A LABOUR councillor has criticised Warrington Borough Council for not doing enough to help the town’s pensioners, hit by government spending cuts.
Cllr Pat Wright (pictured) said: “The Lib Dem leader of the council gave a 10-minute speech about all the supposedly fantastic work the council is doing, but there was not one mention of the impact of government policies on Warrington’s pensioners.
“We all know that fuel bills are rising but he failed to come up with any ideas about how to support pensioners who had already seen their household budgets hit by the VAT increase but are now going to suffer the double whammy of having their Winter Fuel payments slashed!
“I would like to see the council offering more advice sessions so that pensioners can check they are claiming all the benefits they are entitled to, compare their current gas and electricity supplier charges with those of other suppliers’ and also get some budgeting advice.”
Cllr Wright said that according to the Department for Energy and Climate Change, 12,365 homes in Warrington – 15 per cent of the total – were suffering from fuel poverty.
With rising inflation and forecast rises in interest rates, these figures were set to increase.
“Rising fuel bills hit pensioners and vulnerable adults the most as they spend a disproportionate amount of their income on heating their homes.”
Pensioners aged 60-79 will see their winter fuel payments cut by £50 to £200 while those aged over 80 would see their payments cut from £400 to £300.
Another Labour member, Cllr Hitesh Patel attacked the government for increasing VAT.
He said: “The VAT hike increased petrol prices by 2.5p per litre, so a 1p reduction is really no reduction at all.
“Not a single petrol station in Warrington has passed on the full saving to the motorist, so wouldn’t it have been better to ask for a more meaningful reduction in VAT instead?
“This is yet another attempt by the coalition running the Town Hall to put up a smoke screen to hide the truth about the damage being caused by their government’s policies on the people of Warrington.”
Council not doing enough for pensioners
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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. Former Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Patron Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
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Now here’s the thing, when the last Labour Government reduced VAT to 15%, they increased fuel duty to compensate, when they increased VAT back up to 17.5% they didn’t didn’t reduce the fuel duty. With regards to pensioners, wasn’t it Labour who one year increased the state pension by just 75p, guess they didn’t comment about that at the time. Actually why should pensioners get a fuel allowance, not all pensioners are on the breadline, yet many young people, some with families are.
Actually some, maybe all, petrol stations in Warrington did reduce the pump price by 1p. I’m sure the two Councillors mentioned are nice people, but they do seem to be out of their depth when quoting statistics, so maybe better that they stick to the simple things and leave serious politics to the big boys and girls.
“A Labour Councillor has critisised………….”, must have been her turn for having her face on the front page.
another load of rubbish from a Labour councillor….when will they admit that the financial problems today are a direct result of mis-management by the last Gov’t & their ‘spend now, pay later’ policies?
As for benefit advice etc – Age Uk, CAB and other non-statutory bodies do this very well!
And so does the Council already through its roviing “benefits bus”
I subscribe to petrolprices.com and get daily/weekly email alerts for the cheapest petrol pump prices in Warrington and I can tell you now that petrol prices did not go down by the full penny. This was confirmed by an article in the Daily Mail (and you can’t say they are anti-government): https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1369973/Thanks-Petrol-prices-dip-just-0-6p-litre-fuel-companies-fail-pass-duty-cut-motorists.html . But actually, I think this article is about the LibDem-Tory run council’s leader not even acknowledging, in his 10 minute speech, that older people etc…. instead, I’m told he was even praising himself for getting a national award…from the Liberal Democrat party bigwigs. We can argue till the cows come home about why the country’s finances are in the state they are in, but surely we need our elected representatives to be forward thinking and come up with solutions that work…not be backward thinking and hark on about blame… if they do that they might as well stay at home and indulge in sofa-politics like the rest of us. As for targetting the winter fuel payments…hasn’t the government just announced they are getting rid of pensioner tax credits because means tested benefits are too financially burdensome to administer? Surely that must prove why universal winter fuel benefits for older people are the right way to go… especially given that Age Uk tell us that older people are much more likely to be deterred from claiming means tested benefits.
Went down by 1p at Morrisons in Stockton Heath, and the other 2 petrol stations nearby.
I take it back then…. flaming petrolprices.com, here i am extolling their email alert service!
If they want to do something about pensions then they should try and iron out the anomaly of the new State Pension of £155, although this is due to only new claimamts. It could be that the rest of us might be going to get £140 (when?). We are by far the poorest Pensioners in Europe and we ought to legislating for an overall increase and then Pensioners would not require additional means testing and hand outs!
Interestingly the UK has the lowest petrol prices in Europe, BUT, the highest petrol taxes. Whilst there was a 1p cut in fuel duty, oil prices have been rising again and when the increase works it way through to the pumps the VAT on the new price will more than compensate the government for the 1p cut in fuel duty. Coupled to which duty is planned to go up by 5p next year. The average £1.50 per litre is not far away and £2 per litre will probably be with us in 2012/13, and with further trouble in the Middle East, somewhat sooner. And to think in the early 1970s a barrel of oil was $2!
The £155 is the £140 adjusted for inflation, current pensioners will not get anywhere near either figure.
they also promptly went back up just as quick. The Shell garage opposite the hospital is back up to £1.39.9 a litre for diesel! Just a con to be honest!
what is interesting is she fails to say how her Labour Gov stole £5 Billion pounds from the pension fund – If they get in they will steal from the leafy wards as Cllr Terry (I’ve claimed lots of mileage) O’neill says
Cllr Pat Wright looks like she is worried about services for old folk because she will be needing it soon I think!
The UK does not have the lowest petrol price in Europe by a long way. And we are the 2nd most expensive for Diesel. Check for yourself here –> https://www.theaa.com/onlinenews/allaboutcars/fuel/2011/march2011.pdf
Its because its election time – whats the difference in four words between a Lib Dem councillor and a Labour councillor —????? THEY WORK FOR ALL
GET THIS MESSAGE OUT TO ALL OF wARRINGTON GREENFROG – If they get in can the last person leaving Warrington please turn out the lights