Good afternoon folks,
I have recently received an email from a supporter concerned that I was either unwell or that I had given up the campaign. I have been quite poorly recently, but unfortunately my health is generally hopeless so nothing unusual there.
Latest on the list of my ailments is inflamed tendons in my right elbow making it really painful to type – but no pain no gain as they say!
As for the campaign a long time supporter asked me how I find the strength to carry on and my reply turned into a bit of a rant, I don't think she would mind me sharing some of my reply to her email.
“I find the strength to carry on because I have the support of people like you that have faith in me although I'm nobody in the real scheme of things....
….I find the strength to carry on for the lady who is 75 and wants to spend her twilight years with her partner who is in his 80s and may soon be unable to drive the 100 miles from his home to hers....
I find the strength to carry on for the lady who in the early days of the petition told me that she has considered suicide because she doesn't think she can face the prospect of possibly living another 20 years alone.
I find the strength to carry on for my daughter Kelly who has so much faith that I will succeed - the kind of faith that only a daughter can have in her mom.
I find the strength to carry on in memory of my dad who told me that if a job was worth doing it was worth doing well. And my dad didn't raise a quitter.
And I find the strength to carry on so that wherever he may be - my husband Col can smile in the lovely way that he had and say, "see that one there - yep the bossy one? She's my wife and I'm so very proud of her....."
And I promise you that as long as there is breath in my body I will find the strength to carry on.”
All very dramatic now that I read it again – but I meant every word.
And though there are times when the campaign 'goes quiet' please know this; I don't take breaks from campaigning as we are currently no one's priority and therefore I have to work hard to keep us on the agenda.
I'm convinced that if all of the promises made to us had been kept - then we would have been been 100% successful long ago.
These are some of the things I have been up to of late:
I was advised following the audit of the campaign in January to contact MP Yvette Cooper in her role as Chair of the Home Office Committee and MP Maria Miller Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee to request their support.
I contacted Maria Miller via my MP and was told that the agenda of the Women and Equalities Committee is full for the foreseeable future.
I began an initially promising thread of emails with Ms Cooper's office's, but ultimately their advice was to deal with MPs with more experience in Northern Ireland.
On the contrary we needed to deal with Ms Cooper in her role as Chair of the Home Office Committee but at least her office replied to my emails.
I haven't given up hope that Ms Cooper and Ms Miller can be persuaded to lend their support at some stage.
On Tuesday 17th July I took a day's holiday from work and went on my annual pilgrimage to London. 'Flying solo' this time I met with Andy Tremayne - Senior Policy Maker at the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, and Ron Hogg who is a former police officer and Durham Police and Crime Commissioner.
The long promised consultation of PCCs is now not going to take place – apparently if just one PCC had decided to vote against lending support to our campaign, then the APCC as an organisation would be unable to do so.
There is no question that Ron and Andy along with other members of the APCC remain supportive of our objective, I am still awaiting a summary detailing how they feel that they can help us move the campaign forward.
Friday 27th July I travelled to Bromsgrove for a briefing meeting with Mike Marshall – as a constituent of Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Mike had secured a 15 minute meeting at Mr Javid's constituency office.
As the Home Secretary is the brother of a Chief Superintendent in the West Midlands force I had hoped that our cause would receive a empathetic hearing.
These are some of the notes that I discussed with Mike before his appointment with the Home Secretary:
“We are campaigning for parity with the RUC widows in Northern Ireland and lifelong pensions for all police widows.
The major consideration for the Government and the Treasury is of course the cost.
A response to a Freedom of Information request indicated that the cost of lifelong pensions for all widows overshadowed by the regulations of the 1987 Police Pension Scheme would be £50m - £10m for current widows and £40m for future police widows.
During an Adjournment Debate Madeleine Moon asked for clarification of the estimate of £50m. The Government and its Actuary's Department reassessed the cost and Brandon Lewis the then Policing Minister described the original estimate as, “....highly uncertain....an approximate figure at the end range of the possible costs for removing cessation on future remarriages.....” The estimate was then increased to around £144m.
