 2023 at 1pm
vi) NPC Campaign! Newsletters – Issues 177 and 178 (attached)
vii) Access to NHS Services – Campaign Information and How to Submit
Feedback and Complaints
2. Advice for Groups –
i) New Membership Numbers
ii) Reminder to Advise HQ of your Group’s Postholders
iii) Joint Memberships – Members’ Area Logins
iv) Future AGM Format – Survey Feedback
v) Member Communications Preferences
vi) Members can now update their Contact Details online
vii) What to do if advised of a Group Member’s Death
viii) New arrangements for Group Membership Updates
ix) Why have my Group Stats changed?
x) GDPR Reminders
1. Campaign Updates
i) LLA Manifesto – ‘Standing by Pensioners’ – 2024 Election Toolkit
We are pleased to say that our LLA joint event at the House of Commons on Tuesday 21st November – hosted by Sir Stephen Timms MP – was a great success, with MPs, Lords and others attending and speakers from across the political spectrum. The 60s icon Sandie Shaw enthusiastically accepted our invitation and brought celebrity appeal to the event, attracting a two-page spread for our manifesto in the Sunday Express on the 19th November. The CSPA’s General Secretary, Sally Tsoukaris, and NARPO’s CEO, Alan Lees, both spoke at the event, urging MPs to adopt the principles outlined in our manifesto (copy attached) within their party-political pledges for the coming national elections.
Our parliamentary advisors Connect have put together an LLA Election Toolkit for you to use to prevail upon your MPs, Mayors, Councillors and others to urge them to respond to our demands for those in later life.
Please use the attached Toolkit resources to assist you in promoting this campaign.
ii) Pensions Updates –
State Pensions ‘Triple Lock’ 8.5% Increase
We were pleased to see the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, say in his Autumn Statement on the 22nd November that the Government’s commitment to the State Pensions ‘Triple Lock’ was to be honoured in full following petitions and sustained campaigning on the part of the CSPA and other organisations lobbying on behalf of pensioners.
This means that from April 2024 the new state pension will be increased by 8.5% to £221.20 per week, which is equivalent to up to £900 or more a year for pensioners (note – it is currently £203.85 per week). The new State Pension was introduced from 6 April 2016 for those reaching State Pension Age (SPA) after that date (note – rates in payment will differ dependent on National Insurance contributions).
For those who reached their SPA before April 2016, the ‘old’ or ‘basic’ State Pension applies. The basic SP is currently £156.20 per week, which is obviously much less than the ‘new’ SP, but many pre-2016 pensioners also receive the 2nd State Pension (formerly known as SERPS) based on their earnings and NI record. The legacy second State Pension is not subject to the Triple Lock, so increases in line with CPI inflation, and the CSPA continues to campaign for a closer alignment of the two State Pension rates.
Personal Tax Thresholds Frozen
The basic rate at which income tax becomes payable has been frozen since April 2021, and the Autumn Statement said that it will remain frozen until 2028! This effectively drags more and more pensioners into the 20% tax bracket, especially after the 2023/24 increases of 10.1% to the State Pension and Civil Service pension were implemented. This alone has resulted in 770,000 more over 65s paying tax on part of their State Pension this year, according to HMRC. In 2010, HMRC figures suggest that 4.5 million over 65s were subject to income tax, whilst figures for 2023 indicate that 8.5 million over 65s now pay income tax.
The CSPA has been lobbying with partners in other pensioner organisations for the freeze to be lifted and for tax thresholds to be uprated annually in line with the CPI increases. CSPA has submitted a motion to the National Pensioners’ Convention (NPC) Conference in this regard.
Civil Service Pension Increases
All public sector pensions, including the Civil Service pension, are index-linked to inflation, with increases since 2011 being based on the preceding September Consumer Price Index (CPI). The anticipated increase from the 8th April 2024 will therefore be 6.7%, based on the ONS announcement on 18th October 2023 of the September figure for the CPI. The full increase only applies to pensions that have been in payment for a full year on the 8th April 2024, so those who have more recently retired will see their increases applied pro rata.
Pensioner Cost of Living Payments
If you’re entitled to a Winter Fuel Payment for winter 2023 to 2024, you will get an extra £150 or £300 paid with your normal payment from November 2023. The full amount of Winter Fuel Payment (including the Pensioner Cost of Living Payment) you will get for winter 2023 to 2024 depends on when you were born, and your circumstances during the qualifying dates.
