Andrew Dismore

Prime Minister (and would be President, based on the style of the Conservative Party campaign) Mrs May has turned her back on Barnet and Camden‘s pensioners.

Her proposed abolition of the ‘triple lock’ means pensioners will not see even  the small increases in state pension they have come to expect.

Means testing the Winter Fuel Payment means many who are entitled to it will miss out in the bureaucracy and stigma of the means test.

After the Conservatives’ cuts of £4.6 billion from social care budgets, which have resulted in many elderly and frail people who need help having to go without, Mrs May’s new wheeze  to make pensioners pay huge amounts with no maximum limit for their care, whether in their own  home or   in residential care, by selling off their homes is unfair and especially so for  London pensioners. The cost of care here is higher than in the rest of the country, and higher house prices means greater sums will  be taken from pensioners – a scheme which ignores the findings of  the  independent commission set up by the Conservative Government to find a solution to long term care costs, chaired by Sir Andrew Dilnot, who has heavily criticised Mrs May’s scheme.

Labour will maintain the ‘triple lock’ to make sure pensioners get the increase they deserve. Labour will keep the universal Winter Fuel Payment, so no-one loses out. And Labour will  place a maximum limit on lifetime personal contributions to care costs, raise the asset threshold below which people are entitled to state support, and provide free end of life care.

Pensioners will not be taken in by the Conservatives: they know that it is Labour  who has their interests at heart.

Andrew Dismore AM

Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden