Crucial Vote Next Week on Winter Fuel Payments: Contact your MP!

Thanks everyone for your support for this petition, now we ask you all to do one thing for us, contact your constituency MP. The Government is trying to railroad through its plan to deprive 10 million pensioners of the essential winter fuel payment. It has laid Regulations in Parliament which will bring this change into effect on 16 September. It looks like there will be a vote in Parliament next Tuesday, but no doubt Labour will whip its MPs to support the Regulations. It is critical that these Regulations are either withdrawn or defeated next week. 

So please can you write to your MP  this week asking them to lobby against these Regulations. you can find the contact details of your MP on the following link. always provide your address so that your MP knows you live in their constituency. 

https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP 

Here is a template for an email you could use, if you don't want to compose your own: 

(Dear MP) As a matter of urgency I implore you to write to the Prime Minister and Chancellor requesting them to withdraw the current Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2024 before they come into force on 16 September. This policy was not contained within the Labour Manifesto nor mentioned during the General Election campaign, there has been no consultation on it, and no impact assessment carried out. It is undemocratic, in these circumstances, for a vital support payment to be withdrawn from 10 million citizens at such short notice. If there is any parliamentary vote on the Regulations, please vote against them.  

The impact of this policy will be severe this winter, with charities estimating that 2 million older people will struggle to pay their energy bills. Excess deaths due to cold-related conditions are expected to increase. An acceptable course of action by the Government would be to continue with the normal winter fuel payments this year and conduct a wide-ranging consultation and impact assessment on future options for these payments. There are fairer and less cruel ways of proceeding than confining payments to those below the very low pension credit limit of £218 per week. For example, the representative organisation for older people, Silver Voices, has suggested a cut-off point for the payments at the level of the higher rate of tax. END

And if you haven't  yet joined Silver Voices to help with our campaign you can do so here: www.silvervoices.co.uk/join-us