Care minister’s no show shows “complete lack of respect” for pensioners

The care minister has shown a “complete lack of respect” for pensioners by backing out of attending the Pensioners’ Parliament, say the National Pensioners Convention.

Over 1,000 members of the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) from across the UK, were hoping to take part in a Question and Answer session at the Pensioners’ Parliament in Blackpool, with Mr Burstow on the issue of social care on Wednesday.

However his office told the NPC last Friday that he would be unable to attend due to parliamentary business.

A request was made for him to attend on another day or send a deputy from his department, but the organisers were told this was not possible.

Dot Gibson, NPC general secretary said: “This isn’t the way to treat people. It shows a complete lack of respect and courtesy towards the country’s biggest pensioner organisation and its members.

“Some have said that the government’s delay in publishing the social care white paper would have made it difficult for the minister to say very much, but delegates had a number of important issues such as the quality of services, the postcode lottery of home care charges and the lack of support for carers that they wanted Mr Burstow to address. We will now be taking these up with him at a future date.”