Another dodgy dossier from New Labour

Earlier this morning, I had a call from a pensioner in Wallasey. She couldn’t stop laughing.  My Monday mornings don’t usually start this way.  

It seems she has received a letter from the current MP warning her that I and the Conservatives want to stop/axe/slash/cut blah blah blah any source of pensioner income and send her to the workhouse.

The pensioner has written to Ms Eagle’s office twice in the last year and not had a reply. Now, with an election coming up she gets some propaganda through the post.  

So, if you have received a letter from the New Labour MP, let me be quite clear: THE CONSERVATIVES WILL NOT SCRAP THE WINTER FUEL PAYMENT.

The MP could have saved herself a stamp.

We know why Ms Eagle has sent the letter.  She’s worried about losing her seat. Not helped by the fact that Ladbrokes have cut the odds on me winning.

Ms. Eagle is also the Minister of State for Pensions and the Ageing Society.  You would have thought then, she, of all people would have known how much liability the country has on pensions and not ‘off the top of her head’.  Click here.  Ms Eagle even goes on to accuse Conservatives of scaremongering.  LOL.

Strangely, Angela forgot to mention what the Conservatives will REALLY do for pensioners in Wallasey and Moreton:

• We will raise the basic state pension in line with earnings to help stop the spread of the means test.
• We will introduce a new ‘home protection scheme’ that will end the desperate situation whereby tens of thousands of older people are being forced to sell their homes each year to pay for residential care at the end of their lives.
• We want to ensure a fairer deal for grandparents, and are looking at ways in which a Conservative government could make it easier for grandparents to receive tax credits and allowances when looking after their grandchildren.
• Tackling the Cost of Living. Under Labour, the cost of living for pensioners has soared. We will help to tackle this by working with local councils to introduce a two year Council Tax freeze.
• We will also do more to help pensioners with their fuel bills. We will protect the Winter Fuel Payment, and we will introduce a new entitlement for every household to be fitted with up to £6,500 of approved energy efficiency improvements

Now, as I have said before, I’m not one of those candidates who goes around slagging off anyone who happens to disagree with me and I don’t think the voters are interested in mudslinging.   I know that in 1997 New Labour had good intentions and they had some good ideas – of which the Winter Fuel Payment is one.  But I, and many other people feel that Labour has lost it and it’s time for change.

Of course, there probably wasn’t enough space in the letter for Angela to give the FULL story on pensioners.  So, I’ll give her a hand…

Poorest in Europe: Figures from Eurostat show that Britain’s pensioners are more likely than most of those living elsewhere in Europe to be at risk of poverty. Only pensioners in Romania, Latvia, Cyprus and Estonia are more likely to fall into poverty (Eurostat, At-risk-of-poverty rate for pensioners, July 2009).

And there’s more!

Pensioner Poverty Higher Under Labour: There are 2.5 million pensioners living in poverty – 100,000 more than in 1997 (DWP, Households Below Average Income 2007/08, May 2009 table 6.3tr).

Half of Pensioners Means-Tested: Nearly half of all pensioners – around 45 per cent in 2005 – are subject to means-testing (DWP, Projections of Entitlement to Income Related Benefits to 2050, June 2008).

Pension Credit Too Complicated: Labour’s main means-tested benefit, the Pension Credit, designed to help the poorest pensioners, is so complicated and unpopular that up to 1.7 million pensioners are not claiming the help they are entitled to. Over half of these pensioners live in poverty (DWP, Income-related benefits estimates of take-up in 2007-08, June 2009).

Council Tax Benefit Failing Pensioners: As a result of the Government’s increased use of means-tested benefits and complex application forms, up to 2.3 million pensioners – almost half of those eligible – fail to claim the Council Tax Benefit they are entitled to. As a result, between £1.2 and £1.7 billion of Council Tax Benefit went unclaimed by pensioners last year. Take-up by pensioners has fallen by at least 13 per cent since 1997 (DWP, Income-related Benefits Estimates of Take-Up in 2007-8, June 2009).

Fuel poverty quadruples among pensioners: Figures obtained by the Conservatives put the number of pensioner households currently in fuel poverty at over 2.4 million – one pensioner household in every three. This is a four-fold increase in the number of pensioners in who were in fuel poverty in 2004 (Hansard, 2 December 2009, Col. 819-20W; DECC press release, 21 October 2009).

Fuel Poverty Deaths: Last winter there were an estimated 36,700 excess winter deaths in England and Wales, an increase of 49 per cent on the previous year. This was way above other European countries with more severe climates than our own. Of these deaths, 33,300 were aged 65 and over, compared to 22,320 in 2007-08, also a 49 per cent increase (ONS, Health Statistics Quarterly, 24 November 2009).

36 Per Cent Pensioner Inflation: Research by Clerical Medical has shown that the average cost of living for pensioners has risen by more than one-third over the past decade. The cost of living for pensioners has increased by more than that for households as a whole during the period, particularly in the last five years (Clerical Medical Press Release, 5 July 2008).

Cutting Back on Essentials: Age Concern research shows that two-thirds (66 per cent) of pensioners are cutting back on the amount of gas and electricity they are using‚ over half (52 per cent) are buying less or poorer quality food‚ and one in 10 low-income pensioners has built up debt due to the increased cost of living (Age Concern, Press Release, 17 December 2008).

Bankrupt Pensioners: The number of pensioners going bankrupt more than doubled in five years, up from just 900 in 2002 to 7,900 in 2007. According to the authors of an independent report, Gordon Brown’s complex benefits system is partly to blame, with many pensioners missing out on benefits (Wilkins Kennedy, Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers, Summary Report, Retired Bankrupts Rising, 27 September 2007).

Angela – would you like to comment on this?