Sheffield Council leader will have to sign a joint letter to chancellor on winter fuel payments

The Sheffield Liberal Democrats submitted a motion for yesterday’s (September 4) full council meeting in which they called on the council to commission an awareness campaign around pension credits after the government’s announcement on winter fuel payment “indicates” 75,000 pensioners will lose access.

This comes after – as the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) revealed – according to data, almost 75,000 pensioners will no longer be eligible for winter fuel payments in Sheffield as the chancellor tries to fill a £22billion black hole in public finances.

The motion also said that they wanted the council to agree that “the ending of universal winter fuel payments combined with the increased energy price cap will push thousands of pensioners into fuel poverty, including in Sheffield” as well as “the threshold at which pensioners do not qualify has been set too low and many on lower and middle incomes will now not receive the payments”.

The group also wanted leaders of the political parties in Sheffield to write to Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, and ask her to suspend and review her policy.

At the meeting, Cllr Rob Reiss (who moved the motion) told the members that even some Labour MPs in Yorkshire have called on the government not to go through with the policy and he asked why Sheffield MPs – all six are members of the governing Labour Party – did not do likewise.

He asked the council to step up and promote the cost of living support – as well as to write to the chancellor saying “we do not stand the universality of this benefit to be removed”.

From the Sheffield Labour Party, Cllr Mark Rusling said if the LibDems’ motion were honest it would refer to the £22bn black hole that “this government inherited from the Tories”.

He added the hole should be filled or the services would break and the “most vulnerable in our society will break with them”.

Cllr Rusling said the Labour government retained the triple-lock pension which could mean an estimated £500 for pensioners next year – “that’s more than the winter fuel payments,” he added.

The Green Party’s Cllr Paul Turpin said after the Tory government the Labour government “is continuing austerity, continuing to make the poor pay for the rich and continuing dishonesty towards the public”.

He said: “Austerity is not essential, it’s a political choice.

“The Labour government has chosen this route, piling the cost of their cuts onto those least able to carry the burden instead of taxing the rich.”

Cllr Julie Grocutt from the Sheffield Community Councillors Group told the chamber that this matter was about “social justice” for her.

She said the new government’s first decision was to put elderly, vulnerable people just on the margin of the threshold through this.

“They will be the ones who struggle most, and they will be very community, every part of every bit of Sheffield,” she added.

An electronic vote was held into a Labour amendment that would have essentially changed the motion almost fully, but the majority of the chamber voted against that which means, among other things, that the council leader will co-sign a letter with leaders of the parties to Rachel Reeves to suspend and review her policy.