THURROCK MP Jen Craft has responded to calls by the Thurrock Tories to vote against a motion on Winter fuel payments.
Ms Craft said: “I was elected as a Labour MP with a mandate to get this country back on its feet after years of Conservative chaos nationally and here in Thurrock locally. Not all of our decisions will be universally popular, but we have had to take tough decisions due to the state the country has been left in.
I am frankly astonished to receive this letter from Thurrock Conservatives who have hiked our council tax by 18%, due to their financial mismanagement of the council, a tax that hits pensioners particularly hard.
The Winter Fuel Allowance is being means tested, not taken away, and was the only allowance of its kind that was not means tested. There are around 800,000 pensioners who are entitled to Pension Credit who are currently not claiming it, who would still be entitled to the Winter Fuel Allowance, so I encourage everyone to check their entitlement to this.
We are committed to the pension triple lock, which will mean every pensioner receiving on average £900 extra a year. We are also fixing our broken energy system which will result in lower bills for everyone, taking back control of our energy, ensuring that we are no longer dependent on Putin and the global gas prices.
If we continue down the path the Tories set, making irresponsible, unfunded economic decisions, everyone in our country will continue to feel the pain. We need to stabilise the economy and by doing so we will see: a rise in living standards, an ability to properly fund and support the public services like the NHS, that all of us, particularly pensioners rely on.
I will be responding to Councillor Jeffries in due course, I am currently receiving a significant number of enquiries from constituents and I am and will continue to prioritise people who need my urgent help, over political enquiries.
“So far, my office has handled over 160 cases, many helping people who have been left in desperate circumstances due to not only the perilous economic state of the country, but the appalling mess the Tories left the Council in. I will always put my constituents over political point scoring”.
I am hugely disappointed that the Winter Fuel allowance has been taken away from most pensioners especially when this decision is taken by people on huge salaries. It was a terrible decision and is quite honestly not something most people will forgive. However you want to explain away the reasons for it most people will know that this saving could have been made from a different source. It’s just not good enough from a Labour government.
I am hugely disappointed that the Winter Fuel allowance has been taken away from most pensioners especially when this decision is taken by people on huge salaries. It was a terrible decision and is quite honestly not something most people will forgive. However you want to explain away the reasons for it most people will know that this saving could have been made from a different source. It’s just not good enough from a Labour government. I have not already said this so please let me post!
To the tune of The Red Flag,
The Pensioners can freeze their ass,
I’ve got the MP,s job at last