Green councillors in Sheffield are calling for pensioners’ Winter Fuel Allowance to remain. This comes after the new Labour Government announced it will be scrapped next year.
Speaking at the 4th September Full Council meeting, Green Councillors Marieanne Elliot and Paul Turpin, expressed their concerns that the new Government are imposing renewed austerity on those who can least afford it.
Cllr Elliot said:
“We’ve all heard the new Government claim that the financial situation left behind by the last Government was irresponsible. But it is astounding that, out of all the choices, they have chosen to cut ten million pensioners’ winter fuel payments. A payment that has brought significant relief to millions, including very many of our own council tenants in Sheffield. It helps keep people healthy, safe and out of hospital. It could be said that cutting this important social benefit is also very irresponsible. Why are big polluters and financial institutions still not being asked to pay their fair share whilst pensioners are left out in the cold? ”
Cllr Turpin commented:
“A possible saving of £1.3 billion from this cut is less than the amount of pension credit going unclaimed by Britain’s older generation who are entitled to it. I very much welcome the extension of a further 6 months to the Household Support Fund, which is of great assistance to those in desperate circumstances. This is no answer, however, to the need to keep people out of such a situation by ensuring they can pay their heating bills in the first place.”
The Green group of Councillors have written to Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves asking her to reconsider the decision to cut the £200/£300 Winter Fuel Allowance that has been paid to all pensioners since 1997.
They wrote
“We desperately need the government to act urgently on home insulation schemes. This is the best way of keeping everyone safe, warm and out of poverty. Instead of cutting the Winter Fuel Allowance, an alternative would be to use it to give pensioners the option to finance the installation of insulation measures and solar panels to reduce their energy bills permanently. That sort of initiative would be the actions of an imaginative and progressive government, not one that is just continuing austerity.”
