Councillors have explained their contrasting winter fuel motions ahead of this week’s meeting of the full council.
Two of the motions being presented at this week’s meeting of full council discuss the winter fuel allowance, which has been a contentious issue ever since the Labour government announced its intention to reduce the number of people in receipt of the payment.
Middlesbrough Independent Councillors Association (MICA) Councillor Mick Saunders has put forward a motion, which asks the council to send a letter to Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, which would call on the government to “reverse the decision (taken by Parliament on the 10th September) to remove winter fuel payments from pensioners”.
Meanwhile, Executive Member for Finance, Labour Councillor Nicky Walker, is also putting forward a motion. It firstly sets out “to commend the work Middlesbrough Council is doing to enrol more eligible pensioners onto Pension Credit”, whilst also asking the council to write to Rachel Reeves to ask that the Treasury “considers reforming eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment to protect those pensioners who will struggle without the Winter Fuel Payment”.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Service, Cllr Saunders said of the winter fuel payment “while I agree that pensioners with substantial savings don’t need it and probably shouldn’t get it, but, there are going to be pensioners who slip through the noose. They could be £20 over this pension credit.”
He explained what the chancellor could have done differently: “if Rachel Reeves had kept it for the Budget”, she could have said the change would take place next April after proper consideration. “For me, it’s been a rushed decision by the Labour government”. He later added “I get the government’s got to do cuts, but this is one step too far”.
He explained that he “agrees with most of the elements” in Cllr Walker’s motion but he simply cannot support it because of two words that vary between his motion and that of his fellow councillor: “It’s reform and reverse, which means so much”. He posed the question “How long does it take to reform something?”
When it was raised to Cllr Saunders that even if the motion is passed, it most likely won’t have a tangible impact on government policy, he confirmed it was still very important to him. “Stockton Council have asked for the reversal, Andy McDonald is not happy about it… he’s concerned about the amount of pensioners it will affect.”
When discussing her motion, Cllr Walker said “I hope that councillors can look beyond our political differences” and “work together to help those lower income pensioners who may just miss out on receiving the winter fuel payment this year”.
She said she thought that most, if not all, councillors will know people in their own ward who will just miss out on pension credit and as a result will just miss out on the winter fuel payment this year. This includes people “who have a small work pension”.
She explained “We want to use the Household Support Fund to prioritise those pensioners to ensure that they do get a payment that will help them with their heating bills this year.”
She emphasised the importance of Middlesbrough Council officers helping people who are eligible to claim pension credit, because “the take-up rate for pension credit nationally is estimated 63%, so there’s obviously going to be a lot of pensioners in Middlesbrough who qualify but aren’t claiming”.
Cllr Walker said the government had to make a decision quickly when they got into office but “we’re saying can you look at that threshold again and can you see if there’s any further mitigation that can be put in place?”
The executive member for finance mentioned that she had seen various council’s motions about the winter fuel allowance, but what is key about the motion she is proposing is that there is not only something to feedback to government but “can we also look at how we can help our pensioners, which is the important thing, let’s work together to help those pensioners who are just missing out on the winter fuel payment”.
On the topic of the winter fuel allowance, last month, A Labour Party spokesperson commented to the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “The Tories wrecked our economy and left a £22bn black hole in the public finances. They made commitments they couldn’t pay for, covered it up and ran away.
“The Labour Party was elected on our manifesto commitment to sound fiscal rules, economic growth is our primary mission and we will take the tough decisions now to rebuild Britain and make every part of the country better off.”
The Labour Party did not respond specifically to Cllr Saunders’ comments at the time of publication.
