BCP’S Conservatives have called on the council to write to the chancellor Rachel Reeves for an “urgent” review into the Winter Fuel Payments decision.
On Tuesday, parliament Dorset’s MPs were divided over Labour’s plans to cut the winter fuel allowance for pensioners.
A motion to annul the government’s cuts to winter fuel payments was defeated by 348 votes to 228, despite the backing of Mid Dorset and North Poole MP Vikki Slade, Christchurch MP Sir Chris Chope and North Dorset MP Simon Hoare.
Labour’s Jessica Toale, Bournemouth West MP, Tom Hayes, Bournemouth East MP, and South Dorset MP Lloyd Hatton voted with their party to axe the winter fuel payment regulations.
Poole MP Neil Duncan-Jordan, a critic of his government’s position on the winter fuel payments, is believed to have not recorded a vote.
Conservative BCP group leader Phil Broadhead has tabled a motion to be put to full council at next month’s meeting.
His motion says there are an estimated 75,627 pensioners in the BCP area who will lose their fuel allowance.
The motion which councillors will vote on says: “The decision to means-test Winter Fuel Payments, especially with such short notice and without adequate compensatory measures, is deeply unfair and will disproportionately affect the health and well-being of our poorest older residents.
“The government’s approach fails to consider the administrative barriers and stigma that prevent eligible pensioners from claiming Pension Credit, leaving many without the support they desperately need.”
The Tories have asked the council bring forward an awareness campaign to alert those eligible of pension credit, and to write to Rachel Reeves to “ensure that vulnerable pensioners [...] are protected from fuel poverty".
Poole MP Neil Duncan-Jordan up until the vote had rebelled against his government’s stance on the payments, even tabling a motion to keep the payments.
But on September 10, he abstained from voting. He told parliament earlier that afternoon: “In my constituency, around 19,000 people will miss out.
“The UK has long-standing problems such as poor housing that is difficult to keep warm, one of the lowest pensions in Europe, rising energy costs, and annual cold-related winter deaths among older people—I could go on, but I am running out of time.
“I urge the government to think seriously about delaying this proposal and, in its place, putting forward a pensioner taskforce to look at how we can tackle pensioner poverty in the UK.”
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