You can get a Winter Fuel Payment for winter 2023 to 2024 if you were born before 25 September 1957. You will have been sent a letter in October or November, telling you how much Winter Fuel Payment you’ll get if you’re eligible.
The link with all the information is: Cost of Living Payments 2023 to 2024 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
iii) Future Service Providers for Civil Service Pensions Administration from
December 2025
The Cabinet Office Pensions team has confirmed to CSPA that Capita Business Services Ltd (Capita) have been awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme from December 2025, following a long procurement selection process. The current service provider, MyCSP, will continue to administer the scheme during the two-year transitional period to December 2025.
The new contact will run from December 2025 for seven years to 2032, with the option to extend it by a further period of up to three years. At a meeting with CSPA officers on the 28th November, the Cabinet Office pensions team confirmed their commitment “to develop their transition and transformation plans for delivering an effective service” for the 1.5 million members of the Civil Service Pension Scheme, and to continue active engagement with CSPA and other stakeholders during the two-year transition to their service transformation.
Capita will be responsible for delivering employer and member services; pensions payroll; as well as administrative support for the Civil Service Injury Benefit Scheme; Compensation Scheme; and related finance and accounting services.
iv) Proposed Station Ticket Office Closures – Government Reconsiders
Many CSPA members actively opposed the wholesale closure of station ticket offices by supporting the RMT’s online petition, and we included CSPA’s objections in our Later Life Ambition submission to the House of Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee inquiry into the rights of older people.
On the 1st November, we welcomed Transport Secretary, Mark Harper’s announcement that the government had asked train operators to withdraw their proposals to close all ticket offices. Over 750,000 responses from individuals and organisations were sent in response to the public consultation on the planned closures, including a 4,000-word response from the NPC, which CSPA contributed to.
However, whilst MPs on the Transport Committee said that the Rail Delivery Group’s plans went ‘too far, too fast’ according a BBC report, we cannot rest assured that they will not be back in some form or other, so our LLA Women and Equalities Select Committee’s submission cautioned that “older rail users still face significant accessibility hurdles, with ticket machine capability and how passenger assistance and information will be delivered in the future” being “significant concerns”. Our LLA manifesto picks up on this theme, stating, “We believe a digital-first approach to ticketing is wrong” and goes on to say that “we oppose any closure of ticket offices”, as this would “have severe consequences for those who cannot get online to buy a train ticket or plan a journey, discriminating against them by removing their access to travel, or their ability to benefit from better priced ticket deals.”
v) “How to avoid the 12 Scams of Christmas” – free webinar on Tuesday 12 December at 1pm
CSPA’s Scotland Branch kindly passed on an invitation (received via the Scottish Older People’s Assembly (SOPA)) to an upcoming, free webinar provided by the campaign group Abilitynet. On the webinar, you can learn how to protect yourself and others from the most common online scams, and especially those that tend to proliferate around the festive season.
Sadly, anyone can be caught out by digital scams these days, and they are an ever-growing problem as criminals find cleverer ways to use social media, email and messaging services to target their victims. A special guest from the Manchester Police Cyber Crimes unit will be joining hosts Lucy Walsh and Alex Barker from Abilitynet for the session.
You can register your interest in joining the session today using the links below;
https://abilitynet-org-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/2917012628333/WN_H5f7tJvoQwqqfg-unzxTHQ
For more information go to www.AbilityNet.org.uk/ScamsWebinar
vi) NPC Campaign! Newsletters – Issues 177 and 178 (attached)
CSPA continues to play an active role in the National Pensioners’ Convention (NPC) and you will find updates on their latest campaigns in the attached copies of their NPC Campaign! newsletters.
vii) Access to NHS Services – Campaign Information and How to Submit
Feedback and Complaints
CSPA’s Health Policy Advisor, Jean Hardiman-Smith considers options for the EC’s Health Monitoring Group (HMG). Jean updated the EC at their meeting in July on the present position on access to NHS dental services, which is an urgent concern, with reports of people resorting to performing their own dentistry in some cases. An article on the dearth of NHS dentists by George Monbiot is attached (and available on the link below), and we have also included details of how to complain to the NHS. Poor oral health leads to other health problems, adding to the strain on the NHS more generally, so this situation needs to be taken seriously and urgently addressed by governments.
