Winter Fuel Allowance is a non-means tested benefit. You only need to be a qualifying pensioner to be paid it. The allowance is paid whether you need it or not. There are a range of conditions that are made worse by cold weather. If you have a condition such as severe Raynauds's or Scleroderma the effects of cold weather can result in painful, swollen cold hands and feet. Being cold can quickly become life threatening due to possible complications such as poor circulation and breathing difficulties. Most people who suffer with autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and those with limited mobility need to take extra care in cold weather.The recent price hikes in energy costs is impacting on vulnerable groups. It is essential that warmth is maintained for people whose health is made worse by the cold. Extending this allowance won’t add much to the welfare budget and will mean less cost to the N.H.S. in the long term. We call on the government therefore to do the right thing, and the pay the winter fuel allowance to those who need it.

Recently, Jeremy Hunt lost his appeal against closing Lewisham Accident and Emergency. The law that protected it would be removed if Clause 118 passes. The Clause will allow the government to close or downgrade any hospital in the country, with barely any consultation of local people, if there is a Trust in financial difficulties anywhere nearby. They will be able to appoint an administrator to one Trust who will be able to take decisions to fast-track the closure of hospitals in another area - no matter how successful or popular those hospitals are - using the 'unsustainable provider' legislation that was designed only for insolvent Trusts. If it becomes law, this Clause means that *no* hospital will be safe, no matter how successful. Check out this link http://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/stop-hospital-closure-clause for more information. We will update you on further campaign actions you can get involved in. Please share on Twitter and Facebook.

Absolute poverty, as in having no money at all, is all-encompassing, meaning it is almost impossible to think about anything else and it impacts on every area of life. Relationships with family and friends fracture, self-esteem is demolished, emotions range from stark terror to utter despair. Poverty removes the freedom to act rationally and assess situations in the long term and so creates its own vicious trap. Such is the psychological anguish of long term poverty that some people will spend money on drugs or alcohol rather than food just to block out a few hours of their life. Poverty therefore leads to more poverty, ill health and increasing isolation. Poverty leads to family breakdown, which leads to homelessness, to addiction, depression, self-harm, poor health, mental illness and so on until the individual is shattered beyond repair. In a society where there is no common land, it is a form of torture to deliberately inflict this state of being on anyone. Even the most ardent supporter of cut throat capitalism must, if they have any humanity at all, accept that to consciously reduce people to begging, sleeping in the streets or attempting suicide is a cruel and degrading punishment. We do not treat the vilest of child killers like this in prisons, yet to be poor, and unable to find a job, is now to face the full force of state inflicted economic terrorism. Punishing Poverty is a report published last week by Citizens Advice and which is based on a national survey of those who have had benefits stopped or sanctioned for not meeting the endless ‘work related activity’ conditions imposed by Jobcentres. Hundreds of thousands of claimants have faced sanctions varying in length between four weeks and up to three years. These sanctions are often imposed for the most trivial of reasons and as this report exposes, quite often for circumstances that are entirely beyond the claimant’s control. It is not just unemployed claimants who face sanctions, but increasingly sick and disabled people and single parents with children over the age of five. The results of the survey portray a truly horrific account of the destitution and human misery that this regime has inflicted on people. Stories of families ripped apart, pregnant women left without food, those with dietary needs due to health conditions becoming sick, mental health deteriorating, suicide attempts and people forced to beg or go through bins to find food. These stories are not the inevitable consequence of economic crisis, the UK is still one of the richest countries in the world. They are not even the necessary end result of austerity, belt-tightening can take place without the poor being driven into the ground. Benefit sanctions barely save the tax payer a penny such is the cost of policing and administering the system. As the Citizens Advice report reveals you do not even have to be guilty to face a sanction. There are countless tales of benefits being stopped due to a mistake by the Jobcentre, or because a claimant faced unavoidable circumstances such as travel delays, hospital appointments and even job interviews which caused them to be late to an appointment with their advisor. It is the widespread, seemingly haphazard nature of the regime which forces all claimants into a state of perpetual fear. The threat of the dreaded brown envelope through the door from the DWP is a feature of life on all benefits, a daily reminder that you are only ever a heartbeat away from complete destitution. The report states that sanctions should only be used as a ‘last resort’, as if the horror show they’ve just revealed is acceptable in some cases. Few would argue against an administrative check. But beyond that, benefit sanctions must be brought to an immediate end with no exceptions. The welfare state is not a political weapon to stigmatise or scapegoat people, force down wages and pursue a work makes you free ideology. It should exist as the opposite, to empower, provide dignity and even act as a force against poverty pay – saying to grasping employers that there is an alternative for people if all you’ve got to offer is shit wages. The full report can be downloaded at: http://sdrv.ms/1c48ECq and a full reasoning can be read at: https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/benefit-sanctions-are-state-terrorism-and-must-be-stopped-without-exceptions/

