CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves has poured petrol on the flames of the controversy over winter fuel payments for pensioners.
Her officials at the Treasury leaked figures about wage rises due out next week to the BBC in an effort to cool old folks’ fury.
Statistics for the second quarter of the year show earnings rising by about four per cent, and under the “triple lock” this means pensions will rise by more than £400.
We are supposed to feel grateful for this “good news” but it’s political trickery. The government is trying to hide behind above-inflation state pension rises to excuse the robbery of winter fuel allowances, and it won’t work.
This is not a gift from the Chancellor. The predicted 4% increase comes automatically from the triple lock designed to keep pace with the rising cost of living, to which Labour is committed in the party’s election manifesto.
And the money isn’t paid until next April, long after the big energy bills have to be paid. In no way is this compensation for the pre-Christmas loss of £250 for old folk, which definitely wasn’t in Labour’s election manifesto.
It’s not too late for Robbin’ Rachel to make peace with irate pensioners, and I have the very idea for a decorous U-turn in her October 30 Budget.
Millions of pensioners receive a tiny Christmas bonus. It’s a universal benefit, first introduced by Ted Heath’s Tory government in 1972, continued by Labour after 1974 and enshrined in law in 1978. And despite record price rises, it’s never been increased for more than half a century! With inflation, I calculate that this benefit would now be worth £163.36.
Without turning a complete somersault on her winter fuel payment policy, Chancellor Reeves could uprate this token treat to a real Christmas bonus of £100, or even £150.
Then she might just retrieve Labour’s chances of keeping the votes of oldies. They have inundated MPs with complaints about the unexpected, unjustified withdrawal of a vital benefit introduced in 1997 by Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor.
And they have long memories.