Thousands of pensioners in Exeter will miss out on the winter fuel payment this year.
Last year 20,384 pensioners in Exeter received payments of up to £300 per household, depending on the age of the people eligible.
The government intends to scrap the blanket payment to all qualifying households as a way of mitigating a financial ‘black hole’ which it says it inherited from the Conservatives.
The move has attracted a storm of protest, and Exeter City Council’s Liberal Democrat group leader Michael Mitchell (Duryard and St James) will ask fellow councillors to back a motion calling for a different approach.
He says that under the new policy, only 2,240 pensioners in the city will receive the benefit this year, and 18,144 will lose it.
And he says that although many people say universal winter fuel payments are not necessary, there is ‘deep concern’ that many pensioners on lower and middle incomes will now not receive the payments.
Across England and Wales the number of people eligible will fall by 10 million to 1.5 million.
Cllr Mitchell wants the Labour-led city council to acknowledge that the government has set the threshold at which pensioners do not qualify for the payments too low. He is also calling for the council to increase awareness of benefits such as Pension Credit to ensure people are aware of the support they are entitled to.
At a meeting of the full council next week he will call on colleagues to ask the chancellor to think again, and to call on Exeter’s MPs for their support.
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