Tory pledge on bus passes and fuel aid (From Gazette & Herald)

Tory pledge on bus passes and fuel aid

12:00pm Thursday 4th February 2010

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YOUR correspondent Mr Minchella has asked me to clarify the Conservative’s policy on bus passes and fuel allowances.

The Conservative Party supports the pensioners’ concessionary bus fare scheme as we recognise that the elderly and those with disabilities are often reliant on buses to get around.

I would like to firmly reassure you that the next Conservative Government has no plans to abolish free off-peak bus travel for people over 60 in England. My colleagues and I have no plans to cut either the winter fuel payment or free bus passes, and I urge people not to believe the Government’s desperate spin.

On the issue of winter fuel payments, the Government will again be making winter fuel payments to most people age 60 or over for winter 2009/10. You may have heard that as a result of pensions reform brought in by the Labour Government, the minimum age at which both men and women will be able to receive a winter fuel payment, will rise incrementally to 65 between 2010 and 2020 I am very concerned about the serious plight of today’s pensioners. It is disgraceful that our poorest pensioners are paying the price for the Government’s failures.

Conservatives are committed to working for a profound cultural change in the way the UK population thinks about the elderly, backed by a revolution in social responsibility in the way we behave towards older people.

Robert Goodwill, MP for Scarborough and Whitby

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