WARRINGTON North MP Helen Jones has sounded a warning to the elderly – that they will get up to £100 less winter fuel allowance later this year.
Ms Jones (pictured) says Chancellor George Osborne “sneaked” the cut in while presenting his Budget.
She said: “Many pensioners have come to rely on the winter fuel allowance to ease the pain of soaring heating bills since the benefit was introduced during the first term of the last Labour government.
“Most Warrington pensioners aged 60-79 will get £200 instead of last year’s £250 when the payment is made in November or December. Those who are 80 or older will get £300 instead of £400.
“Many pensioners will not have heard about this particular government cut because George Osborne tried to keep it secret. The information did not form part of the 100+ page Budget document and was trickled out through the press. this morning.
“The Chancellor should have been honest about this blow to pensioners instead of trying to sneak the bad news under the radar.
“This Tory/LibDem government is going too far and too fast on reducing the deficit, it’s stopping the economic growth we need and it’s hitting people, including pensioners, who are already feeling the squeeze due to the rising living costs. “
Sneak cut in winter fuel allowance
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
5 Comments
Perhaps if the payments were stopped for those who don’t need it i.e. those over 60 earning high salaries, the difference could be given to those who do need it.
The winter fuel allowance has always been a farce. Thousands who don’t need it receive it because, apparently, that costs the government less than giving it only to those who need. The system should be changed so that only those who apply for it get it. I know there would be some abuse – but the culprits could be tracked down in the same way as other benefit cheats.
Maybe if power companies didn’t make such exhorbitant profits, and had lower prices for those who were relatively small users, there wouldn’t need to be a winter fuel allowance. I understand the cold weather payment is still available and I think it has been increased. Regarding this MP’s comment “The Chancellor should have been honest about this blow to pensioners instead of trying to sneak the bad news under the radar”, my guess is that he learnt it from the last Labour government. And her comment, “This Tory/LibDem government is going too far and too fast on reducing the deficit”, the reality is that the Labour party has no credible economic policy and had they have formed the government, they would have put VAT up, they would have increased other taxes, they would have increased petrol duty and they would have cut spending as the IMF would have insisted that they did.
My mum is 89, disabled and lives alone in her own house. Her monthly gas payment has just gone from £25.00 a month to £91.00 a month because she was apparently paying too little based on the meter readings. She is on the low tarrif and does use a lot of gas as her heating is on 24/7 but £91 is a bit steep!
Indeed, the Chancellor did sneak this under the radar. Those of us on fixed incomes simply cannot keep up with the Vast Untility Companies making huge profits. Something ought to be done to reine in their excesses. I disagree that the Labour Party has no credible economic policy. It’s too easy to blame everything on the last government. Compulsory reading should be the book “Brown in Ten”. This is a historic account of the global financial crisis. Thank God we had Mr Brown to take control or else things would have been much worse. I am not a member of any political party but I do think that the current Coalition Government is no better than the last Government.