Winter fuel concern in Chorley

Around 1,000 pensioners in Chorley are not claiming a benefit that would ensure they keep receiving their winter fuel allowance.

The annual heating bill support payment – worth £200 to anyone aged over 66 and £300 for the over-80s – is now given only to those elderly people who are also entitled to pension credit.

It follows a controversial government move to restrict the previously universal fuel allowance so that it is paid only to the poorest pensioners.

However, a meeting of Chorley Council heard that a significant swathe of the borough’s elderly residents who are eligible for pension credit have never applied for it – and so will now lose out twice over, when their winter fuel payment does not arrive this year.

Labour council leader Alistair Bradley said the authority would write to all those it thinks might not be claiming what they are due, in an attempt to help those people “who it would appear are at the greatest risk”.

But Conservative opposition councillor Craige Southern said he was also concerned for pensioners sitting just above the pension credit threshold.

“It’s the pensioners…that are just managing, just getting by, or the ones that are too proud to ask for it – they’re the ones that I feel sorry for and I think this is where it’s going to [have] most impact,” said Cllr Southern, who noted that the policy was not in the Labour manifesto ahead of the general election.

Labour has said the move is one of the tough decisions that it has had to take since discovering a £22bn “black hole” in the nation’s finances since coming into office – a figure reiterated in the chamber by Cllr Bradley.

However, the leader also said the country’s “scarce resources” should be targeted at those most in need, unlike the previous winter fuel allowance system which gave the cash to “millionaires”, regardless of the fact that they did not need it.

He also drew a distinction between those who might be unable to heat their homes as a result of the cut and the broader need for careful budgeting.

“What [some people] may have to do…is tighten their belt.  We’ve all seen, previously, many people having to tighten their belts because of the policies of the previous Conservative government,” Cllr Bradley said.

The council says it will continue to offer support to its most vulnerable elderly residents via cost-of-living and affordable warmth grants, as well as by continuing to support the Lancashire “warm and welcome spaces” scheme, which sees buildings opened up to people looking for an escape from homes they cannot afford to heat.

The meeting heard that the authority was engaging with communities directly in order to determine where need is greatest.

The council has also resolved to write to the government to call for “further targeted financial support” to the most vulnerable groups who are affected by the winter fuel allowance changes.  The move follows a Labour amendment to a Conservative notice of motion which had called for the council to demand “a review” of the cut.