If pensioners who get 12k per year are considered too well off to receive the winter fuel allowance, shouldn't MP's on 96k per year be considered too rich to receive housing, heating, travel, and meal subsidies?

News. The Chancellor's just announced Winter Fuel Payments will no longer be universal to all pensioners, now only pensioners on benefits will get it - in my view that's too narrow a group. Here's my formal statement to @RachelReevesMP ... -------------- The targeting of Winter Fuel Payments is too narrow with the winter we have coming. Pensioners were already due to get less as this will be the first time since winter 2022 they haven’t got the up to £300 extra winter fuel cost of living top-up. The Energy Price Cap is likely to rise 10% this October and stay high across the winter, leaving most energy bills nearly double those pre-crisis, at levels unaffordable for millions. Many pensioners eke out the £100 to £300 Winter Fuel Payments to allow them to keep some heating on through the cold months. While there's an argument for ending its universality due to tight national finances, it's being squeezed to too narrow a group – just those on benefits and Pension Credit. Yet again, those just above the thresholds will be hardest hit. This is often justified as there's a 'lack of household income data' to allow other targeting. However, there's a usable precedent from the emergency energy crisis measures announced in April 2022, which I'd urge the Government to look at. Then, a payment was made to homes in council tax bands A to D – as an imperfect but workable proxy for lower household incomes. That'd allow an additional group of lower to middle-income pensioners to keep the payments and mitigate bill shocks. Councils' discretionary funds could also be funded as in April 2022, for the limited numbers who still need help but don't qualify. Plus, with this announcement, the Government has a huge moral imperative to ensure the 800,000 people eligible for Pension Credit who don't get it, are informed, educated and helped through the process. It is planning an awareness-raising campaign, but it needs to ensure that reaches every corner – and if possible proactively and personally contact people. Pension Credit is a crucial gateway benefit, giving access to a host of other entitlements, and now with the link to the Winter Fuel Payment, it makes it even more important to ensure fewer miss out."

Have a cruise booked with @pandocruises and my dad has suddenly died-and I’m being asked to show power of attorney to change the booking. Which I made and paid for. Can you contact me @pandocruises as I think this is disgusting when I am so recently bereaved

Everything I am reading about Azura is making me less and less enthusiastic about my upcoming @pandocruises seems it won’t be anything like our trip on Iona. I can’t even book a restaurant for a golden wedding anniversary dinner in advance

“Fox hunting doesn’t happen anymore, the hunts lay trails” It is vital the British public sees this footage and helps identify the sickos in the video. Fox hunting is still alive and kicking, we’re doing all we can to end it.

Current NHS starting salaries: Junior doctor £32.4k Nurse £28.4k Paramedic £28.4k Midwife £28.4k Radiographer £28.4k Healthcare assistant £22.8k Physiotherapist £28.4k Dietician £28.4k Occupational therapist £28.4k Are you actually *trying* to destroy the NHS, @JamesCleverly?

Ministers last week rushed an amendment through the Commons, allowing it to look into the bank account of everybody claiming State Pension. Their only reason was that it might be useful one day. The only change which could make it useful would be to means test the State Pension

Just a few more days before our job adverts close for Practitioner Psychologists within @bsmhft Secure Care & Offender Health Psychology… bsmhft.nhs.uk/join-us/jobs/#…

A great opportunity to work in a forward-thinking service.

There are just 100 days left in 2023. Here are 23 ideas to make the most of them: 1. Default to 25-minute calls/meetings (instead of 30 minutes) and take a simple walking or breathing break during the 5 minutes. 2. Batch email and message processing into 1-3 condensed windows during the day. 3. Build a deep work practice by blocking 60-minute windows during which you have zero email, messaging, apps, or distractions. 4. Go into your calendar and add at least two 15-minute blocks for absolutely nothing. Rest more to grow more. 5. Use the Feynman Technique for learning anything new. Identify a topic, try to explain it to a 5-year-old, study to fill in knowledge gaps. 6. Use an Eisenhower Matrix to prioritize your tasks. The goal is to spend more time on important tasks that further your long-term values, missions, goals, and principles. 7. If you want to improve at something, try my 30-for-30 Approach: Do the thing for 30 minutes per day for 30 straight days. Dramatic results follow. 8. To feel energized in the morning, try my 5-5-5-30 Method. When you wake up, do 5 push-ups, 5 squats, 5 lunges, and a 30-second plank. 9. Go for a 15 minute tech-free walk every morning. 10. Take yourself out for a meal alone once each month. 11. Get cold. 11 minutes of weekly cold water immersion (showers or full immersion) has been shown to create immediate physical and mental benefits. 12. If you're struggling to fall asleep, try the 4-7-8 Method. Breathe in through your nose for a 4-second count, hold your breath for a 7-second count, and exhale for an 8-second count. 13. Use the Physiological Sigh Technique to reduce stress. Double-inhale through your nose, long exhale through the mouth. 14. To eat healthier, do all of your shopping on the outer perimeter of the grocery store. This is where the fresh stuff typically sits. Avoid the aisles (processed foods). 15. Develop a Power Down Ritual to separate work from personal life. It's a fixed set of actions that mentally mark the end of your professional day. 16. Tell your partner one thing you appreciate about them every single night. 17. Create an auto direct deposit for a small amount of money into an investment account every month. 18. Automate all simple financial tasks such as paying bills, credit cards, and investing. 19. To save money and build wealth, make a rule to wait 48 hours before completing any non-essential material purchase. 20. If you’re going to say yes because you think you’ll have more time in the future, say no instead. 21. Learn one dance move you can reliably bust out when you get pushed into a dance circle at a wedding. 22. Invest in personalized stationery (and use it once a month). 23. To break a bad habit, wear a rubber band on your wrist and snap it lightly on yourself each time you do the thing you’re trying to stop. *** Those are 23 ideas to make the most of the last 100 days of 2023. Which one will you try? Follow me @SahilBloom for more in future!

