Government Replies to Your Petition

The Government has at last replied to our petition calling for policies to protect older people, in a lengthy joint letter on behalf of the Treasury and the DWP, but it is very disappointing because of its omissions: 

• There is no mention of the plight facing up to three million pensioners just above the pension credit eligibility level, or the 800,000 who are eligible for pension credit but do not receive it, as a result of the Winter Fuel Payment being withdrawn
• The letter seeks to justify why there is a difference between the old and new state pensions, but the Silver Voices’ concern about the growing gap between the two (£54 next April) is totally ignored
• No action will be taken on the lower tax threshold until 2028, dragging hundreds of thousands more pensioners on modest incomes into the tax system for the first time
• There are no “current plans” to introduce means-testing of free prescriptions in England, because of the complexities, but the emphasis on “current” is worrying
• Silver Voices also called for means testing of the bus pass to be ruled out, but the Government only says that they have “absolutely no plans to withdraw the concessionary bus pass scheme”. The omission of any assurances on means-testing is most concerning

We can claim a minor victory as the scrapping of the single person council tax discount has been definitively ruled out. 

There is no sign from this official reply that the Government is going to let up on its ambition to target older people's benefits for further savings and our work will be cut out in 2025 to defend your rights and quality of life. 

Join Silver Voices today, as the only truly representative voice of older people in the UK. It's dead simple, just click on the following link: 

www.silvervoices.co.uk/join-us

Thanks for your support. Dennis