HC Deb 07 February 2000 vol 344 cc8-9
5. Mr. David Winnick (Walsall, North)

If he will make it his policy to provide winter fuel payments for pensioners on a permanent basis. [107191]

The Minister of State, Department of Social Security (Mr. Jeff Rooker)

My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in November 1999 that winter fuel payments would be made every year from now on. Additionally, in December, following a European Court of Justice judgment, we announced our intention to extend the scheme to those aged 60 and over, whether or not they are pensioners.

Mr. Winnick

That is very good news on both counts. Has the £100 winter fuel payment not been of tremendous help to many pensioners, particularly those on low incomes? Does my right hon. Friend recall that, before 1997, no extra money was given unless the weather was freezing for seven consecutive days? Does he agree that that system, which the Conservative Government defended at every opportunity, was both inadequate and farcical? Will the Opposition perform a U-turn by accepting winter fuel payments if they return to office?

Mr. Rooker

The exceptional cold weather payment system still applies but the greenhouse effect means that it does not often come into use. The winter fuel payment to pensioner households is all the more valuable for that. We did not, so far as I am aware, inherit any plan or budget from the previous Government for the payment of that benefit.

Mr. Edward Leigh (Gainsborough)

Will it help pensioners to pay for their fuel or anything else this winter if they are forced to take out annuities—currently at an all-time low—at 75? They are being forced into poverty and not receiving their just deserts because the Government are being totally inflexible.

Mr. Rooker

This is not the time for a debate on annuities, but one must ask what pensioners who complain that they are being forced to buy annuities at 75 had lived on until then. I accept that annuities are a serious issue, but we must not run away with the idea that it affects the poorest people in this country. Those involved have managed to avoid taking out an annuity until they reached 75, and one must ask what they were living on.