The shadow of Parliament loomed heavy over a Crawley Borough Council meeting where Pension Credits and Winter Fuel Payments were discussed.
Labour and Conservative councillors traded barbs on Wednesday (October 16) when two motions were tabled on the subject.
The first, from Tory leader Duncan Crow, said the government’s decision to restrict Winter Fuel Payment to pensioners in receipt of means-tested benefits such as Pension Credits, would impact around 13,000 Crawley people.
He called on the council to commit to signing the ‘Save the Winter Fuel Payment for Struggling Pensioners’ petition being run by Age UK.
The second motion, from council leader Michael Jones, called on officers to work with the likes of Citizens Advice, and community groups to help with Pension Credits applications and to make sure people were aware that they may be eligible.
The debate itself involved a lot of finger-pointing and declarations about whose party had been responsible for what when it came to the state of the country’s finances.
Bob Lanzer (Con, Pound Hill South & Worth) said it looked like the government had ‘caved in’ on pay awards for strikers and then ‘penalised the vulnerable’.
But Tim Lunnon (Lab, Broadfield) placed the blame at the feet of the Conservatives and ‘Liz Truss’s magic money tree’.
Mr Jones admitted that no-one in government was happy with the winter fuel changes.
He pointed out that 1,800 Crawley pensioners had already been contacted about claiming Pension Credits.
And he accused Crawley’s Conservatives of not being ‘genuine’ about the issue, of attacking Labour and ‘playing to the gallery’.
Kim Jaggard (Con, Maidenbower) said Labour was ‘grandstanding’, and asked what the point of the second motion was if the work was already being carried out.
As for the government’s decision regarding Winter Fuel Payments, she added: “It’s the right thing to ask for this decision to be reviewed and it’s the right thing to ask that its impact be properly scrutinised and assessed.”
In the end, Mr Crow’s motion was rejected by 21 votes to ten, while Mr Jones’s was approved – though the entire Tory cohort abstained from voting.
