The NPC is making an 11th hour appeal to Chancellor Rachel Reeves to show compassion to millions of older people in her Budget by reversing cuts to the Winter Fuel Payment.
The UK’s largest campaign group run for and by retired people is calling on the Chancellor to heed the many warnings about the devasting impact the cuts will have on our oldest and most vulnerable.
STATEMENT BY NPC GENERAL SECRETARY JAN SHORTT
Jan Shortt, General Secretary of the NPC says: “The Chancellor still has time to reverse the cuts to the universal winter fuel payments. Older people tell us they are distraught at the loss of the £200 to £300 to offset high fuel bills. They don’t know how they will cope.
Since the shock announcement of the cuts in July, the new government have shown huge disrespect for older people by misrepresenting their value and worth and creating stereotypical images that are extremely inaccurate to say the least.
The rhetoric of supporting pensioners is old hat and ageist, and an insult to the generation that has given everything. The picture portrayed of older people is not one of service to the community, but one of taking something we don’t need or haven’t paid for. Nothing is further from the truth.
The over 65 age group is the largest group of volunteers in the country. Even though we have left our paid work, we use our time, energy and bus passes to help others. Charities could not operate without the input of older people. We pay circa £160 billion into the Treasury in direct taxes and VAT; we save the government circa £192 billion in unpaid caring for family; and childcare adds another £7.7 billion to the coffers.
There are rich pensioners. Around 1.1 million have pension pots of over £1million. Around another 800,000 have extremely good occupational pensions.
However, on the reverse side, the majority of pensioners – several million - struggle on a fixed income, worried about every bill that falls on their doormat. Now they have critical choices to make – heat, eat, pay for care or another bill. And the Chancellor thought she had made a 'tough' choice.
The justification for the cut in the winter fuel allowance is fantasy rather than fact. The Bank of England and other financial institutions have clearly said paying the winter fuel allowance this year would not cause a run on the pound, nor constitute economic disaster. So, what the is real reason?
Older generation don’t deserve such disrespect
Older people are retiring in poorer health than those before them. Lack of access to GPs, or appointments for treatments and diagnosis, and the loss of preventative services mean that those retiring now will spend all of their retirement in varying degrees of ill health. Yet the new government has no answer to the crisis in social care.
“There has been so much evidence from so many verifiable sources presented on the impact of the cuts since they were announced.
So we are making a last minute plea to Chancellor Rachel Reeves – ‘please listen to the voices of older people and use your Budget to avert disaster.”
NB: The NPC says the government’s insistence that older people won’t lose out thanks to a ‘£400 a year’ rise in the State Pension next April is wrong. Only about a quarter of retirees currently receive the new, higher rate state pension which would give them the £400 increase. Most retirees are on the old (pre-2016) and much lower state pension, so the rise will be much less.
ENDS
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