Campaigning success

With your support our campaigns have brought about significant improvements for people in later life in Wales.  

In the last few years we’ve campaigned on many issues including:

Age-friendly communities

Our Towards Common Ground campaign for communities that are suitable for people of all ages used evidence from the Community Calculator, an easy to use questionnaire tool in which older people told us about the facilities in their communities. We produced a report of the evidence, and the Cross Party Group on Older People and Ageing at the National Assembly for Wales accepted the recommendations in their legacy report at the end of March 2011. We will be pursuing the campaign throughout the next Assembly, and will continue our work to ensure that communities where older people flourish become a reality across the whole of Wales.    

Home care fees

As members of the Coalition on Charging Cymru we have fought a long campaign for fairer the abolition of charges for social care services delivered at home.  As a result of this long-standing campaigning the National Assembly for Wales passed a new law which set a maximum charge of £50 per week for home care services in Wales from April 2011.  This has led to much more consistency in charging levels across Wales and a reduction in many people’s charges.

Footcare

We campaigned to tackle the inequity of access to footcare services in Wales, and to raise awareness of the serious consequences poor footcare can have on people’s independence and wellbeing. As a result of our campaign the Welsh Government funded several pilot schemes which provide low-cost nail cutting services.  A Welsh Government report is due to go to public consultation to progress the issue further, with the goal of providing low cost accessible foot care services across the whole of Wales.  

Fighting age discrimination

We campaigned to tackle discrimination against older people with Age UK.  A major success was achieved in 2010 when the UK Government abolished the Default Retirement Age which allowed employers to force a person to retire when they reached 65.  The Just Equal Treatment campaign was also successful in getting the Government to commit to outlawing discrimination against older people in the provision of goods and services in the Equality Act 2010, though more work is still required to make this commitment a reality.

Cheques

Age Cymru have been working closely with older people, partners, national older people’s organisations and Age UK to ratchet up pressure on the banks to continue to offer cheques. On the 12 July the Payments Council announced that cheques will stay for as long as customers need them. This is great news for the three quarters of people over 65 who use them.

This year we are continuing to campaign to help people enjoy a better later life in Wales

 We also work hard to support individuals and groups to campaign on the issues important to them. In the last year we have supported older campaigners across Wales to influence many local issues, including:

·         Care home closures

·         Providing adequate bus routes

·         Public toilet closures

·         Pathways in poor condition

 If you would like to be part of our campaigns or would like any campaign advice, just get in contact with us:

 By phone on 029 2043 1555  

By post at Age Cymru, Tŷ John Pathy, 13 / 14 Neptune Court, Vanguard Way, Cardiff CF24 5PJ.   

By e-mail at campaigns@agecymru.org.uk