[ad_1]
Unite is moving to take legal action against the government to end winter fuel cuts for millions of pensioners.
Unite claims the government did not follow the correct procedure and has directed lawyers who are asking the High Court for an urgent judicial review of the government’s decision to limit payments to poor pensioners.
The policy, announced in July, attracted criticism, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves saying it was intended to help plug a £22bn hole in the public finances.
United’s general secretary Sharon Graham told the BBC that “picking pensioners’ pockets is wrong at every level”.
An estimate 10 million pensioners to lose winter fuel paymentsWorth between £100 and £300. The benefit will still be paid to people who receive means-tested help from Pension Credit or other sources.
Of those, 200,000 are Unite members, and the union says it is acting on behalf of retired members who are struggling to make ends meet.
Many of them have meager private pensions that make them ineligible for pension credit – and therefore ineligible for winter fuel payments, Unite said.
Juliet Jeter is one of 11 UNITE members who have joined the union in the lawsuit.
He told the BBC he believed the Pension Credit threshold was too low and “you really have to be on the breadline” to qualify for it.
Jeter, a 70-year-old retired teacher who lives in a village in Northamptonshire, said she needed to pay for winter fuel to heat her cottage.
In a recent winter, he was given scrap wood by a neighbor, a carpenter, to heat his house.
Jeter, a former Labor member, said she was surprised to find herself better off under the previous Conservative government.
He said: “I am quite angry about what has happened.
“Last year when we had a Conservative government, I actually got five hundred pounds, which was a winter fuel allowance plus a cost of living payment.
“I got nothing this year.”
Jeter is now a Green Party activist.
Unite claimed the government should have done more to gather evidence on the impact of the cuts before announcing them.
Earlier this month, Muttahida threatened legal action. Unless the government cancels the deductions or provides further evidence for them.
The government carried out a limited “equity analysis” and told the Parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee that 50,000 people could fall into relative poverty next year. As a result of the withdrawal of payments – although this may be reduced by the increased take-up of pension credit.
But the union says this falls short of a full impact assessment that would also take into account the impact on the health of older people.
Ms Graham told the BBC the government had come up with something ‘without knowing what it would cost in terms of disease, what it would cost in terms of death.’
Asked why she was backing potentially expensive legal action, she said: “I want the courts to hear it quickly and say that if the impact is not properly assessed, the government will actually Need to go back. Initially and in the interim, they are required to pay the winter fuel allowance for that year.”
Otherwise, he argued that “people will not forgive Labour’s decision – picking the pockets of pensioners is wrong on every level”.
“This problem is not going away,” Ms Graham said.
The union also claimed that the Independent Social Security Advisory Committee should have been consulted earlier.
But in a letter to the committee, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said they needed to act quickly to bring in the necessary regulations before winter and deliver year-round savings in government spending.
The government has said it cannot comment on ongoing legal proceedings.
But a spokesman said the Government was committed to helping pensioners and “millions of people will see their state pension rise by up to £1,900 this Parliament through the triple lock”.
Some will also benefit from a £150 heated home discount.
More than a million pensioners will still receive winter fuel payments, and applications for pension credit have increased significantly, the spokesman added.
There is no guarantee that taking legal action will stop the deductions.
Government sources seem confident that the policy will not be changed in the courts.
But Unite’s action has once again highlighted the controversy over cuts as winter approaches.
Pressure on the government in Westminster is likely to increase if the Scottish Government decides to reduce the cuts in next week’s budget.
And the cross-party Work and Pensions Committee will launch an inquiry into pensioner poverty – which was partly prompted by the cuts – in January.
[ad_2]
Source link