The Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed it will aim to revisit its decision on WASPI compensation within 12 weeks. On December 2, the WASPI campaign group secured an agreement to pause their judicial review, following the Secretary of State’s commitment to reconsider the government’s stance on compensation. A special hearing had been scheduled for today to decide whether the judicial review listed for December 9–10 should go ahead. However, ministers have now pledged to reach a new…

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget introduced a raft of tax changes and financial measures that will significantly affect the finances of older people – and unfortunately not for the better. While we welcome confirmation that the triple-locked state pension will rise by 4.8% from April 2026, some more relief on energy bills, and measures that will lift children in particular out of poverty, there is still a lot in the Budget that will poorly impact older people for years to come. Chief among…

Chancellor Rachel Reeves Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced a Budget that was a mixed bag for older people. But the freeze on the tax allowance thresholds – the point at which we start to pay tax – is likely to have an increasingly hard impact upon the incomes of retired people over the next three years. Here is a summary of the main points: Personal Taxation National Insurance (NI) and  income tax thresholds frozen  for extra three years beyond 2028, dragging more people…

Energy bills will rise for millions of households from January after Ofgem the industry regulator announced a surprise rise in gas and electricity costs. The quarterly price cap covering January to March will rise by 0.2% – increasing the average annual dual fuel energy bill to £1,758,  from £1,755 in the current quarter. But this makes bills for this winter remaining about 50% higher than they were before the invasion of Ukraine triggered a rise in energy market prices, which in turn,…

Corridor care is a defining feature of the crisis in the NHS according to a new report All-Party Parliamentary Group on Emergency Care and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. Increasing numbers of patients are treated in corridors, waiting rooms and other inappropriate spaces, not because of clinical need but because there is nowhere else for them to go. What was once an occasional response to winter surges is now a daily reality. In a survey of Emergency Department Clinical Leads in…