Chancellor sneaks out Budget blow to Hull pensioners

Hull's elderly are set for a shock later this year when they get up to £100 less from the Tory-led Government to help with winter energy bills.

Many pensioners have come to rely on the Winter Fuel Allowance to ease the pain of soaring heating bills since the benefit was introduced during the first term of the last Labour Government.

When the next payments are made in November or December, most Hull pensioners aged 60 to 79 will get £200 instead of last year's £250. Those 80 or older will get £300 instead of £400.

Many pensioners will not have heard about this particular Government cut because the Chancellor George Osborne tried to keep it quiet. The information did not form part of the 100 plus page Budget document on Wednesday and the information trickled out through the press this morning.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) claim that the change was not mentioned in the Budget because the increased payment was only ever meant as temporary. Only had it been extended to winter 2011/12 would it have been announced.

Hull North MP Diana Johnson said: "The Chancellor should have been honest about this blow to pensioners, instead of trying to sneak out the bad news under the radar.

"With yet another broken promise, the Tory-led Government is making many of our most vulnerable people on fixed incomes bear the cost of their attempts to cut the deficit too far and too fast.

"Not only are they stifling the economic growth that we need to get this deficit down, but are also clobbering Hull's pensioners who are already feeling the squeeze due to rising living costs - including the recent VAT increase."

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