Dear Member,
Welcome to the Autumn, 2024, edition of the CSPA Norfolk and Suffolk Group Newsletter. With the altered clocks it is even more apparent that the year is well advanced, but I hope that you have been able to enjoy at least some of it.
Our next Group meeting will be on Wednesday, 27 November, 2024, at 2 pm, at Chapel Field Road Methodist Church, Norwich, NR2 1SD.
As well as the usual business, John Thompson will give a report back from the CSPA AGM, and Margaret Noble will give a talk on Cragside, a very unusual property, with an interesting history and an up-to-date present. Full details of the meeting and agenda are shown on page 4 of this Newsletter.
I am pleased to be able to tell you that Margaret Noble has kindly agreed to become our Group Membership Secretary. We thank her for accepting this responsibility.
Richard
CSPA AGM 2024
Having missed the 2023 AGM due to a personal clash of dates, I was back this year at the Chesford Grange hotel, near Kenilworth between 8 and 10 October as the Group’s delegate.
I thoroughly enjoy the banter with everyone in the bar and, as usual, the food provided by the hotel was excellent. On the Tuesday evening there was a ‘help yourself to as much as you want’ buffet and at the formal sit-down meal on the Wednesday evening, the wine was flowing well.
In between those events there is the serious business of listening to and voting on motions. I voted as asked, against motion A17 concerning benefits for siblings living together but otherwise I listened to the arguments and made my judgements.
There were three interesting guest speakers, Jan Shortt, general secretary of the National Pensioners’ Convention and representatives from the Civil Service Insurance Society and Connections, the organisation that helps the CSPA with political campaigning. Jan had much to say about the withdrawing of the Winter Fuel Allowance (as others did) for the majority of pensioners and commented on the protests outside parliament and the considerable media interest.
Again, another enjoyable two and a bit days. I’m happy to continue as the Group’s AGM rep but I’m not jealously guarding it. If I’ve persuaded anyone they could enjoy it, I would be happy to concede.
John Thompson
Carers Allowance
The motion seeking improvements to the Carers Allowance at the CSPA AGM was carried, so the EC will do all possible to achieve improvements.
CSPA General Secretary, Sally Tsoukaris, has sent out a lengthy piece on this subject, a summary of which is shown below. Other organisations have been quoted, but specific names have been excluded.
After months of campaigning on the Carer’s Allowance overpayments scandal, we are pleased to welcome the announcement by Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall MP, that the Government has commissioned an independent review into how and why these overpayments accrued on such a large scale, operational changes to minimise future overpayment risk and how the DWP can best support those with overpayments. The number of unpaid carers affected by overpayments has grown from 80,000 in 2019, to nearly 135,000 in 2024 and the DWP are currently seeking to recover £251m in overpayments.
In July, Carers UK worked with unpaid carers to present a dossier showing the widespread evidence of the shocking impact of Carer’s Allowance overpayments. We published a report detailing the experiences of 138 carers who had had an overpayment, and we took a group of carers to meet the Minister for Social Security and Disability, Sir Stephen Timms MP, so he could hear about the enormous strain these overpayments have had on carers.
We are also pleased by the wide-ranging opposition day debate held by the Liberal Democrats in Parliament on Wednesday. MPs from all parties contributed, highlighting carers’ stories of overpayments and their experiences of financial difficulties, struggles with health and wellbeing, and difficulty accessing social care.
While we are hopeful that this review will help the thousands of carers who have been forced to pay back overpayments, there is still more work to be done to help lift thousands of carers out of poverty.
We are urging you to raise these issues with your local MPs.
CSPA has moved to a new address
At the beginning of November CSPA Head Office moved to:
CSPA
160 Falcon Road
Clapham
London, SW11 2LN.
Phone number and email address remain the same:
Phone: 020 8688 8418
Email: cspa.co.uk (preceeded by a person’s name @
Changes Of Personal Details, etc.
If you change your address or other details, please remember to let the Group Membership Secretary, Margaret Noble, know. Please also contact Margaret in the event of the death of a CSPA member to avoid the distress of unwanted mailings.
The next Meeting of the Norfolk and Suffolk Group will be held on
Wednesday, 27 November, 2024, starting at 2-00pm,
at Chapel Field Road Methodist Church, Norwich, NR2 1SD
Tea/coffee will be provided
In addition to the business of the meeting, Margaret Noble will give a talk about Cragside – Illuminated by hydro-electricity and powered by hydraulics, this pioneering home was filled with Victorian gadgets for efficient modern living. Man-made lakes, tumbling waterfalls and swathes of rhododendron combine to form the surrounding fantasy mountain landscape imagined and engineered by inventor and arms manufacturer William Armstrong and his wife Margaret.
AGENDA
1 Welcome and apologies
2. Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 September, 2024.
3. Matters arising
4. Secretary’s Report.
5. Treasurer’s Report.
6. Report of the CSPA AGM in October.
7. Additional locations for Group meetings.
8. Open Forum.
9. Any other business.
10. Date and venue of next Group Meeting; Wednesday, 26 February, 2025,
at Chapel Field Road Methodist Church, Norwich, NR2 1SD.
This will be the Group AGM.
Following meeting:
Wednesday, 21 May, 2025
Your Current Committee Members Are:-
Chairman: Richard West 01603 423144 richard.west08@gmail.com
Secretary: Tim Hartstone 07827 565758 t.hartstone@hotmail.co.uk
Treasurer: Fred Crooks 01359 342716 fred.crooks550@gmail.com
Membership: Margaret Noble 07999 413950 megnob43@gmail.com
Derek Land 01508 520532 derek.land@electramail.co.uk
Delegate John Thompson 01502 581481 johntommo6@btinternet.com
Neville Jarvis 0139275490 neville.jarvis1@btinternet.com
