Hornchurch and Upminster MP calls on new government to reverses cruel plan to cut winter fuel payments to 17,000 constituents.

The Hornchurch and Upminster MP Julia Lopez is calling on the government to reverse its plan to remove the Winter Fuel Payments to around 17,000 pensioners in her constituency.

Just weeks after the election, the new Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a cut to the Winter Fuel Payment taking hundreds of pounds from Havering’s vulnerable pensioners, money that would usually have helped with their heating bills during the winter. 

Labour’s decision to limit the Winter Fuel Payment to those receiving pension credit (those with an income below £13,000) comes despite Labour’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones MP, saying that Labour had ‘no plans to make changes’ to pensioner benefits. 

Julia Lopez MP believes that, whilst there is a broad consensus that the wealthiest pensioners do not need the winter fuel payment, the Government’s crude method of means testing the benefit will mean that many pensioners who rely on this payment will no longer receive it.  

Now only those on less than £13,000 will receive the support at a time in which Ofgem have announced that the price cap on energy bills is due to rise by 10% from 1 October onward.

Julia Lopez said:

“The new Labour Government has chosen to remove the Winter Fuel Payment from around 17,000 pensioners here in the Hornchurch & Upminster constituency, including some of the most vulnerable. 

“We have known for a long time that it would be Labour’s plan to falsely claim the public finances were worse than they could have known. While we expected this tactic to be deployed to justify tax rises – which we still expect in the autumn – I am surprised that Labour have hit pensioners in this way and so soon.” 

“This is a purely political decision rather than one taken out of necessity. The same week as the plans were announced, Labour found money temporarily to satisfy the unions, making their preferences clear.”

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