A SENIOR Conservative councillor at Warrington has hit back at Labour MP Helen Jones’ claim that the coalition government has cut the winter fuel payment.
Cllr Paul Campbell, (pictured) the borough council’s finance chief and Tory candidate for Warrington North at the General Election, says the MP has got it wrong.
He said: “Labour paid out £300 to over-80s and £200 to over-65s and the Government is continuing to do this.
“Labour also made a series of ‘one-off’ additional payments just before the general election that topped the level of the Winter Fuel Payment to £400 for over-80s and £250 for over-65s.
“It is important to note that this additional payment was not a permanent top up. It was just for 2010-11, and Labour did not budget for it in future years. “This is shown in the March 2010 Budget, which shows the cost to the Exchequer in 2010-11 only, and not in future years.
“So compared to Labour’s own baseline, which would also have seen the payments revert back to their original levels, there is no cut.
“The March 2010 Budget costs the additional age-related payments to pensioners at £600 million per year. If Labour want to bring this back, they must say how they would pay for it.”
Tory hits back over winter fuel
33 Comments
Share.
About Author
Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
3 Comments
How unrealistic is the councillor. He is a good mathematician. God help us if he is in control of Finances at WBC. I am a Pensioner and know what I received from the last Government and, as far as I am aware, there was no indication to Pensioners that this amount was to be cut. From this coallition government we now have a straight cut which was promised in their election manefesto. We are the poorest paid pensioners in Europe and as well as stopping this cut the councillor nand his government should do something about increasing the basic Pension in the UK to a realistic figure. Even the figure being talked about of £140 per week is nowhere near enough. Get into the real world!!!
Sorry, “which was NOT promised in their election manefesto”
Maybe if you saved more money when you were working you wouldn’t be such a burden on the rest of us?