- Conference
- 2009 Retired Members' Conference
- Date
- 23 June 2009
- Decision
- Carried
This Conference condemns the poverty and debt that pensioners are now facing due to the recent economic collapse of the financial system.
On top of all the hardship brought about by the combined action and inaction of the Government, many pensioners must now face a financial penalty of fifty pence a month on their telephone landlines to support the improvement of the UK broadband network.
Many pensioners do not have a computer let alone afford one, or have no intention of having a computer. Yet they must be further financially penalised when struggling to survive on their present low incomes.
Statistically fewer older people have mobile phones than the general population so this charge will affect them to a greater extent.
A landline telephone is a right for the most vulnerable pensioners, giving them a means of communicating with the outside world for both social and emergency purposes.
Conference instructs the National Retired Members’ Committee to liaise with all its affiliate organisations to campaign against this tax on the most vulnerable in our society.