Winter Fuel Payment
Ashley Fox Excerpts(2 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Sir Ashley Fox (Bridgwater) (Con)
I speak on behalf of 19,300 pensioners in my constituency who are set to lose their winter fuel allowance. Some 23% of my constituents are aged 65 or over, which is well above the national average. Many retired people in my constituency have done the right thing: they have worked all their lives, paid their national insurance stamp, and now have a small private pension and modest savings. It is because they have done the right thing that many of those pensioners are not eligible to claim pension credit. This Government are choosing to punish them for the prudent and conscientious choices they made through their working lives by withdrawing this important means of support.
Labour justified the decision to cut the winter fuel allowance by talking about its alleged poor economic inheritance. Let us take a moment to clear up some facts. In 2010, the budget deficit was about 11% of GDP at £157 billion. Today, it is about 4% of GDP. In 2010, unemployment was about 8%, and today it has halved and is about 4%. In May 2010, inflation was 3.4%. Today it is 2%. This is not the worst economic inheritance since the war.
Patrick Spencer
I am sure my hon. Friend will agree when I say that the economic inheritance that the Government received is incredible, considering that we had to deal with the covid pandemic crisis as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That put huge pressure on our economy.
Sir Ashley Fox
My hon. Friend makes an important point. It just emphasises the fact that when the Chancellor says that it is a tough decision that has to be made, she is actually making a political choice. She has chosen to give train drivers earning £60,000 a year a pay rise of 15%. She has chosen to cut the income of retired people with a pension of £15,000 a year. That was her choice, and the British people will judge her and the Labour party on it.
Oral Answers to Questions
Ashley Fox Excerpts(2 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (James Murray)
As Ministers, we greatly value and respect trade unions and the work of trade union representatives in supporting their members. While it is not appropriate for me to comment on individual cases, I will look into this matter further and respond to my hon. Friend in due course.
Sir Ashley Fox (Bridgwater) (Con)
The Chancellor’s decision to cut the winter fuel payment is forecast to save £1.5 billion. Can she advise the House what other options she considered for making savings in the Department for Work and Pensions budget before deciding to make this cut?
Rachel Reeves
The black hole we inherited was £22 billion. We announced in the statement on 29 July £5.5 billion of savings to reduce the size of that black hole, but the hon. Gentleman can see there is still work to be done and we will be setting out further measures in the Budget on 30 October to get a grip of the public finances.