I felt this in my soul. When I was taken into care, at the age of 1, I was separated from my brothers and moved from Toxteth - a diverse area of Liverpool - to Halewood - a part of Knowsley that was more than 99% white, a place where I was chased, beaten, and taunted for being Black. When I was taken into care, I lost so much more than my family. I lost my culture, my history, and the protection of my community. Like Louise, I tried to shrink and hide myself, starting with my hair. I relaxed my hair from the age of 9 because I was tired of people touching it and making fun of it. It took years for me to learn to embrace who I was, to learn about my history, culture, and identity - which is probably why I'm so unwavering about those things now - and I was well into my 20s before I threw the relaxer away! As an adult, I have chosen to research the educational journeys of care experienced young people for my PhD. While it's great to see the increasing academic interest in the outcomes for care experienced people - outcomes like the care to prison and homelessness pipeline that had, at one time seemed inevitable - it's clear that a lot more research is needed on the intersections of care and race. To be Black and in care is to experience a whole different level of compound discrimination. To Louise, I say this ⬇️ I don't know you, but I see you, and i see what you've been up against. I spent most of my childhood in care, my birth mum died at 14, and I crashed out of school after failing most of my GCSE's at 16. I was homeless a few months later and went down a dark path for a while. By 19, I had a baby boy, and everyone told me I was nothing and that I was going nowhere fast. But my baby boy was the making of me. I fought for him, dreamed for him and climbed for him. I worked 2 jobs, studied at night school, and got apprenticeships and secondments by day. I gained promotions at work and got the qualifications that allowed me to go to university. Over the past 6 years I have gained a first class degree, masters with distinction, I've had my writing published by Bloomsbury, had my work performed on stage and given keynotes speeches to sold out events up and down the country. I'm a lecturer and Halewood's first Black Woman Town Councillor. But none of that makes me as proud as yesterday did. Yesterday, the boy I hoped to raise higher than me got his GCSE results. He passed his GCSE's and is going to study at his first choice sixth form. He is the first person in my family to do this, and to say I am proud would be an understatement. I recently did a podcast about some of my experience in care. The host asked me what I would go back to say to my 16 year old self and I was, momentarily, unable to speak. 16 year old me had no voice. She was a broken shell of a person who would, in a few months' time, try to take her own future away. She had no idea what she was capable of or what she would go on to achieve. I wish I could go back and show her the 16 year old King she raised and tell her exactly what she was capable of. To you Louise, I say this. You are a force to be reckoned with. You are raising a Queen and changing the world. Your lived experience will give you the strength and empathy to achieve anything. You are capable of moving mountains and I believe that you will. Louise, you have got this 👑 @Become1992

Also, we have been out to advert three times. Sadly we've not had applicants. 😢 If people wish to email to discuss what roles or types of psychologist roles within our forensic service would be attractive to them, I'd be happy to see what could be achieved.

This post is in our enhanced team for personality disorders and we do make a difference. One of our clients called our team “life changing”. If you’re passionate about making a difference and want to work in a supportive psychological team then contact us

We value art psychotherapy so highly in our team-what a great film to share with others who may not know much about it. We are lucky in our trust to have such a wonderful service led by @FrancescaNorou1 but we would welcome more less verbal resource!

Our Arts Therapy team has worked with @NHSEngland to produce a film highlighting how arts therapies offer wider access to psychological interventions🎨 Hear from service users how beneficial it has been for them👉 youtu.be/0smT2gaf95A #MHAW #MHAW2023

We are right behind all the nurses who are striking from 8pm tonight for 28 hours. Please RT if you are too. The government must stop taking NHS staff for granted.

The Women's Institute managing to get their heads round human rights where so many so called feminists fail.

Please help me ban experiments on dogs , and other animals . RT this news item to ask the @GOVUK to mandate the #EDM278 science hearing , to stop false claims about human medicine which fund this appalling cruelty . @10DowningStreet #OperationBeagle #Dogs #EndAnimalTesting