‘We stand with pensioners’

Unite delegate Jane Aitchison, spoke out on Labour’s plans to end the Winter Fuel Allowance.

Addressing the conference she said, “I’ve worked in benefits for over 30 years and take it from me, Universal Credit (UC) is malicious and cruel. It is complicated, mean and off putting.

“It is heart breaking to watch people trying to navigate this hostile process with 6.4m working people depend on Universal Credit to get by. Yet, 8.1m working age Brits are living in poverty.

“This shows that not everyone who should get UC claims it. But even worse – most of those on UC are not lifted out of poverty. They are trapped in it!

“Then there are the sanctions which keeps those on UC permanently fearful. The cruelty of stopping UC if you’re late for an appointment or are somehow deemed to have not looked hard enough for work.

“UC is the opposite of social security – it is social misery. But what do you expect? This benefit was the brainchild of Ian Duncan-Smith. He thinks the people we represent who are forced to claim UC – nurses, shop workers, catering staff and many more – are all just scrounges when we know they work their fingers to the bone and deserve much better.

“With the election of a labour government we should expect better – and there are so many positive changes to the benefit system this government could make.

“So why would a Labour government start with picking the pockets of pensioners by removing the winter fuel allowance – which they did yesterday.

“The danger – as reports this morning now warn – is that pushing pensioners into poverty is just the start of an attack on the very idea of universal benefits.

“Make no mistake, the universal benefits we have fought for include our pensions and include our NHS.”

She concluded, “Congress, we stand with pensioners, we stand with those who rely on our welfare system – and defend the principle of universal benefits.”

The motion was carried unanimously.

By Amanda Campbell

Pic by Mark Thomas