Question Time viewers were quick to share their ire towards the government’s decision to cut the winter fuel payment for all but the poorest pensioners, as the show headed to Ashton-under-Lyne for the latest episode of the popular BBC political show.
During the episode, one member of the audience was quick to draw attention to the plight of thousands of pensioners, who will now miss out on the £300 benefit each Winter to help combat the rising cost of heating their homes, by pointing out that over 570 MP’s themselves are entitled to claim a £3500 heating allowance each year.
According to the viewer, if those MP’s, who themselves will typically receive a salary of £91,346, plus expenses each year, didn’t claim the allowance, then over 6,700 pensioners could be given the winter fuel benefit instead.
This prompted them to ask: “How do you justify withdrawing the payment from pensioners?”
First to respond was Leader of the House of Commons, Labour MP Lucy Powell, who started off by explaining it had been far from an easy decision for the government to make.
She said: “Obviously we pay heating in our homes like everybody else, and we’ve seen those costs going up and up and up in recent years with inflation and energy costs going up. There’s no denying this is a very difficult thing to do and it will be difficult for people. It’s not something we came into government wanting to do at all.”
Describing the deficit inherited by the previous government as “bigger than expected” Lucy went on to say: “There is this big black hole, it is significant. For this financial year, that’s the challenge.”
Yet rather than shoot down the proposal for MP’s to turn down the heating allowance, instead Ms. Powell reiterated Labour’s stance on the blanket withdrawal of the winter fuel payment, by pointing out that the poorest pensioners shouldn’t be missing out, as she encouraged them to apply for pension credit instead, which would see the benefit reinstated.
This wasn’t good enough for Conservative MP Graham Stuart, a former government minister who condemned Labour’s decision by arguing: “It’s taking £300 away from the very poorest pensioners.”
He then went on to add: “The very poorest pensioners are not the pensioners on pension credit, very low income though they’ve got, it’s the people that are eligible for it – but that for one reason or another, don’t claim! »
Meanwhile Lib Dem MP Tim Farron, also weighed in on the situation by pointing out one of the fatal flaws in Labour’s plan, which would see several pensioners struggling to heat their homes this winter, by earning too much money to qualify for pension credit, due to an extremely low earning threshold.
“The problem is to get pension credit, there’s a really low threshold, or rather to miss out, is a really low threshold. So you can be on £12,800 a year – and you’re earning too much to get pension credit. So you’re on barely just over half the national minimum wage, and yet you’re deemed to be well off enough to cope without it. That is outrageous!”
In a particularly poignant moment, Tim also made reference to some of his own constituents, as he said “Some of them will have to choose between heating and eating, and in some cases, they won’t be able to afford to do either.”
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