PLEASE SUPPORT THE ENHANCEMENT OF OLD PORTSMOUTH'S HISTORIC ARCHES - SIGN THE PETITION ON THE RIGHT OF THIS PAGE PORTSMOUTH ARTches Arts & Crafts Quarter proposals are under attack from a group of residents who want to protect their own interests. The proposed plans will enhance the area for the common benefit of the people who live in portsmouth with the additional objective of increasing tourism. It will also provide more jobs and other opportunities. SEE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RodM9qLqA_k Any objection is a prime example of local residents trying to stop anything happening on there own doorstep and treating the surrounding area as their own back garden. Can you not see what a waste of space these arches actually are, at the moment they stink of urine where they are used as unofficial public toilets. Bring them back to life and then regenerate the whole seafront. By all means object to anything tacky going there but don't obstruct the Council every time they try and improve something or you will end up with nothing ! 91% of people (out of 380) citywide who attended the citywide public consultation WANT the ARTches and like the proposals. ENGLISH HERITAGE are really enthusiastic with their support for ARTches quarter proposals. To get the £1.9million (bid to national Coastal Communities Fund) needed they need planning permission. The ARTches arts & crafts project is also already supported by Partnership for South Hampshire 'PUSH' (who have put £40,000 towards it) and the 'Portsmouth Society'. The ARTches is supported by the Uni of Portsmouth Arts Faculty senior lecturer too and will help lots of local artists and innovators.

PLEASE SIGN IF YOU LIVE, WORK OR STUDY IN BATH AND NE SOMERSET All kinds of people need our help and advice, which is provided by a highly trained team of volunteers and staff. Planned cuts threaten our service to local residents like these people who have used our service:. Help! I've been diagnosed with a serious illness and can't work any more - what am I entitled to? Help! - I've got rent arrears and I've lost my job. What can I do? Help! - my employer sacked me when I said I was pregnant - can they do this? Help! - my landlord threatened to evict my family because I complained that the roof is leaking. Advice services such as CAB-BANES are all that stands between a lot of people and families becoming "vulnerable and in greatest need". Our clients depend on us at times of crisis to enable them to deal with increasingly complex situations which threaten their well being, homes and incomes. Prevention is better and cheaper than cure.

A levy on Wiltshire Supermarkets could reduce parking charges in our town centres which would be a lifeline to the many small traders.

There are many vulnerable people in Derby city who will find life very bleak without the support they receive from voluntary and community organisations. The consequences of slashing funding to vital services will actually cost more in real terms as hospitals, police and other agencies have to pick up the pieces of a broken community of people who could have been helped in the early stages of their problems. The current decision is wrong because: The Council haven’t checked if what they have decided will actually work. 99% of people said don’t cut funding but the Council did it anyway. The reasons the Council give for each decision don’t match the reasons they said they were using. The way that the Council have allocated funding doesn’t make sense – they have no explanation for reducing funding by 15% for one group and 100% for another. Although the cuts made by Derby City Council are specific to Derby the issue is much wider as cuts are made up and down the country to voluntary and community services. Please sign this petition to show Derby City Council that people matter and that behind every funding cut there is a human story - see the very short video below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSBtl8cSg5g .

London Road is currently very unwelcoming to cyclists and the plans miss a golden opportunity for improvement. One of the most dangerous parts of the road for cyclists is the two-lane section leading to Cleveland Place opposite Thomas Street, where the council plans to replace the shared cycle path and replace it with car parking. The consultation plan on which the scheme is based does not appear to have been made public and was limited to residents of the immediate area, whereas the changes will impact all those who pass through the area daily. The area should be regenerated by making it a pleasant place to explore on foot or by bike, not by squeezing in more cars.

