Details of a petition signed by hundreds of thousands of people has been presented to the Labour Party in Banbury calling on the government to restore Winter Fuel Payments to pensioners. An estimated 17,638 pensioners in Banbury will lose up to £300 in Winter Fuel Payment after 347 Labour MPs, including Cllr Sean Woodcock MP, voted to scrap the scheme last month, with 25,043 elderly residents across Cherwell District set to be affected.
Now, more than 240,000 people across the country have signed a Conservative Party petition calling for the Labour government to restore pensioners’ Winter Fuel Payments.
A letter containing instructions on how to access the petition was delivered to the Labour Group at Bodicote House by Conservative Group Leader on Cherwell District Council and Oxfordshire County Council, Cllr Eddie Reeves, and colleagues on 29 October 2024 ahead of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves MP’s Budget on 30 October 2024.
Commenting on the petition, Cllr Reeves said:
“This petition shows how many people agree with the Conservatives that scrapping Winter Fuel Payments in this way is profoundly wrong.
“Labour must do the right thing and protect pensioners on the lowest incomes. Doing so would end the anxiety facing pensioners whose fixed incomes cannot rise to meet the falling support available to them under the previous Conservative government.
“Whatever the merits of Labour’s attempt to reduce welfare payments, its means of doing so in this instance is divisive and discriminatory. It cannot be right to withdraw £300 from a pensioner earning as little as £13,000 a year or £1,074 per month.
“Local Conservatives are calling on Labour in Banbury – and across Oxfordshire – to protect the incomes of pensioners in the greatest need. In the absence of a government u-turn, we are calling for a grown-up, cross-party approach from District and County Councillors to help those in the most acute need by way of targeted support through the Council Tax and local benefits system to help them through the Winter.
“A majority of Cherwell District Councillors have made it clear that they are against Labour’s plan to take money away from pensioners on low incomes. Sadly, Oxfordshire County Councillors were denied the opportunity of a vote on this important subject at our meeting on 10 September. I have, however, tabled another motion in the sincere hope that we can have this debate locally at our next Full Council meeting on 5 November.”
