This years Retired Members Conference was held in Birmingham on the 15th Oct and was attended by delegates – Steve Taylor, Jim Webb and Tim Bond.
The conference Report is below –
Retried Members Conference Report – 15th Oct 2025.
Dave Ward, Our General Secretary was unable to attend, due to urgent issues within Royal Mail.
Tony Kearns gave an address via Zoom. Tony began by saying he will be retiring from the CWU at the end of November. But was still dealing with the handover and ongoing audit. He gave personal thanks to recently deceased member Des Carney. Des had been an outstanding and lifelong Trade Unionist who made a real difference to the lives of the members he passionately represented and would be missed by all in the Union.
The latest Government budget was coming up, with the threat to the triple lock on the state pension, which is one of the lowest pensions in Europe. The threat was a tactic to split generations. There was still a lack of funding within the NHS, especially for younger, future generations. Tony wished conference well and thanked members for their support.
The Conference Agenda and Proposition details, can be found here – Retired Members Conference Agenda
Prop E1 – This fell as there was no representative from the proposing branch to propose the prop.
Prop. 1 – Carried Unanimously.
The proposer from the Essex Amal branch gave a passionate speech, in which he stated that the caring system was not up to standards. Pensioners were being left behind with little support from either political party, none of which, along with big business, do not want to continue with the triple lock state pension. Companies should take more responsibility for their ex-employees. There was a need to engage with future pensioners, as they will lose out the most. It was stated that over five million people in their 50’s will be solely reliant on the state pension, due to lack of any occupational pension. The proposed campaign ‘New Deal For Pensioners’ needs to be driven by the Unions, as it was felt that the labour Party may not be able to act on the issues.
Prop. 2 – Carried.
It was stated that around nine million pensioners are now paying tax, with more due to enter, if the personal allowance is not increased.
Prop 3 – Carried
Although new tariffs will be introduced from Jan 2026, which will offer the option of no standing charge, this will increase fuel rates. Although these will still be protected by the OFGEM cap. Like the water companies there had been a lack of investment in the electricity and gas infrastructure, which is what the standing charge goes towards, so companies state. There was an opposing view put forward, in that many elderly and disabled people may need to use more energy, so with the scrapping of the standing charges, this would lead to higher bills as the unit costs of energy would inevitably rise.
Prop 4 – Carried Unanimously.
Since water privatisation, there has been little or no investment in the infrastructure, with profits going to CEO’s and shareholders in the form of dividends. As the majority of companies are foreign owned, these shareholders pay no tax in Britian. It was felt that privatisation has done nothing to improve the water industry, especially as there is no true competition. The public did not support privatisation. According to a government/water companies study it would cost £90 billion to renationalise, although this has been questioned by an independent survey which gave a figure of £14.5 billion.
Prop 5 – Carried Unanimously.
It was felt that the present benefit ‘package’ for retired members needed to be improved. There was a need to encourage members who retire, to remain members of the union. More information should be available on the website or the Voice, which has now been superseded by the Thursday online video meeting. The death benefit was mentioned as a good selling point. Nationally members who are approaching retirement age could be identified and contacted to retain their membership.
It was stated that even some reps did not want to carry on with their membership.
Prop 6 – Carried.
It was highlighted that it was not obvious on how to navigate to the retired members section of the main CWU website and indeed to find the benefits pages.
Prop 7 – Carried Unanimously.
Although this proposition was initially pertinent to previous ongoing problems within the Northan Ireland Branch, the sentiment is echoed across all branches, where in some cases there was a perceived non respect of retired members. Although the review which had taken two years to complete, had now been concluded, its findings had not been fully implemented across all branches.
Prop 8 – Carried Unanimously.
This was asking for feedback on props which had been carried and forwarded to the NEC for action. This feedback has been lacking over the last few years.
E2 – Carried.
This was asking for increased donation from the CWU to the National Pensioners Convection. Over the years, lack of funds has curtailed the activities carried out by the NPC, which has previously been involved with many campaigns for pensioners. The NPC was formed in 1978 with initial support from the TUC, with the aim that ‘This Convention declares that every pensioner has the right to choice, dignity, independence and security as an integral and valued member of society.’
Prop 9 – Carried.
Prop 10 – Carried.
This had the potential to open a can of worms over retired members voting rights. Norman Candy stated that he would find out if this exclusion was a mistake, or something else. It was asked if the prop be withdrawn. This was not possible as it had been proposed and seconded. It could be remitted, but after a vote, delegates would not remit and the prop was carried.
Prop 11 – Carried.
It was felt that retired members should not be disenfranchised if they did not have email or internet. So other means of contacting members such as post should still be made available.
Prop 12 – Carried.
The proposition which had been carried back in 2024 had stated that ‘.. since the average size of branch retired membership was now down to around 250 members, there was a need to review the amount of delegates that were allowed to attend conference’. This had not been acted on. Due to a further reduction in retired members, with only five branches having more than 300 retired members, the present delegate levels are out of touch for the amount of members within branches. It was stated that maybe two delegates per branch regardless of membership figures would be a way forward.
Conference ended with a guest speaker. Paul Kennedy, who is on the Trustee Board of the Royal Mail Pension Plan explained the differences between the various pension schemes within the Royal Mail and the reasons for the various yearly increases. A Q & A season followed. Pension schemes contact details and information were circulated.
The Propositions that will go forward to next years General Conference will be Props 1 and 2, Detailed below.
Prop. 1 – COMPOSITE MOTION. That this Retired Members Conference agrees that the attacks on pensioners and the elderly by the current government and previous governments is completely unacceptable. The Retired Members Committee are instructed to develop a policy and strategy to work alongside the National Executive to support and promote a campaign uniting trade unions and pensioners organisations to campaign for a ‘New Deal for Pensioners. The aim being to combat the propaganda being produced by numerous right wing think tanks and uniting current and future pensioners in a campaign to secure and protect decent state/occupational pensions for current and future generations. Retired Members Committee Essex Amal
Prop. 2 – Conference agreed that Pensioners are worse off because of the frozen personal allowance of £12750 introduced by the Conservative government in 2022 and some don’t get the full benefit of the triple lock because this brings them above the tax threshold, it is said that the personal allowance will not rise until 2028 or maybe later. Therefore conference instructs the RMC to work with the NEC, TUC and all other interested bodies to put pressure on the government to provide an exemption to the Personal Allowance for the State Pension. Retired Members Committee