Mel Stride (Con)
The decision to remove winter fuel payments has come as a complete shock to millions of pensioners—pensioners on as little as £11,500 a year. We have had no adequate explanation as to why this measure is so urgent….“A full Impact Assessment has not been prepared for this instrument because there is no significant new impact on business, charities or voluntary bodies.”…. The real reason this is being rushed is pure politics. The Government want to rush this measure through while they can try to blame it on their predecessors in order to avoid proper scrutiny.
Dr Andrew Murrison (Con)
Old people die in cold homes, and they die particularly if they are very old…. if the Government are not minded to change their mind entirely, they might look at those aged over 80?
James Murray (Lab)
….the legacy of the last Government truly was. It was one of irresponsible overspending, of uncosted commitment after uncosted commitment…A failed asylum system, prisons at breaking point, more than 1 million people waiting for council homes, 4 million children growing up in poverty, and more than 7.5 million people on NHS waiting lists…. Over a quarter of pensioners have wealth of more than £1 million, half have wealth of over £500,000 and a fifth of pensioner households have gross incomes equivalent to £41,600 a year. That is why it is right to means-test winter fuel payment.
Dave Doogan (SNP)
I am not sure of the morality of trying to balance this country’s fiscal books on the backs of pensioners. He referenced the manifesto on which the Labour party stood at the election. “No austerity under Labour”….
Andrew Bowie (Con)
On 11 February 2021, the temperature in Braemar in my constituency sank to minus 23°. Some 17,000 pensioners there will lose their winter fuel allowance through a decision taken by this Labour Government.
Graham Stuart (Con)
Will the Exchequer Secretary take this opportunity to reassure pensioners that there is no way that the Government will remove the single person discount from the council tax?
Andrew Pakes (Lab)
The reality that 800,000 pensioners are not receiving pension credit is a shameful legacy.
Sarah Olney (LD)
Stripping support from many of the poorest pensioners, just when energy bills are set to rise again this winter, is the wrong thing to do… I have been inundated with local people expressing their disappointment at this decision….More than 2 million pensioners are currently living in poverty. They have had a tremendously difficult time during the cost of living crisis, dealing with record high energy bills and eye-watering food costs. That is why the Liberal Democrats are proud to have introduced the triple lock when we were in government…
Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance)
I am extremely disappointed by the lack of creativity in this Government.
Bobby Dean (LD)
We have spoken a lot about the take-up of pension credit in this debate already, but it is important to say that 800,000 pensioners….Those people will, by definition, be harder to reach and the most vulnerable.
Stuart Anderson (Con)
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker, you will know the rules far better than me, but this is a really important debate and I just want to ensure that the House is quorate….There are fewer than 20 Labour MPs who have decided to find this a worthwhile debate to come to, and I want to make sure we have enough people here for this debate, because it is really serious.
Peter Swallow (Lab)
When the previous Labour Government left office, Trussell Trust food banks were giving out 40,000 food parcels a year. Last year they gave out 3 million.
Dr Ben Spencer (Con)
What did the hon. Gentleman say to pensioners during the election campaign?
Dr Caroline Johnson (Con)
Roughly 13,000 people in the hon. Gentleman’s Bracknell constituency will not get the winter fuel allowance this year as a result of the changes that he has just voted for. How many of them does he estimate will struggle to pay their bills?
Priti Patel (Con)
Who would have thought that one of the first acts of this awful, cruel and ideological Labour Government would be to assault the nation’s pensioners by removing winter fuel payments?… if pensioners cannot afford to heat their homes there will be a serious impact on health. We do not have an impact assessment, so can we have some honesty now?
Josh Simmons (Lab)
To govern is to choose. Targeting winter fuel payments is a choice. However difficult and necessary..
Roger Gale (Con)
My wife, Suzy, is over retirement age. She is also in full-time employment. I am over retirement age. I am also in full-time employment and a higher rate taxpayer. I have always believed that the winter fuel allowance should be means-tested… the Chancellor of the Exchequer and… Prime Minister, both of whom should be on the Government Front Bench this afternoon, but neither of whom have been present during the debates..
Sam Rushworth (Lab)
I have spent the past week agonising over how to vote today. In the end, I decided to vote with my conscience, which meant that I voted with the Government….If the Conservatives’ argument is that, after 14 years in government, people on the full state pension are £100 away from death and destitution, what have they been doing for 14 years?
