Winter Fuel Payment

Alison Griffiths Excerpts

Tuesday 10th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Emma Reynolds)]

This has been an important debate, with many hon. and right hon. Members making important contributions. My hon. Friends the Members for Wirral West (Matthew Patrick), for Bracknell (Peter Swallow), for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth), for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh (Chris Murray), for Rugby (John Slinger) and for Makerfield (Josh Simons) rightly spoke about the importance of this Government’s action to restore economic stability so that we can rebuild our economy and our public services. My hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Northfield (Laurence Turner) rightly reminded us that a strong economy needs strong public services. Many hon. Members, both on—

[Alison Griffiths (Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) (Con)]

Will the Minister give way?

[Emma Reynolds]

I am going to make a little bit of progress.

Many hon. Members, both on—

[Alison Griffiths]

Will the Minister give way?

[Emma Reynolds]

I said I will make some progress, thank you.

Many hon. Members, both on the Government side and on the Opposition Benches, including my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) and the hon. Member for Castle Point (Rebecca Harris), spoke about the work they are doing to encourage pensioners in their own constituencies to apply for pension credit to get the support they need.

I want to start by saying some more about the principles that underlie the Government’s approach to means-testing winter fuel payments. First, most help should be targeted to those who most need it. Secondly, significant support for all pensioners will come around via the triple lock. Thirdly, alongside that, extra help will be available to those on low incomes.

--- Later in debate ---

[Emma Reynolds]

No, I will not.

Moreover, the warm home discount of £150 will help low-income pension households this year. That is critically important, because it is not just for the lowest-income pensioners on pension credit. It is for pensioners on low incomes who have high energy costs, and it will be open to application in October.

[Alison Griffiths]

rose—

[Emma Reynolds]

I have said to the hon. Lady that I will not give way, and I will not give way, so she should sit down.

The Government encourage Members to boost awareness and encourage people to apply for the warm home discount.

[Alison Griffiths]

rose—

[Emma Reynolds]

I will give way.

[Alison Griffiths]

I thank the Minister, but I should like her to explain why this Government have failed to extract any concessions from the train drivers and their union paymasters.

[Emma Reynolds]

rose—

[Alison Griffiths]

I have not finished. The Government’s “digital centre of government” was all ready to use technology to improve public services, but there has been a complete failure of negotiation, and the price is being paid by our pensioners.

[Emma Reynolds]

I honestly think that Conservative Members have some brass neck. During their time in power, we lost an average of 3 million working days a year to strikes because of their failure to deal with industrial action, and we lost 1.4 million NHS appointments which were cancelled, which meant that pensioners and others were in pain for longer than they needed to be. We will not take lectures from the Conservatives. We have had to take this difficult decision to means-test the winter fuel payment because of the £22 billion black hole in year, this year. [Interruption.] They may not want to hear it, but they should apologise for leaving that black hole. It was created by repeated and reckless unfunded spending—