Dame Caroline Dinenage has written to Chancellor Rachel Reeves about her concern for pensioners this winter.
Dame Dinenage's full letter:
Chancellor of the Exchequer
1 Horse Guards Road
Westminster
London
SW1A 2HQ
United Kingdom
9 August 2024
Dear Chancellor,
I am writing to express my concern over the Government's plan to link winter fuel payments (WFP) to the receipt of pension credit or certain other means-tested benefits, as announced to the House on 29th July.
I believe that this will leave many pensioners in my constituency of Gosport, Lee on the Solent, Stubbington and Hill Head without sufficient means to heat their homes over the Winter. As you will know, Winter is a difficult time for the elderly and vulnerable and so I believe that this decision may have serious consequences. There is a clear and obvious link between being cold and ill health in the elderly.
Age UK have estimated that 15,000 pensioners in my constituency will lose their WFP as a result of these particular changes. Many of those will not qualify for pension credit by the smallest of margins and have been reliant on WFP to remain financially secure. Indeed, concerningly, there may be over a thousand households in my constituency who are not in receipt of pension credit at all, despite being eligible, and under your proposals these people will no longer be entitled to WFP. This is a question of leaving the most vulnerable without vital income that, come wintertime, eases the heavy burden of providing the most basic necessities of food and warmth.
I hope that, for the sake of the many elderly residents in my constituency, and the health and security of a significant proportion of those, you might review this decision to adopt what is ultimately a very blunt tool.
Yours sincerely,
Dame Caroline Dinenage DBE MP
https://twitter.com/cj_dinenage/status/1823305001222967427
