The Newspaper Press
Fund in action

By Peter Evans

Many journalists and their families have had good reason to be grateful to their oldest and largest benevolent organisation but Newspaper Press Fund is not a household name and we are glad to have this opportunity to tell you more about it. As a member of an editorial team, you probably belong to the NUJ or other professional body and you may well ask why you should join another.

If you are sailing through life without ever being unemployed, unfortunate, seriously unwell over a long period or old, there are relatively few good reasons to join but, for those who feel vulnerable to life’s many hazards, the NPF is the only dependable source of help for journalists and their families when things go wrong. And, if you later decide to move away from journalism, NPF membership continues for life.

So is the NPF just another upstart organisation, making money by spreading doom and gloom and using slick selling techniques? Far from it.

The fund was created around 1860 by a group of journalists who met in a Fleet Street pub and decided that help ought to be available to their fellows and their families when times were hard. In those days of course there was no NHS, no social services, no state benefit, no comfortable place to receive care when you were too old to work and in need of shelter or care.

They drew up a list of prominent people – politicians, gentry, publishers and leading editorial figures – and put out an appeal for funds. The list included Charles Dickens and it was he who addressed the first annual dinner in London in 1864 to celebrate the Fund’s arrival. A council of editorial people was elected and the fund is still proud to regard itself as the organisation for journalists when is run by journalists.

Thankfully, the days of the workhouse and poverty of that kind have long passed but, as we near the end of the 20th century, the fund is still spending well over £2,500 every week supplementing benefits and income to remove or reduce the misery caused to journalists by the day to day hazards. In every generation there have been and will always be members of our profession who miss out or simply drop out. Wherever possible the Newspaper Press Fund helps them too.

Looking well to the future, the NPF has the only sheltered and care homes exclusively available to journalists and their dependants. All right, a journalist aged 28 is unlikely even to think about sheltered housing – except that Mum, who is less independent than she was, might be in her late sixties and causing some worry to the family. In the longer term, will you be able to afford the care she will need? If you are an NPF member the answer is more likely to be yes.

The founders of the Newspaper Press Fund set down rules, later to be part of the Royal Charter granted in 1890, which restrict the full range of benefits to those who become members of the fund – and their dependants. There has never been a good reason to alter that policy and today it is as essential as ever to join the fund. Whether in newspapers, magazines, television, radio or the electronic media, journalists not above the age of 60 are eligible to join. Staff or freelance, it makes no difference.

If you have been waiting for the sting you will be glad to know the cost of life membership is only £50. That may sound almost too good to be true but anyone who has seen the fund in action will know that membership is one of life’s genuine bargains. Here are one or two examples of the fund in action:

Anne worked for a local newspaper; her husband looked after the children. She lost her job and there were other family problems, all at once. The NPF helped with mortgage and household expenses for a while and also paid for school uniforms while she tried set herself up as a freelance and her husband sought part-time work. State benefits covered only a fraction of their needs and there was no other source of help.

Nicky’s life as a freelance was running smoothly until an unexpected change removed her main source of income. No state benefits, because she had other money coming in, but expenses would exceed income until she found other contracts. With the fund’s help, she managed to keep afloat.

Helen was left with four children at school. Her late husband’s pension and death-in-service benefits were less than expected and were soon exhausted, settling debts and other expenses. She could work part-time but ends did not meet. The fund will help towards the costs of all the children’s needs until their full-time education is complete – unless Helen wins the lottery, or something.

Sara took maternity leave, expecting to return to her local press job when the baby had reached a suitable age. She could not have known that the child would soon develop serious health problems – or that the father would fail to cope with it all and flee the scene. She could deal with most normal living costs because she had prepared for a spell without income but, inevitably, some debts became a threat and the NPF settled her council tax and some other bills.

The men may feel left out of this because those examples all involve women. We could mention the man whose partner got MS and needed a lot of extra care; the journalist who had a year of expensive misery when a foolish slip caused him to lose his driving license; the man who had to run two homes while he tried to sell one and buy another following a quick move to be near the new job; countless people who had to exist without pay or benefits for a few weeks after landing new jobs. The fund helped them all.

The message is simple. Be wise before the event and join the NPF. You would not wait until the house burned down (heaven forbid) before you took our fire insurance and you should not delay your application to join the NPF.

Details and forms should be available in your office but, in case of need, please contact the fund at: Dickens House, 35 Wathen Road, Dorking, Surrey, RH4 1JY, or telephone 01306 887511.

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