George Monbiot’s article –
https://www.monbiot.com/2023/03/08/lying-through-their-teeth/
NHS complaints information is here – https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/complaint/
Details of the GP led Fit for the Future Campaign can be found here –
https://rcgp.eaction.org.uk/TellYourMP
2. Advice for Groups –
i) New Membership Numbers
On our old database, joint and single members were each assigned a membership number, most starting with either 100… or 101… The member numbers originally issued are all still valid and can be quoted at any time when contacting the CSPA or its member benefits providers. Our new member database (CRM) assigned all memberships a new number when their information was imported, and these numbers begin with the prefix CSPA… Members can equally use this number when getting in touch with us or the benefit providers, as it will be recognised in accessing the necessary membership records.
ii) Reminder to Advise HQ of your Group’s Postholders
Groups need to update CSPA Head Office about their Group Committee Postholders after their AGMs have been held, to ensure that our central records remain accurate. We also need confirmation of the name of the person designated to receive posted copies of circulars, and the numbers of copies they will need. We can add any current group committee members to our electronic circulation lists for group circulars, or alternatively remove the names of people who no longer wish to receive these communications, upon request.
iii) Joint Memberships – Members’ Area Logins
Our new CSPA website, launched in December 2022, brought members the facility to join us online and enabled them to update their own contact details and communication preferences. The Members’ Area is accessed using an email address matching the one we hold on file for the Membership, and a secure password that has been set by the member. In the case of a Joint Membership, this defaults to the email address we hold for the ‘Primary’ or ‘Paying Member’.
We are not able, unfortunately, to establish two member profiles on the website for the same joint membership, so the paying member’s login details will need to be used to access the Members’ Area of the CSPA website. This in no way diminishes joint member’s entitlements to their member benefits.
iv) Future AGM Format – Survey Feedback
Delegates attending the CSPA’s 2023 Annual General Meeting in October were asked to return responses to a survey about potential alternative formats for AGMs from 2025 onwards. Next year’s AGM will once again be held at the Chesford Grange Hotel in Kenilworth. Please find attached, for your information, the compiled results of the completed surveys returned.
The EC are establishing a Working Group, comprising of representatives from the EC, Regions and Groups, as well as members from areas where there are no active groups, to consider this feedback and the various options available to us for future AGMs. The Working Group is to report back to the EC before their April 2024 meeting, to enable the necessary decisions to be made in time to put arrangements in place for 2025. Groups will be updated on this in due course.
v) Member Communications Preferences
Our new systems have allowed us to maintain records of members’ preferences when it comes to receiving our Email/Post/Telephone/Text communications and copies of the Magazine. We are routinely collecting this information for new members via online joining forms, and our longstanding member can check and update their communication preferences by accessing their Profiles in the Members’ Area of the website.
Please do get in touch to let us know if you wish to receive posted copies of group newsletters, e-newsletters or The Pensioner magazines but currently aren’t, and we can check and update your preferences for you if you don’t have access to the website or wish to do so yourself.
We cannot yet issue Group Letters by email from HQ, but these are being uploaded to the Members’ Area of the website, and Group Membership Secretaries are being provided with membership lists including email addresses and communication preference indicators, so some groups are circulating electronic copies of their newsletters by email locally.
For Joint Memberships, each member can select their preferences, but we do try to avoid unnecessary duplication when it comes to postal communications (including Group Newsletters) and magazines for obvious reasons. Joint memberships are assigned a ‘Delivery Contact’ (usually the paying member), who will be the person designated to receive communications from the CSPA for their membership. The nominated ‘Delivery Contact’ for a joint membership can be changed on request, so anyone wishing to do this should be advised to contact CSPA Head Office by telephone (020 8688 8418) or email (enquiries@cspa.co.uk).
vi) Members can now update their Contact Details online
After our database/website integration project was implemented in early November, we can offer additional facilities for members to update their details themselves online. Once logged into the Members’ Area of the CSPA website, members can now update their Name, Email Address, Telephone Number, Street/Postal Address and Password themselves, as well as indicate their Communication Preferences.
They can also easily generate and email to enquiries@cspa.co.uk by using the “Contact Us” icon. Once saved, updated details will automatically transfer to the member records held on our database.
vii) What to do if advised of a Group Member’s Death
If you are contacted by a bereaved member, or a member’s relative, to advise you of the death of a CSPA member, please offer them sympathy and support, and ask them to telephone us at HQ if they can as well, or to email us at enquiries@cspa.co.uk if this is easier. In the case of joint members, the subsequent advice we will need to give them depends on the way they have been paying their subscriptions, and whether the deceased person is the paying member or not. Widows/widowers of paying members will need to set up new arrangements for subscriptions if they wish to retain their CSPA membership, and this is of course advisable in case they need our ongoing advice and support in relation to their survivor’s pension or wish to stay in touch and receive other member benefits.
