Frank Dobson MP has welcomed the Labour Government’s Cold Weather Payments, which have helped more than 500,000 people across London towards their fuel bills.

In addition to £250 winter fuel payments for the over-60s (£400 for the over-80s) an extra cold weather payment of £25 has been made available to help pensioners heat their homes during the cold snap.

Frank said:  “In the 1980s Tory minister Edwina Curry told pensioners to ‘wear woolly hats and long johns’ in the cold weather, and in 1997 the Tories spent just £60 million a year on helping pensioners meet their fuel bills.  Labour now spends £2.7 billion a year.  These extra payments are automatic, so everyone entitled will get one and shouldn’t worry about the cost of turning up their heating.

“Labour has invested to ensure that pensioners don’t have to worry about staying warm in the winter, spending £13 billion more on pensioners than if we’d stuck to the Tory policies of 1997.  But all of this investment would be threatened under David Cameron’s ‘age of austerity’ or Nick Clegg’s ‘savage cuts’.”