1/ We would like to request a breakdown of the figures used and methodology employed to arrive at this wide range of estimations.
Change for the majority of the 22,000 police widows currently in receipt of a pension would be 'cost-neutral' for - if the regulations remain the same - an average of a mere 32 widows will remarry each year and the remainder will continue to receive their pensions as they have always done.
This rate of remarriage was described in 2012 by the Government's Actuary Department as having an, “... immaterial impact..." (upon the 2015 scheme members' standard contribution rates).
Research carried out by our campaign team leads us to believe that there are sound economic arguments to suggest that lifelong pensions for all police widows would actually result in savings rather than a cost to the taxpayer.
Loneliness has been described as a modern day epidemic; there is now a minister for loneliness and the work of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness continued in her memory.
It is not right to make police widows choose between the financial security of their pension and the loneliness that goes with it - or remarriage and potential poverty. This is the reality for many thousands of police widows living under the shadow of the 1987 regulations.
2/ Please take the time to read the case history we have provided; if you fail to be moved by Carole and Robert's story, then please consider these words from Benita.... a police widow of 24 years. “I have often thought of suicide as a way out of the solitude and I could have another 20 years yet.....”
In 2015 Theresa May said, “....we will reform the scheme to ensure that widows, widowers and civil partners of police officers who have died on duty do not have to choose between solitude and financial security....”
In the context of Benita's and Mrs May's comments, solitude is synonymous with loneliness and isolation.
Our argument for potential savings associated with lifelong pensions is supported by analysis carried out by Social Finance based upon know costs for treating patients within the NHS; a not for profit organisation working in partnership with government, the social sector and the financial community – Social Finance says that effective intervention to reduce isolation among a cohort of 1,000 older people could produce a gross cost saving to the NHS of over £1m a year.
For every widow allowed to remarry or cohabit without financial penalty there would be by default a husband or partner also protected from the illness and disease associated with loneliness and isolation thus increasing the potential savings to the NHS.
According to the Hutton report the withdrawal of police widows' pensions forcing some of them into poverty could result in reliance upon state benefits and that would in fact be a further burden upon the taxpayer; the short term savings made through the withdrawal of pensions being outweighed by long term costs.
The case for allowing police widows to marry or move on with a partner is therefore a strong one....
….It is my belief as a tax payer that no Government should seek to profit from the withdrawal of a small and immaterial number of police widows' pensions thereby condemning 22,000 widows to a life of loneliness and isolation as part of that process.
5/ Having heard a summary of our argument for parity with Northern Ireland Mr Javid, will you consider making further amendments to the 1987 Police Pension Regulations allowing all police widows to receive their pension for life, thus reducing the long term cost to the NHS and the state benefits system? “
Empathy however was in short supply - with Mr Javid's reply clearly intended to alienate us from the rest of our police family; he says that our argument is actually with the Treasury and if we were to receive lifelong pensions it could be as a result of police cuts.
I think his comments reveal a real lack of foresight and innovative imagination - I would hope that the Treasury have the ability to recognise when one set of 'costs' can be offset by savings in other areas where tax payers' money is spent and funds are in short supply.
A huge thank you to Mike for volunteering to meet with Mr Javid – it was a pleasure to meet you Mike.
On Tuesday 31st July I attended a meeting at Leicestershire Police Headquarters re the campaign, and I think my partner John deserves a mention here as without him to take me I would be unable to attend the majority of such meetings.
Finally I would like to thank Mick Hume for his hard work and support as our PFEW rep - Mick is no longer our contact at the fed as he has recently returned to his force. PFEW will continue to support our campaign in his absence.
I would like to wish Mick the best of luck for all of his future endeavours.
That concludes this update – onward and upward dear friends.
Best wishes as always,
Cathryn
CathrynHall@outlook.com