winter fuel payments

Charities demand to meet UK ministers as 1.6m disabled OAPs set to lose winter fuel payments

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/sep/15/charities-demand-to-meet-uk-ministers-as-16m-disabled-oaps-set-to-lose-winter-fuel-payments

A pensioner struggles to keep warm at home. Photograph: Studio Romantic/Shutterstock

Call comes after government forced to reveal that 71% of pensioners with disabilities will lose entitlement despite dependence on warmer homes

Groups representing disabled people are demanding urgent meetings with ministers after it was revealed that 1.6 million pensioners with disabilities will lose their winter fuel payments because of government cuts.

The figures were released by the Department for Work and Pensions on Friday evening, in answer to a freedom of information request, despite the government having said it had done no official impact assessment on the policy. The internal DWP analysis also suggested that nine in 10 pensioners aged between 66 and 79, and eight out of 10 over-80s would lose their allowance.

Since those over 80 receive a higher payment – £300 as opposed to £200 – they would take the greatest financial hit, the document said.

The analysis revealed that although people with disabilities were more likely to retain the payment, 71% – 1.6 million – would still lose their entitlement, despite their greater dependence on heating their homes.

The analysis also estimated that of the 880,000 pensioners entitled to pension credit but who do not claim the benefit, only 100,000 are expected to sign up to it as a result of a government campaign now under way, meaning about 780,000 pensioners on low incomes would continue to miss out.

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/sep/15/charities-demand-to-meet-uk-ministers-as-16m-disabled-oaps-set-to-lose-winter-fuel-payments

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Continue ReadingCharities demand to meet UK ministers as 1.6m disabled OAPs set to lose winter fuel payments

Labour votes to plunge pensioners into poverty

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Image of cash and pre-payment meter key
Image of cash and pre-payment meter key

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-votes-plunge-pensioners-poverty

SUPINE Labour MPs have voted to plunge pensioners into poverty, after approving winter fuel benefit cuts for millions of older people.

The Commons backed Sir Keir Starmer’s austerity move by 348 votes to 228, with many Labour MPs abstaining.

A larger-than-expected 53 Labour MPs seem to have not backed the government in the vote, although some may have had permission from the whips to skip the debate.

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John McDonnell, speaking in the brief debate which preceded the vote, said that the cut “flies against everything I believe in as a Labour MP about tackling inequality and poverty within our society.”

He slammed the government’s claim that those with the “broadest shoulders” should bear the burden of the crisis, saying that it was the poorest who have been hit hardest.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-votes-plunge-pensioners-poverty

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Continue ReadingLabour votes to plunge pensioners into poverty

Morning Star Editorial: The labour movement should call out Chancellor Reeves’ economy con

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-labour-movement-should-call-out-chancellor-reeves-economy-con

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves during a press conference following her statement to the House of Commons on the findings of the Treasury audit into the state of the public finances, July 29, 2024.

RACHEL REEVES is having us on. She is not prolonging austerity for the reasons pretended.

The Chancellor claims that it is imperative to balance the books to avoid a collapse in international money market confidence in the British economy. The ghosts of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are conjured to underline the point.

It is for this reason that pensioners are to shiver in unheated homes this winter as their fuel allowance is cut, and it is for this that hundreds of thousands of children are to remain in poverty, thanks to the maintenance of the two-child benefit cap.

But even in its own terms — and this column would argue that the speculators should be faced down rather than pandered to under any circumstances — the argument is bogus.

The City itself, no less, has blown the whistle on Reeves and other Cabinet members who have echoed her line, including Commons leader Lucy Powell. Powell told the media that the new austerity was vital to stop a run on the pound.

A what? The Financial Times quotes a Paul Dale at Capital Economics as saying: “If there was a risk of a run on the pound I completely missed it.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-labour-movement-should-call-out-chancellor-reeves-economy-con

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: The labour movement should call out Chancellor Reeves’ economy con

Chancellor faces down would-be rebels ahead of winter fuel payment vote

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/sep/09/chancellor-faces-down-would-be-rebels-ahead-of-winter-fuel-payment-vote

‘If we show that economic stability is the hallmark of Labour governments, there is no limit to what we can achieve,’ Reeves told Labour MPs. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Rachel Reeves tells Labour MPs that axing allowance for all but poorest pensioners will help plug £22bn hole in finances

The chancellor has faced down would-be rebels in a private meeting of Labour MPs ahead of the crunch vote on the government’s controversial plan to scrap the winter fuel allowance.

Rachel Reeves told a gathering of the parliamentary Labour party that the move was necessary, despite fears about the impact on millions of less-well-off pensioners, as it would help to plug a £22bn gap in the public finances.

She also warned that there would be more difficult decisions to make on the economy, despite dozens of Labour MPs considering abstaining in Tuesday’s vote to cut the £300-a-year payment for all but the poorest pensioners.

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Government insiders ruled out any prospect of the Treasury offering any concession on the policy, despite the depth of concern from figures across the party. Many MPs are worried that elderly constituents just above the threshold will suffer.

Keir Starmer, meanwhile, is set to stick to the same theme by doubling down on the government’s tough economic message in a major speech to the Trades Union Congress, where he will say that “hard graft” is necessary to turn around the public finances.

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/sep/09/chancellor-faces-down-would-be-rebels-ahead-of-winter-fuel-payment-vote

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

The dishonesty of Rachel Reeves

Continue ReadingChancellor faces down would-be rebels ahead of winter fuel payment vote