21-04-04

Chancellor’s £100 for pensioners “a cheap gimmick” – Barrett

John Barrett, Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, today published new figures, showing that less than 40% of pensioner households in Edinburgh will receive the Chancellor's much trumpeted £100 to help with Council tax bills.

In his Budget statement, Gordon Brown announced that each pensioner household with someone over 70 would get £100 to help with rising Council Tax Bills.

However, in an answer to a parliamentary question tabled by John Barrett, the Pensions Minister stated that only 32,540 pensioner households in Edinburgh would actually get this money.  This marks less than 40% of the total number of pensioner households in the Capital.

John Barrett said:

"There is no question that those on fixed incomes, and pensioners especially, have been hit hard by recent rises in council tax.  However, these figures show that less than four in ten pensioner households in Edinburgh will actually get this extra money promised by the Chancellor.

"Whilst I have no doubt that many pensioners over 70 will appreciate this help, what about those pensioners under 70 who get nothing but will still have to find ways to pay their increasing council tax bills?

"Rather than pursuing cheap gimmicks, the Government should work with the Scottish Executive and local authorities to scrap the unfair Council Tax once and for all and replace it with a fairer system, based on people's ability to pay."

ENDS

Notes to Editors

• Information on the number of households receiving the £100 was obtained in an answer to a parliamentary question tabled by John Barrett:

John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the number of pensioners in Scotland who will receive the £100 payment to help with council tax bills, broken down by (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority area.

Malcolm Wicks: The latest available data showing households in Scotland with at least one occupant aged 70 or over broken down by (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority area are in the tables. We expect the 2004-05 figures to be similar.

Households in Scotland with at least one occupant aged 70 or over by local authority

Local authority Number of households
City of Edinburgh	32,540
Scotland	394,820

Source: IAD Information Centre, WFP data Winter 2002-2003 100 per cent. sample.

• The Government uses the number of winter fuel payments as the most accurate number of pensioner households.

Winter fuel payments in Edinburgh 2002-03	All
Local authority
City of Edinburgh	83,065

Notes:
1. Numbers are rounded to the nearest five.
2. Figures taken from the Matching Intelligence Data Analysis Service Winter Fuel Payment 2002-03 exercise.
Source: IAD Information Centre, 100 per cent sample.

• Thus, the % of pensioners households in Edinburgh receiving the £100 payment was calculated as 32,540 x 100 / 83,065 = 39.2%