Graham Stuart (Con)
The point is that when something could lead to thousands of people dying, the Government have not done what they are legally obliged to do…and produce an impact assessment…showed that 4,000 people could be going to die..
Chris Murray (Lab)
….the challenges that older people face. Waiting lists are appallingly long. Older people in my constituency can wait 18 months for a hip replacement; others spend their life savings on private healthcare.
Jim Shannon (DUP)
I never imagined ever in my life that a Labour Government would seek to balance the books on the backs of pensioners…In Northern Ireland, 68% of homes rely on oil-fired boilers for heating. There are high levels of fuel poverty, with 22% of the population currently spending more than 10% of their household income on heating their homes.
Wendy Morton (Con)
“The winter fuel payment gave me peace of mind that I would be able to heat my home and stay warm during the winter”—… Tackling pension credit take-up is important, but it is not the solution to the crisis that pensioners face today. Only weeks ahead of the winter, they need help now.
Richard Holden (Con)
In Basildon and Billericay, 15,000 pensioners will lose out because of this callous cut by the Labour Government.
Nick Timothy (Con)
Reportedly, more than 200 Labour MPs received more than £2 million in donations before the election from the trade unions
Peter Bedford (Con)
….this choice sets a dangerous precedent? Free bus passes, prescription charges and, indeed, access to healthcare itself are all now at risk because of the logic being put forward by the Labour party in respect of pensioners’ ability to afford them.
Gregory Stafford (Con)
….the 18,883 pensioners in my constituency who will lose the winter fuel payment? They include Rita, who looks after her husband who has multiple sclerosis.
Ellie Chowns (Green)
….Judy, Kenneth, Pat, Tom, Robert and Gwen are all deeply concerned about the impact that it will have. They have reported their health issues, their partners’ disabilities, and the fact that they are just over the limit and will not be able to access the winter fuel payment. That will force them into the classic, depressing choice between heating and eating that this country must avoid.
Dr Neil Hudson (Con)
Although their announcement to cut winter fuel payments is change, I doubt it is one that millions of pensioners up and down the land thought that they would make.
Yuan Yang (Lab)
Last weekend we spoke to relatively well-off pensioners who told us that they feel it is right that winter fuel payments be means-tested and that, with their sense of dignity and generosity, they do not need state aid in this respect.
Rebecca Harris (Con)
It is the anxiety that it causes people. They do not know if they will live another 18 months or 25 years.
Bradley Thomas (Con)
Betty Webb, a constituent of mine who received an MBE for her work as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park. She is 101 years old. She is a widow who lives alone. She is living in fear not just that the Government will take away the winter fuel allowance, but that in future they will snatch away the 25% single person’s discount on council tax.
Ann Davis (PC)
…[the] new Labour UK Government have refused to abolish the cruel two-child benefit cap and now seek to take away winter fuel payments of up to £300 from millions of pensioners across the UK, by limiting it to recipients of pension credit. Well, nothing has changed.
Jess Brow- Fuller (LD)
Sherry, who is 80 and registered disabled. She has to maintain an even living temperature to deal with conditions while living in a 100-year-old cottage with poor insulation.
Aphra Brandeth (Con)
Maggie is 86….worked as a midwife in the NHS for 40 years, so has a state pension and a small NHS pension. She is not eligible for additional benefits because she was careful with what she earned and saved wisely. Maggie is just above the threshold to be eligible for continued support. She is also a dual cancer survivor, having beaten breast cancer in 2013 and bowel cancer in 2016.
Kirsty Blackman (SNP)
We do not have an impact assessment for this policy. Do the Labour party and the UK Government know that single women are three times more likely to be missing out on pension credit than single men?
Joy Morrissey (Con)
A policy that was brought in under Gordon Brown—a social democratic policy of inclusivity under which everyone buys into the state—is being scrapped in favour of a neoliberal means-tested policy, one that I think most actual Labour socialists would be ashamed of.
Carla Lockhart (DUP)
Our pensioners are being left out in the cold by a Government who promised to restore hope. Where is the compassionate Labour we were promised? Where is the restored hope? What hope do pensioners have in Upper Bann?
Dave Doogan (SNP)
if anyone on the Labour Front Bench wants to come and sit in my garage on a January day, I will turn the heating off in the whole property and they can see what it will be like for some pensioners in my constituency.
Richard Tice (Reform)
It was the unbelievable fear of not knowing whether she will see the end of winter, because that is the reality: older, colder people die early.
Note
1 Winter Fuel Payment – Hansard – UK Parliament The entire debate and voting record is here
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