Finance (No. 4) Bill

Robert Flello Excerpts

Thursday 19th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

It has been pretty cold in my constituency in Leeds this winter, as well. My hon. Friend is right to make that point, because people face many extra costs as they get older, such as in heating their home.

[Robert Flello (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)]

I am enjoying my hon. Friend’s speech, and she is being extremely generous in allowing hon. Members of all parties to intervene. To continue her point, pensioners now face an increase in the cost of not only gas and electricity, but of a decent, healthy meal that will sustain them. As people get older and more frail, they need to ensure that they eat proper, decent, balanced meals. Costs are going through the roof all the time and constituents such as mine will look at their weekly household bills and be horrified. To add this insult to that injury is simply a disgrace.

[Rachel Reeves]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. Indeed, Citizens Advice said that the change

“has to be considered in terms of the cumulative impact. Fuel prices continue to rise, and that is a key worry; 43% of the people who come to us are worried that they will not be able to meet their fuel bills. We have examples of people coming into our bureaux who do not heat their homes because they are worried about not being able to afford it... This group of people very often have to rely on their savings in order to live in their retirement, and they are getting very low interest on them.”

My hon. Friends have therefore made good points, which represent their constituents’ very real concerns.

Moreover, pensioners have already been hit hard by the Government. The winter fuel allowance has been cut; pensions have been indexed to a lower measure of inflation; the raising of the state pension age for women has been brought forward, and last year’s VAT rise has added £275 to the costs that an average pensioner couple faces. Evidence from the Institute for Fiscal Studies to the Treasury Committee confirms that, as a result of the tax and benefit changes that the Government have implemented, the incomes of pensioner households have fallen by 1.4%, and most have little prospect or opportunity of making up that loss.

--- Later in debate ---

[Robert Flello]

I would argue that pensioners are not at all immune to the effects of the Government’s policies, whether in terms of their cost of living or their access to the NHS, and almost all the pensioners I speak to also argue that. As a result of the allowance freeze, pensioners are paying more because their allowances are not increasing in line with inflation. They are being hit with a tax, therefore, and what really sticks in their craw is that they are being asked to pay this extra money at a time when it appears to them that millionaires are paying less.

[Margot James]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments, but I should not take any more interventions as other Members wish to speak.