THE number of elderly facing poverty is “a growing scandal of immense proportions,” the annual conference of Britain’s biggest pensioners’ organisation has been told.

The National Pensioners’ Convention (NPC) staged its first convention since before the pandemic in Birmingham this week.

More than 150 delegates backed calls for Westminster and the Scottish Parliament to appoint older people’s commissioners to represent pensioners’ interests in England and Scotland. Wales and Northern Ireland already have pensioners’ commissioners.

Keynote speaker Lord George Foulkes, joint chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for ageing and older people, said pensioner poverty is “a growing scandal of immense proportions” and that even the return of “triple lock” guaranteed pensions increases would not solve the problem.

“It is beyond time that we followed Wales’s example in England and Scotland, and I call today on the UK government and the Scottish government to act on this at the first opportunity,” he said. 

“Some in politics are challenging even that. They say pensioners are doing better than poor families. 

“It is wicked in the extreme to set one poor group against another when the wealth of the very rich doubled during the pandemic and the curb on bankers’ bonuses is being lifted.”

NPC general secretary said Jan Shortt said: “This first face-to-face convention in three years galvanised our members to continue campaigning on behalf of pensioners, and particularly to see the appointment of commissioners in England and Scotland.”

Topics covered everything from the cost of food and fuel, inadequate pensions and poor housing, to disappearing services such as the difficulty in getting GP appointments and social care.

Birmingham City councillor Mariam Khan told delegates how the council has declared a “cost-of-living emergency” and the steps they were taking to help those struggling to make ends meet.