Where is the humanity?
This decision ‘is unforgivable.’
It’s a simple fact that lives will be lost as older people – already struggling to makes ends meet – will turn off their heating and stop eating hot meals to save money.
Parliament never intended to scrutinize the Chancellor’s decision – there has been no consultation or assessment of the impact of the allowance cut.
Withdrawing the winter fuel allowance from 10 million older people was not in the Labour Party Manifesto. Why on earth have they announced this now? They keep saying ‘but we’re keeping the Triple Lock rise on the state pension.’ But that won’t be paid until next April – at the end of the winter! Plus, they forget that not every older person is on the new, higher state pension – the vast majority are not – so the triple lock increase will be much smaller for us.
As for pushing a campaign to increase uptake of Pension Credit by the 880,000 still not receiving it – there is no way they will be able to implement this in time for this winter!”
Part of my anger at what the government has done is over the levels of anxiety so many older people are facing because they don’t know how they will get through the next months.
For me that feels unforgivable.
Where is the understanding, where is the empathy and where is the humanity? There is no way the government doesn’t know this is going to hit some of the people who are already finding it difficult to manage on their income. They have said it is about the broadest shoulders bearing the brunt – but it doesn’t feel like that. We need a strategy for an ageing society.
This not what the electorate voted for. They voted to get rid of the Tory Party with their abysmal austerity measures for the last ten or more years which have hammered working class peoples and older citizens.
I believed, along with millions of other people, that capitalist austerity would be consigned to the history books and that the rich would more than share the financial burden of these Islands.
Alas I was wrong.
Protest the Removal of the Winter Fuel Allowance
Monday 7 October
11.00 – 12.30
NI Assembly
Stormont