Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2024
Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Excerpts(2 weeks, 1 day ago)
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Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (LD)
My Lords, I rise to speak to the Motion standing in my name, the third of the Motions on the Order Paper today. In doing so, I must stress sympathy with the sentiments spoken of so well on the Motion from the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann. However, I understand from reading the House that there is not a lot of support in your Lordships’ House for the fatal Motion—although, as I say, I have great sympathy with it.
My Motion calls attention to the most vulnerable pensioners, many of whom will lose support just as energy bills are set to rise again. About 10 million pensioners will lose winter fuel payments of up to £300 because of the decision taken by this Government, after years of Conservative mismanagement that has left the public finances in crisis. But this is the wrong answer to the challenges we face: it is clear that many pensioners rely on a winter fuel payment, which is not a luxury.
Pension Credit
Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Excerpts(2 weeks, 3 days ago)
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Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
My Lords, the pressures were such that some of the money had to be found in this financial year, because a series of expenditure gaps came to light in this financial year. We have already cut other capital programmes, and departments are absorbing pressures. This was a cut that could be made in-year, so it was added to it.
I am sorry to say that this is not the last difficult decision this Government are going to be forced to make, but we will try to target things appropriately. I think most Members of the House would agree that something like a winter fuel payment should not be going to the roughly quarter of pensioners who have a million pounds in assets; it should not be going to those who can manage. What we should be doing is trying to target the money at those who need it most, and that is what we set out to do.
Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (LD)
My Lords, the Minister has talked about encouraging people who are entitled to pension credit to claim it. Does she agree that they do not claim it for reasons of pride, or perhaps because they are unable to cope with the system? How are the Government going to encourage this large number of people to claim pension credit, because if they do not, they will not have the winter fuel allowance? I have doubts that people will actually claim it to any great degree.
Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
The noble Lord makes an important point and I am grateful to him for doing so. Certainly, a significant number of pensioners do claim pension credit—1.4 million have managed to claim and do get it as a result. So, our job is to get the next surge of people to do that. DWP has a big campaign on: we had a week of action last week, and we work with partners such as charities and local authorities to go out and promote the campaign. From next week, we are running a national marketing campaign on a range of channels, including national print and radio. We will be targeting people of pension age but also friends and family, who can encourage them to apply. It can be tough, but sometimes we need to make people understand that there is lots of help out there. They can call the department free of charge and get charities to help them. If people are really stuck, we have a DWP home visiting team, which will visit the vulnerable and help them make a claim. So I urge all noble Lords: by all means let us have the fight in here, but please put the word out and let us get people to claim what they are entitled to.
European Social Charter
Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Excerpts(3 weeks, 2 days ago)
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Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
My Lords, in a sense we have indicated our support for the contents of the revised charter by signing it. Deciding to ratify it is a decision to be bound by its provisions, so it makes sense to be able even to consider ratification only at the point at which the Government have been able to do an assessment and conclude that domestic law and practice will be compliant with it.
Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (LD)
My Lords, as I understand the Minister’s reply, the Government want to ratify the treaty only when and if there are adequate resources. On the basis of adequate resources, can she say what steps her department has taken to maximise the take up of pension credit by all those entitled to it?
Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
Nice try. Just to clarify, I should say that I was not talking about resources in terms of ratification. To ratify a treaty is to agree to be bound by its provisions. If UK domestic law and practice will not meet those provisions, the UK cannot ratify a treaty only to find that it would be instantly in breach of it. That is what this is about; it is not about resources. However, on the question of pension credit, we are in the middle of a week of action in which the Department for Work and Pensions is working with local authorities and other partners to encourage pensioners across the country to apply for pension credit. We are developing new plans to go further through the winter. We want everybody who is entitled to it to get pension credit, and will be out there working to make sure that they do.