Hundreds of children (and other pedestrians) are dicing with death every day at these junctions as they walk to school, surgeries and other local services. There are limited safe places to cross, damaged kerbs and railings and no pelican crossings at the junctions of Pages Lane (PL) and Alexandra Park Road (APR) with Colney Hatch Lane (CHL). Since the traffic signals were installed over 10 years ago, this junction has been seriously neglected and no improvements have been made to ensure pedestrian safety. There has already been one serious accident in the last 12 months - we want action before somebody gets killed.

Currently funding is weighted on a per pupil basis where children identified as socially deprived receive considerably more funding and additional funding benefits (free school dinners & free uniforms). Under proposed changes the minister will reduce the per pupil funding at 81% of schools across Northern Ireland and reallocate the funds to socially deprived children. This will affect the budget schools have to operate with and put more pressures on PTA's and fundraising activities to close the already existing funding gap at schools. There is a lack of evidence to support the assertion that increases to funding of socially deprived children will improve their educational performance.

In 2012 Michael Gove scrapped homework guidelines that laid out how much homework schools should be setting. Let’s ask that we go a step further and scrap homework in primary schools altogether. Schools continue to operate under the false assumption that homework is necessary for children to gain a satisfactory level of academic achievement, and to pander to the pressure from parents who also operate under this misconception. The fact is that there is not a single piece of evidence that can show any correlation between homework and academic achievement, nor that shows any improvement in study habits. Yet many recent studies and reports have raised serious concerns about the well-being of children, their lack of physical activity, excessive time spent in front of screens, increasingly limited time for free play, and lack of time spent outdoors. Homework is an intrusion on family time, on children’s free time, and can be a regular source of conflict in the home. It creates unnecessary anxiety and pressure for children. Young children already spend enough time engaged in formal school work. To expect them to bring more of this home risks overloading them and turning them off learning altogether. They learn and develop in so many other ways. Time for free play, outdoor play, pursuing their own interests, and quality family time is essential for their development and well-being.

Looking after our sick and educating our young is not about political ideology, it's about providing the best that we can, for those that rely on us to provide it. It doesn't matter which political party you vote for, or even if you vote at all! 2+2 will still equal 4, whatever your economic policies are! The diagnosis and treatment of illness remain the same, regardless of who is in power. This petition is about standing up for and protecting these fundamental basics of British Society from being shamelessly manipulated and abused by all parties to gain political power. Ultimately, Health and Education are not about what colour your politics are, because ALL parties claim to uphold and value our free NHS and Education System. I have 4 children, 3 still in education, and we have been faced with different choices for each of them. There has been no stability and over a period of 20 years, I have had to go to their schools year after year and listen as their committed, yet demoralised and exhausted teachers do all the work for and roll out the latest educational initiative or policy, only for it to be scrapped within a few short years. Not only is it a waste of public money, it is a waste of both teacher's and student's energy and enthusiasm. No wonder there has been a 10% rise in teachers needing time off for stress over the last 4 years! (1). No wonder students loose interest in learning and England has amongst the lowest literacy and numeracy scores in the industrialised world - and still falling! (2) The NHS isn't faring any better. My husband works for the NHS and time and again, I am left wondering what planet these politicians live on, as successive governments unveil yet another unworkable policy guaranteed to cost millions and doomed to fail! Morale in the NHS is at an all time low and General Practice is in severe crisis with not enough doctors to fill posts. There simply aren't enough GPs in the UK to safely roll out the latest 7 day a week scheme and ultimately doctors will need to be recruited from abroad to make it work. The NHS has been all but privatised and doctors who went into medicine as a caring profession are now being forced to become businessmen, managing massive budgets and having to tender for services - even your blood results! Hospitals are understaffed, nurses undervalued and overworked, and all too often budgets have to come before patients needs. It's a shameful state of affairs! Our NHS and Education System used to be models of excellence for the world. Let's join together and demand of ALL our politicians that we reclaim that respect and recognition and forge a new and positive political model for these fundamental areas of our nation! Let's demand that ALL PARTIES JOIN TOGETHER TO COOPERATE AND TAKE JOINT RESPONSIBILITY to achieve stability and excellence for our NHS and Schools! Thank you for taking the time and caring enough to read about this petition. I hope you will sign and register your support. (1) - http://theguardian.com/education/2012/dec/26/teachers-stress-unions-strike (2) - http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/education-24433320