Fleur Anderson says nearly 10,000 of her constituents will be affected
Fleur Anderson at the Houses of Parliament
Putney MP Fleur Anderson says that changes introduced by the government this week will result in a real terms pension cut for nearly 10,000 of her constituents.
She says that many older people and families could see any savings to the energy bills in the recent packages of measures wiped out by changes to the state pension.
Ms Anderson added said, “Amazing and hardworking local organisations such as Age UK Wandsworth, and Regenerate Rise and Crew Energy who already go the extra mile for the elderly in our constituency, will be left to fill yet more gaps left by insufficient government financial support to the elderly.
“Residents of Putney, Roehampton and Southfields likewise know the strain that local social care services are under, further cuts the pensions of the elderly will push yet more elderly people into financial hardship and only increase the burden on the brilliant yet overworked and underpaid carers and social workers in our borough.
“With working people, families and pensioners struggling to make ends meet along with rising child and pensioner poverty this is clear proof that the Government are simply not on the side of working people or pensioners.”
Analysis from the Labour Party claims to show that the basic state pension will be worth hundreds of pounds less in real terms over the next year, affecting 9482 pensioners in the constituency.
As a result of rising inflation and the decision to only increase the state pension by 3.1 per cent, a basic state pension for an individual could be worth around £222 less in real terms over a year than in 2021/22. According to the latest Bank of England Forecasts, CPI is set to average around 6.2% in 2022/23. For a couple it will be worth around £355 less. This is a real-terms cut to the state pension that is more than the amount that is being provided to households to reduce their energy bills over the next year.
The Commons approved the new pension rates on Monday 7 February in breach of the Conservative party’s earlier commitment to maintain a triple lock on pensions which means that they will come into effect from Friday 1 April.
Labour is proposing a windfall tax on energy companies.
The government claims that pensioners claiming the basic rate would be £2,300 better off in cash terms than when the Conservatives came to power 12 years ago.
Work and pensions minister David Rutley told the Commons, "The state pension is a foundation of support for older people. With this order the basic state pension will rise to £149.26 a week for a single person. This means that a full yearly basic state pension will increase by £2,300 a year higher in cash terms than in April 2010.
"The full rate of the new state pension will increase from £185.15 per week. This increase means that over the two years of the pandemic the basic new state pensions will have increased by 5.6% while CPI in the two years to September 2021 was 3.6%."
He said the Government "remains committed" to reverting back to the pension triple lock in future years
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
February 11, 2022