We have attached a copy of the latest version of Chris Haswell’s helpful advice sheet, “What to do when someone dies”, which is being sent to members and others notifying us of a death but may also be helpful for groups to have sight of.
For ease, we also attach copies of the two other CSPA advice sheets now available to members – “What happens to your pension upon divorce” and “How to choose a care home”.
viii) New arrangements for Group Membership Updates
The team have been reviewing the provision of membership information to groups, and we will be changing the way we provide member data from January 2024.
We will be adjusting the frequency of distribution, and now propose to provide all active groups with their membership information 3 times a year, specifically in January, May and September. This more structured approach is aimed at streamlining our communication processes and optimising access to member information for groups.
With each distribution, you will receive the following information based on the attached Data Schema, which will hopefully give a clearer understanding of the information that can be extracted from the CRM system;
Name and Surname
Old Membership ID (number)
New Membership ID (number)
Member Status
Full Address
Communication Preferences
Email Address
Mobile Telephone Number
Telephone Number
O & R Reports for groups can be requested at any time by contacting;
Benedetta Makanju (benedetta.makanju@cspa.co.uk), or
Robyn Hampson (robyn.hampson@cspa.co.uk)
Benedetta and Robyn are also happy to respond to any queries or concerns regarding the above changes, so please get in touch if need be.
ix) Why have my Group Stats changed?
The data on our membership system before transferring to the CRM database had not been ‘cleansed’ (checked against Royal Mail and other national databases) for many years and many records were out of date as members sometimes forget to let us know when they change their address or notify us of a death.
In 2023, we have commissioned two such data cleanses, as well as checking our member records against a list of voluntary deduction payers that MyCSP shared earlier in the year.
We do get notified by MyCSP and the bank when pension and Direct Debit payment arrangements lapse or are cancelled, but in the case of members who don’t pay regular subscriptions (Life Members) this doesn’t happen.
As a result, over 1,000 memberships have had to be cancelled due to members being long deceased, and many more members have had their Region and Group allocations changed due to their addresses being updated.
There have also been some members whose records were not transferred to the new CRM system due to their ‘Left Address’ status on the old one. In these instances, we are reinstating their memberships as soon as new address information becomes available.
On a more positive note, in a review of members assigned to ‘No Group’ conducted in consultation with Regional Representatives, some groups of these members have been added to active groups by postcode, where this made geographical sense.
All of the above exercises are likely to have caused changes to your group’s membership data, but we are always happy to work with you to improve our member information if you notice any discrepancies that cannot be explained.
x) GDPR Reminders
Please maintain and dispose of the member data you receive securely, in line with GDPR requirements, and do not share individual members’ details with others.
If you send an email to many members at the same time, please remember to use the blind copy or “bcc” function to ensure they cannot access each other’s email addresses or forward them on.
If you need any further advice in this regard, please don’t hesitate to contact the Deputy General Secretary, David Luxton (david.luxton@cspa.co.uk).
Bernard Seymour (Affinity Resolutions) is our Data Protection Officer, and he is also more than happy to be contacted by groups if they need advice about how to deal member data, a potential data breach or want more details about how member’s personal information should be used, stored and disposed of. To contact Bernard Seymour for advice please email him, explaining that you are a CSPA member, at bernard@affinityresolutions.co.uk.
BC Technologies can also assist with IT related data storage and security issues. To contact them telephone 0330 800 1010 or email cspa@bc-group.co.uk quoting “CSPA”.
There is further advice on this topic in CSPA’s ‘Advice for Groups in England and Wales’ (Revised February 2021). Copies are available upon request.
xi) Group Newsletters
The issue of Group Newsletters is running much more smoothly now that mailing list issues have been largely resolved, but please be reminded that Marion still needs at least 7-10 days’ notice between receipt of copy and sending them out because of the busy office workload, especially at certain times in the year. Also, please remember to send your Newsletter to us in Word format, with all pages being continuous and not separated. Please also leave space at the top to impress the Name and Address of recipients.
As a guide, please note that the left-hand margin will need to ‘come in’ by roughly an inch for the barcode to be put in when it goes to the Printers.
If anyone in the Group has not received their Newsletter, please ask them to contact Marion or another member of the Head Office team so their records can be checked to see if we have everything in place correctly. Marion McAuliffe can be contacted on Tel: 0208 688 8418 or you can email marion.mcauliffe@cspa.co.uk with any queries with reference to Newsletters.
