Up to 5,500 Bristol East pensioners will miss out on Cold Weather Payments, Popham

3.15.00pm GMT Tue 12th Jan 2010

"Up to 5,500 Bristol East pensioners will miss out on Cold Weather Payments triggered by the recent weather, according to analysis of Government figures by the Liberal Democrats.", Mike Popham, Bristol East Lib Dem prospective MP said.

Cold Weather Payments of £25 a week are paid to people on low incomes who receive a qualifying benefit, such as Pension Credit, which goes unclaimed by as many as 1.7m pensioners nationally.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Steve Webb said:

"It is a scandal that pensioners on the breadline are missing out on these payments, worth an estimated £42.5m.

"Fuel prices are at an all time high, making Cold Weather Payments all the more important to people already struggling on a poverty pension.

"Labour has failed pensioners by creating a complicated system that makes it difficult for them to get the help they desperately need.

Mike Popham, for Bristol East added "The Labour Government should have been strenuously working to avoid pensioners having to suffer like this and get them this extra cash, and the Tory Official Opposition should not have been sitting on their hands watching it happen."

Notes to Editors:

1. People can get Cold Weather Payments worth £25 when temperatures are below zero degrees Celsius for seven consecutive days when they claim a qualifying benefit. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Inretirement/DG_10018668

2. Pension Credit is a qualifying benefit yet Department for Work and Pensions figures for 2007-08 (the most recent available) show that between 1.1m and 1.7m pensioners who are poor enough to qualify for Pension Credit do not claim, meaning they won't receive Cold Weather Payments to help with fuel bills during the recent cold snap http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/income_analysis/jun_2009/0708_PensionCredit.pdf

3. A table is attached showing estimates of the number of pensioners in each parliamentary constituency and government region that are missing out on Cold Weather Payments.