Pensioners to ‘freeze to death’ thanks to Rishi Sunak’s Spring Statement and cost of living crisis – Yorkshire Post Letters

IT was interesting to read Tory peer Ros Altmann’s take on the Chancellor’s Spring Statement regarding pensioners (The Yorkshire Post, March 25).

Rishi Sunak’s evasion over prepayment meters made worse by Mel Stride and lacklustre Treasury Committee inquisition – The Yorkshire Post says

She concludes her article by saying “they deserve better. I would have liked to see more support being allocated for this year to these vulnerable members of society”.

Somewhat mealy-mouthed I think… well, as she is a pensions expert, I would have liked to see her publish what correspondence she had with the Chancellor prior to his standing up on Wednesday.

She must surely have urged him to consider this large group of people who have worked hard all their lives in order to claim what is rightfully theirs.

Or is she just going to tow the party line and accept that some of us are going to starve or 
freeze to death in the coming months?

Exactly how are pensioners going to afford the rocketing increases in council tax, the price of food, gas, electricity, petrol etc. on a measly 3.1 per cent uplift?

It cannot be beyond anyone with a bit of nous to realise that a policy that would help pensioners is easily realisable.

Waiting until next year is yet another ‘jam tomorrow’ kick in the false teeth and is, indeed, as she says – totally unacceptable.

From: Julian Sturdy, Tory MP for York Outer.

I WAS pleased to see the Chancellor help family budgets by significantly raising the threshold at which people pay National Insurance from £9500 to £12,570. This is worth over £330 a year to almost 30 million workers, and delivers on the 2019 Conservative manifesto commitment to do this.

I am encouraged that this will more than offset the previously announced NI rise to fund the NHS and social care reform for 70 per cent of employees, but want to see how this works out in practice.

Having previously lobbied Ministers on ensuring the right support is available for the most vulnerable households through the Universal Credit system, I am glad the NI and fuel measures are being reinforced with targeted assistance for the poorest homes, with the Household Support Fund doubled to £1bn to help up to four million families.

Overall, these steps give me reassurance the Government is serious about cushioning York families from rising inflation.

However, the developing situation means Ministers need to stay ready to go further and faster to protect households financially.

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