‘I haven’t heard anything from them,’ pensioners reveal lack of communication following one-off Winter Fuel Payment announcement

Pensioners on the street are confused about the scheme that promises 5,000 pensioners living in the borough a one-off payment to help cover bills

Pensioners across Tower Hamlets say they have not been told anything about a one-off £175 lump sum from the council to help cover their bills after the Winter Fuel Payment was cut back this winter.

Mayor, Lutfur Rahman, announced last Wednesday (October 16) that nearly 5,000 eligible pensioners living in the borough will receive the payment, though it remains unclear how it will be communicated and whether people have to apply for it.

He said that the initiative was to plug the gap left by the Labour Government’s recent cut and would be available to those not on Pension Credit or another means-tested benefit. The £175 payment will be partly funded by the government’s Household Support Fund (HSF), totalling a £900,000 investment in the elderly in the borough.

The council’s safety net is slightly less than the means-tested Winter Fuel Payment, worth £200 or £300 depending on when someone is born.

Asab Miah, 67, from Bow, said he hadn’t heard from the authorities about the scheme. He said that he will have to leave his job as an Uber driver in January and worries that the money that he gets from State Pension won’t be enough to sustain him when he retires.

‘If they gave it, it will help, otherwise it won’t help. Last year I received the [Winter Fuel] money, but this year when they sent the letter they said no. This is the rule of the Government, but some rule is not good for the people. I have to cut a little bit of food money each time. They don’t care much about the people.’

Eileen Gilbey, 83, said on the Government cuts: ‘Me and my friends, we’ve worked all our lives and paid all our taxes and just because we’ve saved a little bit from our working days to make sure we’re alright when we’re retired [we don’t get the benefits others do] – it wasn’t worth it, we should’ve gone out and spent it. I think it’s very unfair, but there’s nothing I can do about that.’

When asked if she’d heard about the council’s £175 pledge, she said that she wasn’t aware of it but would apply if the council communicated how to.

She added: ‘Every little helps. I wouldn’t say no to anything, to be quite honest whatever they give us is probably not enough, but I’d be grateful. Now they just need to let us know all about it.’

Wapping resident Henry McLaren, 76, said he was fully in favour of the Winter Fuel Payments being taken away for people who don’t need it.

He said about the council’s £175 payment: ‘It should be means-tested and should only go to those people who are seriously in need. I won’t be applying for it, I don’t need it.’

Gary Connolly, 72, from Bow, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: ‘I haven’t heard anything from them. If they explain how to do it I would apply. It would help out with the gas and electric.’

He said the news that Labour would be cutting the Winter Fuel Payments came ‘completely out of the blue’, adding: ‘I’m 72, not that old a pensioner, but I go shop and I see women in their late 80s putting £3 in the gas or something and they’re taking that away from them. What sort of country is this?’

Another woman, who asked not to be named, said: ‘We’re happy we’ve accepted [not receiving the payment], there’s nothing we can do about it, so let someone who really needs it get it. It was a shock because it does come in handy and the electric bills are very high.

‘I’m not taking it just for taking sake. We can eat, we’ve got a roof over our heads and we’re warm and that’s all you need nowadays. Maybe if all of us who don’t need it say no, they might up it for those who do.’

Brian Bickerstaff, 82, said he was told he was just over the limit for Pension Credit, but that he hadn’t heard about the council’s one-off payments. He said he would be interested but that if the application process was too lengthy he wouldn’t want to go through a long questionnaire, like the one for Pension Credit, to receive it.

One lady in the Shadwell area, who was the only person to say she had read about the council’s scheme online, said she was uncertain that the payment would be sent out to people and that she would not be trusting the council’s word: ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.’

Tower Hamlets Council has been contacted for comment.

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